Wine Rack Cabinets

A small sideboard about 31 inches tall and 24 wide, with a removable five-bottle rack, a holder for eight glasses and a mesh door. The top takes a coffee machine or a tray of glasses, and it fits a narrow wall. The body is MDF with a wood-grain finish over a metal frame, which keeps the price down, and a few reviewers mention badly drilled holes at assembly. The mesh door is the honest limit: it lets light in, so this is for bottles you drink within months.

Not for: Keeping wine for years. The mesh door lets light reach the bottles, and five bottles is a small rack.

The best-built cabinet here: the maker lists solid wood with a hand-finished dark brown stain, and reviewers confirm it feels like real furniture. About 50 inches tall, 22 wide and 17 deep, with a 12-bottle rack below and a glass-doored cupboard above for glasses. At 17 inches deep, even the longest 750ml bottles lie fully inside. Reviewers warn that the assembly instructions are poor, so set aside an afternoon.

Not for: Anyone buying for capacity. It is the most expensive cabinet here, and the money goes on build quality: it holds twelve bottles.

Not sold as a wine cabinet, and that is the point. Two solid doors close over three adjustable shelves, so the inside is fully dark, which none of the glass- or mesh-fronted wine cabinets manage. At 13.4 inches deep, a standard bottle lies flat with room to spare. It has no rack of its own: put a small countertop rack on a shelf, such as the Oceanstar on the countertop page, and you have darker, steadier storage than anything else here. About 36 inches tall and 30 wide, with 4.8 stars from over 600 reviewers.

Not for: Showing the collection off. Once the doors close nobody sees the bottles, which is exactly why the wine keeps better.

A low wood console, 42 inches wide and 30 tall, with two X-shaped racks in the middle that hold up to 24 bottles and a glass-fronted cupboard either side for glasses. Of the cabinets on this site, it holds the most wine for the money, and it reads as furniture. Two things to know: the racks are open, so the wine is only as dark as the room, and at 12 inches deep the longer bottles, Champagne especially, sit with their necks at the front edge. Reviewers mention fiddly door fitting during assembly.

Not for: A bright room. The bottles sit in open racks, so a sunny dining room is the wrong place for it.