Buying guide

Decision one

Capacity

Short
answerSize for about twice the bottles you keep today.

This is the decision people regret most, and almost always in the same direction: too small. A cellar fills far faster than expected — a case bought on impulse, a few bottles laid down to age, a gift that arrives at Christmas. Within a year the shelves are full, and a cellar that runs full is a cellar you stop adding to.

The working rule among collectors is to size for roughly twice what you keep now. It sounds excessive until the second year.

One caveat on published capacities, ours included: they assume standard Bordeaux bottles. Burgundy bottles are wider, Champagne wider still. If your collection leans that way, count on losing 10 to 15 % of the stated figure.

If you currently keep	Look at	Models	From
A dozen bottles, no cellar yet	Under 30 Bottles	8	$1,400
Thirty to forty, bought by the case	30 to 70 Bottles	16	$1,890
Fifty or more, and growing	70 to 120 Bottles	16	$2,870
A collection you lay down to age	120 to 200 Bottles	7	$3,780
A serious collection, or a venue	200 Bottles & Over	6	$6,475

Decision two

Single zone or dual zone

Short
answerAgeing a collection? Single zone. Serving reds and whites? Dual zone.

Nearly every buyer assumes dual zone is the upgrade. It is not — the two answer different questions, and choosing the wrong one costs you either capacity or convenience.

Choose single zone if

You are ageing wine

One temperature throughout, typically set at 12–14 °C
The correct condition for long-term ageing, red or white
No internal divider, so every shelf is usable
More bottles in the same cabinet

Choose dual zone if

You are serving wine

Two compartments, set independently
Whites and champagne at 5–12 °C, ready to pour
Reds at 12–20 °C, at drinking temperature
No decanting delay, no ice bucket

The cost of dual zone is measurable. On an identical cabinet, our single-zone model holds 176 bottles and the dual-zone version holds 165 — the divider and second evaporator take the difference. Eleven bottles is the price of serving convenience. Worth it if you pour often, wasted if you are laying bottles down.

One more point rarely made: a dual-zone cellar used entirely for ageing is simply a smaller single-zone cellar with two thermostats set to the same number.

Go straight to

Single zone 23 Dual zone 27 Triple zone 3

Decision three

Built-in or freestanding

Short
answerEvery model does both. Measure the opening, not the cabinet.

A refrigeration cabinet has to discharge heat somewhere. Most domestic appliances push it out of the back, which is why they need a gap behind them and cannot be enclosed — trap one in cabinetry and it overheats, runs constantly and fails early.

Every Maison Vinum cellar vents at the base, through the front. The sides and back can sit flush against cabinetry with no gap at all. That is what “built-in” means on an appliance spec sheet — not that it is custom-made, but that it is engineered to be enclosed.

Which also means you are not committed. The same cabinet stands perfectly well on its own in a dining room.

Exact cabinet openings differ by model and are listed on each product page. The figure that matters is the opening, not the appliance: a cabinet 5 mm too narrow is a cabinet that goes back on the truck.

Go straight to

Under-counter 11 Outdoor 1 Built-in 32 Freestanding 32

Measure the opening before you order, not the appliance. The two are not the same number, and a cabinet that is 5 mm too narrow is a cabinet that goes back on the truck.

Decision four

Where it will live

Short
answerAn interior room, out of direct sun, on its own standard outlet. Not the garage.

Ambient temperature. A cellar cools relative to the room around it. In a 20 °C kitchen it cycles gently. In a 32 °C garage in August it runs almost continuously — louder, hotter, and with a compressor doing years of work in one summer. Our cabinets are rated for ambient conditions from 0 to 38 °C, but rated and comfortable are not the same thing. An interior room is always the better choice.

Sunlight. Direct sun through a window heats the cabinet and reaches the bottles. The glass is UV-filtering and double-glazed, which handles ordinary daylight — it is not designed to stand in a sunbeam all afternoon.

Floor. Filled, the larger cabinets are heavy. The Prestige 165 lands around 216 lbs crated, the VI300 Freestanding Cellar 365 around 238 lbs before you add a single bottle. On a mezzanine or an old timber floor, this is worth a thought.

Power. A standard outlet. The cabinet runs continuously, as it is meant to — do not put it on a switched circuit or a timer.

Browse by width

Under 20 in 6 20 – 22 in 8 24 in standard 33 30 in & over 6

The technical part

What actually matters in a cellar

Short
answerStability, not range. Holding one temperature beats reaching a wide scale.

A cellar advertising 5 °C to 20 °C is telling you the two ends of a scale. What matters far more is whether it holds whatever number you chose, hour after hour, through a warm afternoon and a cold night. Wine tolerates being kept slightly warm. It does not tolerate being moved up and down.

Temperature stabilityThe single most important property. Repeated cycling expands and contracts the wine, pushes it past the cork, and oxidises it over years.

Humidity, 60–80 %A dry cork shrinks and lets air in. Our cabinets hold this band without a water tray. This is also why a domestic fridge is the worst place to keep wine — it is engineered to remove humidity.

VibrationConstant micro-vibration disturbs the sediment and, over years, tires a wine. Sealed compressor mounting and solid beech runners absorb what a wire rack transmits.

LightUV degrades wine, and fastest in clear and green glass. Double-glazed UV-filtering doors, and LED lighting that emits no meaningful heat.

AirCorks breathe. An activated carbon filter keeps circulating air clean, so nothing in the room ends up in the bottle.

On compressor versus thermoelectric. Thermoelectric cellars are quiet and inexpensive, and they cool by a fixed offset from the room — typically 10 to 15 °C below ambient. In a warm room they simply cannot reach cellar temperature. Every Maison Vinum cabinet uses a sealed compressor for that reason.

