Wine Storage Gifts Should Be on Every Collector’s Wish List This Year

Wine storage gifts are the perfect present for the holiday season because all collectors need a space to store their newest gift bottles and seasonal wines. Photo Credit: Pixabay CC user skitterphoto

 
Wine storage gifts like this are incredibly useful for every collector, whether they’re just getting started or they’ve been buying fine wine for decades, because all collectors need a safe, reliable storage space to keep their most treasured bottles. Storage gifts like wine fridges, home cellars, or full-service warehouse memberships make perfect holiday presents for wine enthusiasts, since all three of these gifts can be used years after they were originally purchased. In this post, we’ll talk about how to choose and give the gift of wine storage to your favorite wine lover.

Why Wine Storage Gifts Make the Best Holiday Presents

It may be tempting to buy gifts like wine tools for the wine lovers in your life–we’ve all seen the holiday gift guides for wine enthusiasts that include lots of wine-related gadgets. However, most collectors already have cabinets filled with unused gadgets like kitschy bottle stoppers, unusually-shaped aerators, and novelty corkscrews. Rather than giving them yet another trinket, offer them the gift of wine storage instead. This is the type of unique holiday present that collectors rarely receive, yet desperately need. It’s a practical gift that collectors will actually use, and you can even customize a storage gift to fit your loved one’s personality.

Here are a few reasons why wine storage gifts make the best presents:

• This Gift Lasts for Years

Unlike a novelty corkscrew that breaks after just a few uses, the gift of storage is something that could potentially last for decades. A high-quality wine fridge will easily run for 10 years or more without needing repairs, while a custom-built home cellar can be passed down for generations. A professional storage membership with a full-service warehouse could also last for decades, depending on how much time you buy up-front. And, with this option, you can continue to buy more storage time as needed, without ever moving any bottles.

• Storage Protects Gift Bottles

If you give your sister a bottle of incredibly rare 1967 Beychevelle for Christmas, you’ll want to make sure it’s stored under the best conditions possible. This isn’t the type of wine that you can just set on your pantry shelf. Offering your loved ones the gift of storage gives you more freedom to choose rare wines as gifts this holiday season, knowing they’ll be stored properly. When you include storage alongside these ultra-rare bottles, you ensure that every wine you give is well-maintained right up until the moment your gift recipient uncorks it.

• Storage Is a Necessity

Every collector has to invest in wine storage at one point or another. By offering it to them as a gift now, you save them from having to find storage for their bottles in the future.

• It’s Great for Choosy Collectors

Do you have a wine enthusiast on your gift list this year who is impossible to shop for? Some collectors are extremely selective about the wines they enjoy, making wine shopping a difficult and potentially stressful process for you. Wine storage gifts work well for choosy collectors like this because any collector can use a great storage option. Rather than having to hunt down that one rare wine that your gift recipient will enjoy, you can give them something that you know they will use every day.

• Wine Storage Gifts Are Customizable

The gift of storage doesn’t have to be boring. You can combine your storage gift with other gifts to make it more special. For instance, you may decide to fill a wine fridge with your friend’s favorite wines, or include a gift card to your friend’s favorite wine shop alongside a professional storage voucher. The options are endless.

Choose the Right Storage Gift

Different wine storage gifts will match the tastes and personalities of different types of collectors. A wine fridge is the perfect option for a young collector who needs a space to store their table wine, but it may not be the best gift for an experienced connoisseur who only collects 20-year-old Burgundy.

The three most common wine storage gifts are fridges, home cellars, and memberships to professional storage warehouses.

To determine which gift is the best choice for your friend or loved one, think about some of the pros and cons of each, including how many bottles they can hold and whether they’re good long-term storage solutions.

Wine Fridge

A wine fridge is one of the easiest storage gifts to buy and place under a Christmas tree. You simply pick out a fridge model that has the features you want, and cover it in traditional holiday wrapping paper. You may also make this gift a bit more special by including a few wines (maybe some Champagne for the holiday) that your recipient can immediately store inside of their new fridge. Typically, a wine fridge holds anywhere from 8 to 100 bottles at a time, sometimes more or less (depending on the model).

The Pros:

• It’s portable, and fits inside most homes and apartments.
• You can wrap this type of gift with wrapping paper and a bow.
• It’s a low-maintenance gift–your recipient doesn’t have to spend much money or time to maintain it.

The Cons:

• It’s not the best option for wines that require long-term storage (fridges often lack the humidity necessary for wines to mature properly).
• You can only store a small number of bottles at a time.
• Your gift recipient may need more, or improved, storage in the future if this is their only type of storage.

Buy This Gift For: Young, budding collectors who don’t have any storage options yet. This is also a great gift for wine enthusiasts who only keep a few bottles in storage at a time, and for collectors who keep most of their wines in professional storage and want a fridge for wines that are drinking now.

