For our 10th wedding anniversary, my wife and I went back to the winery in Paso Robles, California, where we got married. There, I picked up bottles from the 2019 and 2021 vintages, the years my kids were born, planning to store them until they're each [LEGALLY REQUIRED DRINKING AGE] years old and we can drink them together. That meant I was going to need to preserve those bottles for over a decade—something I was ill-equipped to do.
Through most of my 30s I didn’t think much about how I stored wine. I knew better than to stash it over the stove, but I kept Cabernet in my refrigerator; I kept Sancerre on the counter; I kept all types of bottles in whichever cabinets had room. Truth be told, if I managed to keep a bottle of wine for more than two weeks, it was an accomplishment.
Wine storage is all about control, control, control. Allowing a bottle to age gracefully requires stabilizing the temperature, the humidity, and the light that can get at the wine inside, sometimes for years on end. High temps can cook the wine, low humidity can dry out the cork and let oxygen sneak in the bottle. Goguette wine fridges, a new spin-off of the elite wine storage brand Eurocave, are control freaks built to stop all that.
Goguette wine cabinets, according to Eurocave’s CEO Benoit Favier, are meant to make the keeping and drinking of high-quality wine a little less fussy (my word, not his). “Eurocave is aimed at experts, collectors, lovers of fine things, and professionals,” he wrote me. The wide range of Eurocave fridges available make it possible for wine connoisseurs to get exactly what they need from an appliance—some have a single temperature setting for long-term storage; some have up to 10 different zones. But what's great for a hardcore collector can feel overwhelming for the more casual vinophile. “Goguette, on the other hand, has a simplified, ‘plug and play’ approach designed to be easy to use,” he said. Simplified in design perhaps, but not dumbed down in quality.
Goguette does make multi-zone fridges (if you're looking to on-deck wine in the same cabinet as bottles you've earmarked for far-afuture special occasions), but even the single-zone model that I installed in my dining room is multipurpose. You can adjust the temperature to hold ready-to-drink reds in the 60s, chilled reds and whites in the 40s, or keep things at the right temperature for indefinite storage at 55℉.
I set my fridge to 54℉ up to preserve the bottles I got for my kids, but over the past six months, I’ve slowly started to build a small collection of wine I intend to keep for a few years. And during the time I’ve had it, I periodically use a shotgun thermometer to give the fridge a little pop quiz; every time I’ve opened the door, it’s been within less than a single degree of its temperature setting.
This is a serious piece of equipment—functionally, but also physically. I’ve helped friends move cheap no-name beverage fridges before. I’m no Strongman competitor, but I can still lift them over my head. The Goguette cabinet is a more permanent piece of home appliancery that took two of us and a dolly just to move it across the dining room. Like other high-end appliances I’ve gotten to try during my time at BA, that heft is an indication of quality components and craftsmanship.
Designed and assembled by hand in Fourmies, France, near the Belgian border, the Goguette has artisanal-quality details like a pronounced handle, aluminum door frame, subtle touchscreen controls, and re-configurable shelves that help it stand out in a sea of identical-looking products manufactured in giant electronics hubs.
It's not the right option for everyone: At $3,400, it’s an investment for committed wine lovers—or people with money to burn. Drinks director Joey Hernandez says that, often, a budget wine storage solution will suffice. Because most of the time you, like a younger me, will consume all your wine within a week or two of purchase, before it has a chance to change much in the bottle for good or ill.
However, there will be special bottles, for special occasions, and for those, the bargain basement, six bottle cooler won’t cut it. A Goguette comes close to recreating high-end cellar conditions in a package that can fit under a kitchen counter or in a dining room corner. And in Favier’s telling, there’s a growing number of people who want that. “Younger generations drink ‘less but better,’ explore new formats, and place wine in more casual, social moments. They look for meaning, aesthetics, and simplicity.”
A Goguette (like with the wine you'll presumably keep in it) is a show piece. The angular cut of the frame, the gliding wooden shelves that can be arranged and rearranged to show off bottles, the interior lighting that puts a literal spotlight on the wine—it’s made to draw attention. And the fact that I expect the motor to be humming and the wine to be just as I left it when my first grader comes of age make it even more worthy of applause.