Wine Enthusiast Wine Chiller

This product seems to work as advertised, and is much quieter than the Waring model tested earlier. Still not totally silent, but you could at least hold a conversation in the same room while this unit is operating. That’s a big plus for this model.

High Points:
1. Sleek looking black and silver color and tall, elegant styling.
2. Nice blue LCD screen for inputting the temperature or type of wine to heat/cool.
3. Heats or cools the wine depending on bottle temperature.
4. No condensation to worry about damaging the furniture.
5. Handy “Enjoy” message when wine is ready and the unit shuts down (fan stops running). A beep here would help a great deal.
6. After reaching the prescribed temperature, the unit will cycle on and off to maintain that temperature. (The bottle must warm up by 7 degrees before this happens.)
7. Can handle any 750ml bottle, a standard champagne bottle and maybe (but I didn’t try this) a one liter bottle of wine.
8. It comes with a stand and extra corkscrew (I guess in case the one you have breaks).

Bad points:
1. More difficult to program than the Warring model. There are three modes, selecting actual temperature, selecting a variety (Chardonnay, Riesling, .etc) and selecting Fahrenheit/Celsius readings (default is Fahrenheit). The temperature setting comes up first. You have to do more fiddling with the unit to get the other modes.
2. No chart to give you an idea of how long it will take to cool/heat the wine to the specified temperature. In my test for a Cabernet it took the machine 24 minutes to cool it wine to 54 degrees from 70. A Pinot Grigio went to 46 from 64 degrees -- essentially taken from the fridge -- in 15 minutes. Actual temperature of the Pinot after cooling was about 48 degrees.
3. Remembering to put the “hat” (a foam cover) over the bottle when the unit is in use.
4. The stand is a little on the flimsy side. The legs that stick out at the bottom appear to be rather small and although there’s a large weight at the bottom to stabilize the bucket, it wouldn’t take much force to tip the whole thing over. Best if used on a tabletop, otherwise, make sure when it’s on the stand it is out of the way in a corner of the room.

Grade: B Price: $100 (check for discounts at stores like Bed, Bath and Beyond)

Product Reviewed:
Wine Enthusiast Wine Chiller (no model number)
103 Fairview Park Drive,
Elmsford, NY 10523
1-800-356-8466
www.wineenthusiast.com