Welcome to Elite Wine's wine wall buying guide: Everything you need to know about wine walls
WHAT IS A WINE WALL?
A wine wall is a refrigerated glass cabinet that are designed for displaying bottles of wine as well as other wine related accessories such as decanters and wine glasses. It creates a unique and visually stunning display using vivid lighting which meets the needs of two major environments, domestic and commercial.
They are available in 3 different formats from an installation point of view, being built in, free standing and modular. They are highly unique and add a great sense of attractiveness to how you are able to display and store your bottles of refrigerated wine.
Your wines get the best of both worlds; you are able to store them away in a refrigerated environment and likewise with an added sense of style and luxury. More importantly, the manner to which they are able to operate is vital to ensure a bottle of wine is stored in the most correct manner as after all, the wrong storage could cause lasting damage to the wine.
WHO MANUFACTURES WINE WALLS?
Expo are a leader in the manufacture of wine walls for both the domestic and commercial wine wall market. No detail has been spared aesthetically and from an engineering point of view in creating a very high end product. Hailing from Italy, their walls have additional components engineered in place to create a quiet means of refrigeration and the perfect overall cooling conditions.
Only the very finest quality components are used, with many of their walls being completely bespoke. Their larger units are run from compression driven systems and their small systems are cooled via thermoelectric cells. If you're wondering what the difference is between the two, click here. The great thing about Expo is their ability to manufacture coolers bespoke to the requirements of the end user
As the name itself suggests, Expo Home is for home use only. The Home range of wine walls we sell for domestic customers features charcoal filters and noise reduction system. They also come with vibration free compressors and all glass panels are fully UV treated to prevent any light damaging the wine.
The Home range includes Teca, Teca B, Mod 10 and Mod 20
Within a domestic living environment, an elegant and eye-catching glass-fronted, illuminated, temperature-controlled wine wall can offer a really unique way from which to present your wine collection. You can bring the look of a Michelin star restaurant into your home and take your wine storage to a whole new level. Where this can create a whole new focal point within a room, your options are endless when it comes to the aesthetics and technical aspects of these cabinets.
Best of all, the cooling unit and other major aspects are hidden from view so you can admire and show off your wines to others. Best of all, wine walls offer the ability to store the same wine bottle capacity as a wine room or wine cellar, without having to give up much valuable space or the need for a cellar conversion.
Professional Wine Walls are intended use in a commercial setting, for example in bars, restaurants as well as within retail environments / shops. Commercially, within restaurants it’s become almost unknown for any new restaurant nowadays to have a bog standard fridge in the corner loaded with wine.
A well constructed wine wall can add a touch of luxury to the ambience and setting of the space, regardless of the wine being refrigerated. Within such commercial spaces as mentioned, these modern, elegant wine wall displays are in high demand as visually appealing wine displays are now a must to generate wine sales among clientele. They have become a signature design element within dining spaces, often becoming part of the interior architecture, and adding to the overall culinary experience. They are currently one of the fastest growing trends in the industry, and are in high demand by commercial designers, restaurant and bar owners as well as specialist wine stores.
PRODUCT RANGES
Some of the wine wall products are available in both Home and Professional range or just one of the range. Here's a brief overview of the ranges and the type of doors they have (either sliding or hinged):
The Teca Vino model comes with sliding doors, is available in both Home and Professional range.
Teca B is type of built in wine walls are typically the type of wall you will see which has been custom built into the wall, they are designed to be built into an available space or into recesses.
The Teca B model comes with sliding doors, and is available in both Home and Professional range.
This is often built in bespoke by wood or fabricated into the wall where the wine wall becomes a permanent fixture within the wall. In some domestic environments people will create this type of wall within a dedicated wine room. In other cases, they may even install this type of wall within the wall of their office or dining room. Many hotels now have a dedicated room with this type of configuration
Teca M is a type of modular wine walls, they offer more than just storage in that fact they deliver a highly stylish way in which to store your wines. Being modular, you can add more than one modules to a wall and in turn creating one single piece of your own furniture within the space. These units can be used as freestanding only.
The Teca M model comes with sliding doors, and is only available in the Professional range.
Mod 10 and Mod 20 models are also a type of modular wine wall that can be freestanding or built in. You can combine more than one cabinet together to create a complete unique piece of furniture in your home
The Mod 10 and Mod 20 models come with hinged doors, and are only available in the Home range.
MODEL OPTIONS: SIZE AND OTHER OPTIONS
When it comes to wine walls, there are many different options to help create the perfect overall wall. You can choose options such as the depth, shelving, lighting, colours and frame - note that each model have different styles and colours to choose from.
Depending on the model you choose, there are 2 or 3 options: H, M and C.
H shallow depth, solid rear wall, sliding glass doors to front
M full depth, solid rear wall, glass doors to front
C full depth, glass doors to both front and rear
The two numbers at the end of the model number denote the type of shelving:
10 Horizontal bottles
12 Bottles tilted at an angle
14 A mixture of different shelf types (custom shelving)
Once you have chosen the size and shelving configuration, it's time to choose what colour lighting and frame you want.
You can choose from blue LED lighting or natural white LED lighting which comes as standard.
For an additional £175, you can upgrade to RGB lighting with remote control.
Standard finishes for all models are linear (flat) in matt black or white. Other finishes such as Dune or RAL colours may add extra costs
The interior comes in the aluminium finish as standard.
The All-Black option is available at an additional cost of £1460 which includes Black matte epoxy powder coating of all internal (beams, internal panels, accessories, shelf) and external (door profiles, frame, handles, flank) metal parts. Depending on model, some details i.e. screw caps or shelf supports remain in stainless steel finish.
Overall, wine walls are the new big investment to make when it comes to wine storage. A wine wall can store and cool bottles of wine exactly the same as a wine cooler does albeit with an added degree of sophistication thanks to its cooling technology. As noted, well-assembled wine wall can make no end of difference to the feel and ambiance of bar or restaurant and even improve sales. With no end of different options to choose from, this is for sure a technology to look out for in the future.
If you are looking for a display unit that has a higher capacity and is more cost-effective, why not take a look at our Swisscave WLB460DFLD and WLB460FLD designs? Swisscave is well-known in the wine cooling industry, acting as one of the leading brands within the industry.
With an array of key features, our Swisscave cooling systems act as the perfect place to keep your bottle collections - not only does each design offer multiple benefits, but they also make ideal units to store your alcohol at the right temperature.
To find out more about Swisscave and their products, feel free to contact a member of our team today.