Before you commit

Five mistakes worth avoiding

✕Buying for today's collectionSize for twice what you keep now. Nobody has ever regretted the larger cabinet.

✕Choosing dual zone out of habitIf you are ageing rather than serving, you are paying capacity for a feature you will not use.

✕Measuring the cabinet instead of the openingThe opening is the number that decides whether it fits. Check it twice.

✕Putting it in the garageThe one room where ambient temperature swings most. It will run constantly and age badly.

✕Loading it the day it arrivesLet the cabinet stand upright two hours, then run 24 hours at temperature. Then fill it.

The range

53 cellars, one decision

First cellar Under 30 Bottles 8 models · from $1,400

Model	Bottles	Zones	Width	From
Compact 18VI18S	18	Single	24 in	$1,400
Compact 20VI20S	20	Single	Under 20 in	$1,400
Compact 17VI20D	17	Dual	Under 20 in	$1,540
Compact 24 SingleVI24S	Single	Single	24 in	$1,890
Compact 29 16-inchVI26S	16-inch	Single	Under 20 in	$1,890
Compact 29 23-inchVI28S	23-inch	Single	24 in	$1,890
Compact 24 DualVI26DT	Dual	Dual	Under 20 in	$2,100
Compact 23VI28DT	23	Dual	24 in	$2,100

See all 8 →

Everyday 30 to 70 Bottles 16 models · from $1,890

Model	Bottles	Zones	Width	From
Compact 30 SingleVI30S	Single	Single	24 in	$1,890
Compact 30 DualVI30D	Dual	Dual	24 in	$2,100
Compact 49VI40S	49	Single	Under 20 in	$2,380
Compact 46VI46S	46	Single	24 in	$2,380
Connoisseur 48VI48SC-S	48	Single	24 in	$2,380
Compact 42VI40DT	42	Dual	Under 20 in	$2,660
Compact 39VI46DT	39	Dual	24 in	$2,660
Compact 40VI46-2D	40	Dual	24 in	$2,660
Connoisseur 42 Built-inVI48SC-DT	Built-in	Dual	24 in	$2,660
Connoisseur 39VI52DT	39	Dual	24 in	$2,660
Connoisseur 46VI59DT	46	Dual	24 in	$2,660
Connoisseur 60VI60S	60	Single	24 in	$2,870
Connoisseur 51VI60DT	51	Dual	24 in	$3,220
Connoisseur 42 Under-counterVI60-2D	Under-counter	Dual	24 in	$3,220
Connoisseur 65VI68SC-DT	65	Dual	24 in	$3,220
Connoisseur 46 OutdoorVI60BO	Outdoor	Dual	24 in	$3,570

See all 16 →

Established 70 to 120 Bottles 16 models · from $2,870

Model	Bottles	Zones	Width	From
Connoisseur 71VI68SC-S	71	Single	24 in	$2,870
Connoisseur 78 SingleVI80S	Single	Single	20 – 22 in	$3,290
Connoisseur 85VI85S	85	Single	20 – 22 in	$3,290
Connoisseur 89VI88S	89	Single	24 in	$3,290
Connoisseur 70VI80DT	70	Dual	20 – 22 in	$3,640
Connoisseur 77VI85DT	77	Dual	20 – 22 in	$3,640
Connoisseur 78 DualVI88DT	Dual	Dual	24 in	$3,640
Connoisseur 107VI106SC-S	107	Single	24 in	$3,780
Connoisseur 113VI110S	113	Single	20 – 22 in	$3,780
Connoisseur 118VI116S	118	Single	20 – 22 in	$3,780
Connoisseur 101VI106SC-DT	101	Dual	24 in	$4,200
Connoisseur 105VI110DT	105	Dual	20 – 22 in	$4,200
Connoisseur 111VI116DT	111	Dual	20 – 22 in	$4,200
Connoisseur 112VI120DT	112	Dual	24 in	$4,200
Connoisseur 95VI106SC-T	95	Triple	24 in	$4,375
Prestige 109VI122DT	109	Dual	24 in	$5,250

See all 16 →

Serious 120 to 200 Bottles 7 models · from $3,780

Model	Bottles	Zones	Width	From
Connoisseur 122VI120S	122	Single	24 in	$3,780
Prestige 177VI180S	177	Single	24 in	$4,725
Prestige 122VI122S	122	Single	24 in	$4,725
Prestige 166VI180DT	166	Dual	24 in	$5,250
Prestige 155VI180T	155	Triple	24 in	$5,600
Prestige 189VI205DT	189	Dual	24 in	$7,175
Prestige 176VI190-2D	176	Dual	30 in & over	$11,900

See all 7 →

A dedicated room 200 Bottles & Over 6 models · from $6,475

Model	Bottles	Zones	Width	From
Prestige 216VI205S	216	Single	24 in	$6,475
Prestige 303 FreestandingVI300S	Freestanding	Single	30 in & over	$8,400
Prestige 303 Built-inVI303S	Built-in	Single	30 in & over	$9,100
Prestige 288 FreestandingVI300DT	Freestanding	Dual	30 in & over	$9,450
Prestige 288 Built-inVI303DT	Built-in	Dual	30 in & over	$9,800
Prestige 343VI355T	343	Triple	30 in & over	$11,550

See all 6 →

One last thing

Your cellar does not exist yet

And that is the point.

We hold no warehouse stock. The day your order is placed it goes to the factory, which builds that cabinet — 10 to 15 days for a Compact, 15 to 20 for the larger models. It is then tested, inspected and shipped to you by sea.

Allow nine to eleven weeks from order to delivery. It is longer than an appliance pulled off a shelf, and it is the reason nothing here was built speculatively, in a finish nobody chose, to sit in a warehouse until someone settled.

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The Buying Guide