Home Wine Cellar

Obviously, the trouble with a home wine cellar is that it isn’t something that you can just go out and buy for Christmas this year. You have to plan ahead by hiring a contractor or collaborating with your gift recipient in advance to make sure that the cellar has the features they need and that you have their permission to build it in their home. This is usually only a viable gift if you’re offering it to your spouse or someone else very close to you, like a family member. Those caveats aside, a home wine cellar can still make a great gift for that special someone on your list this year. Since cellars can hold anywhere from 100 to 1,000 bottles or more, on average, they’re the next step up from a wine fridge.

The Pros:

• This is a long-term storage solution. Bottles mature very well under the right cellar conditions.
• You can store many more bottles than you can in a wine fridge.
• Your gift recipient can use the cellar for decades, and even pass it on to children or grandchildren in the future.

The Cons:

• This isn’t a casual, fast, or easy gift; it requires a lot of planning.
• Cellars are expensive and time-consuming to build.
• It’s almost impossible to surprise your gift recipient with a home cellar.
• Your recipient has to maintain the cellar, which can be a great deal of work.
• Up-keep is expensive.
• You can’t leave your bottles in the cellar if you move, and you can’t take the cellar with you.

Buy This Gift For: People who are serious about collecting wine, and who are starting to buy age-worthy, collectible bottles. Save this gift for very close family members who need more space to store their bottles, and who like the convenience of grabbing bottles from storage on a whim. This is also a great gift for people who enjoy hosting elaborate wine tasting parties, since it gives them an ideal tasting space.

Professional Storage Warehouse

A membership with a professional storage warehouse offers you the speed and convenience of a wine fridge, but with the extended storage capacity of a home cellar. To give this gift to your friends or loved ones, you can simply buy storage time in advance from a reputable warehouse based on how many bottles you think that your recipient will want to store, and how much time you believe they will need. You can always buy more time or space if necessary. Whether your gift recipient needs to store just a few bottles, or as many as 5,000 wines, professional storage warehouses can accommodate them.

The Pros:

• It’s a safe, long-term storage solution for wines that require decades of aging.
• You can combine it with other storage methods (like wine fridges or cellars).
• You can store as many, or as few, bottles as you’d like, and can change this number based on your needs.
• Your gift recipient doesn’t have to maintain or build the space themselves.
• Bottles can be shipped from the warehouse safely, at any time.
• Your recipient doesn’t have to move their bottles if they move to a new home or city.

The Cons:

• Your recipient can’t just pull the bottles out of storage immediately–they have to wait a day or two for their bottles to ship.
• You have to pay an annual or monthly fee to keep the bottles in storage.

Buy This Gift For: Any collector, no matter how many bottles they own. This is a great option for people who don’t have enough space to build a cellar, or who move or travel frequently.

Professional Storage Offers the Most Flexibility

For most people on your gift list this year, a membership with a professional storage warehouse will offer them the greatest benefit. This wine storage gift is more flexible than fridges or cellars because your recipient never has to worry about maintaining the perfect cellar temperature, and they can add as many bottles to their collections as they’d like. However, in order to get these benefits, you should first do your research to make sure the warehouse you choose is actually full-service, rather than self-storage. A full-service warehouse will offer collectors everything they need to successfully mature their bottles, such as:

• Picking bottles up from the collector’s home.
• Using temperature-controlled vehicles to ship bottles.
• Inspecting bottles for authenticity and damage upon arrival.
• Barcoding and organizing every wine in the collection.
• Uploading this information to an online wine app.
• Storing the bottles under the ideal environmental conditions.
• Implementing security measures to protect bottles from theft or damage.
• Giving collectors the option to ship or sell their bottles at a later date from the warehouse.

By contrast, a self-storage locker is a far more barebones operation. These warehouses only offer rental space for bottles. They don’t ship them to or from the warehouse, or inspect them for damage. It’s up to you or your gift recipient to check on the bottles and make sure that they haven’t been damaged or stolen–and to keep them organized. This is often more work than it’s worth, especially for busy collectors. A full-service warehouse is a true gift in that your recipient never has to put in extra work to store their bottles.

How to Give the Gift of Storage

Before you give any wine storage gifts this year, think about how to make this gift feel more special for your recipients. Here are a few tips:

Wine Fridge: Buy a few special gift wines along with the fridge. This gives your recipient the chance to try out their new device, and makes the gift even more exciting.

Cellar: It may be fun for you and your recipient to collaborate on a dream cellar design together. Alternatively, if they already have a cellar, you can offer gifts like special cellar shelving, tasting tables, or other wine storage tools that they may need to make their cellars run more smoothly.

Professional Storage: You can attach a membership gift card to a bottle of wine, or include the card in a wine gift basket. By combining this gift with another type of wine-related present, you can make the gift a complete experience.

The most important tip to remember when you’re brainstorming wine gift ideas is to think about what your gift recipient really wants this year. Rather than buying them a generic wine basket or another wine-related gadget, you can offer them something that they truly need but may not want to splurge on for themselves. Wine storage gifts strike the perfect balance between functionality and fun, allowing the wine lovers in your life to get the most out of their collections.

Whether you are starting your high-end wine collection or adding to an established portfolio, Vinfolio is your partner in buying, selling, and professional storage. Contact us today to get access to the world’s best wine.