TECH > The new Asko high tech wine fridge

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For the last couple of decades the Vintec brand has been synonymous with quality wine storage solutions, but Swedish brand ASKO better known for dishwashers, refrigerators and ovens have arrived in the market with a solution that just might make you sit up and take notice. (That is if you have $15k to spend on a 190 bottle cabinet).

So what makes it so special?

There are three separate temperature zones (with a funky digital interface to set the temperature zones) which can each be set to best match the optimum storage temperature for your collection, there is also a fan for even distribution of the cooling. The eight timber shelves are on soft closing (telescoping) guides which means you can slide your 190 bottles of wine out easily to check on them.

There are filters and something called humidity clay which helps keep the humidity to the optimum level (there is also an alarm if the humidity goes out of tolerance – so your corks won’t dry out). There is a vibration sensor and a proximity sensor (not quite sure what this does..), UV protection on the glass and a virtual sommelier (more on this in a moment).

This fridge has specialised LED lighting that can illuminate your wine with different colours to set the mood in the room – yes your wine fridge is calling you, mmm wine. And a serving area in the fridge itself, this idea seems a little strange to me but it has space to hang wine glasses and to hold your decanter and a drawer for bottle openers and other wine tools.

The Technology – Virtual Sommelier – Vivino directly connected to the cabinet

This wine fridge has a bottle scanner so you can connect your collection to your Vivino collection, the application on your mobile device also records where in the cabinet a bottle is stored so you can think about the perfect bottle for a meal, search through your collection and know exactly which shelf it is stored on. For those who are a little more old school and don’t like the tech, the cabinet also comes with little chalkboards for each shelf so you can record the contents in a more traditional manner.