Having a wine cooler can help to keep your wine at a proper temperature allowing it to age properly and prevent it from going bad. But what kind of wine should you keep in you wine cooler? Well the answer is quite simple really - you can keep any wine you want in your wine cooler. The sole purpose of a wine cooler is to keep your wine at a constant temperature of about 53 F.

Let us have a look at a few varieties of red wine that would benefit from being kept in a wine cooler.

1. Shiraz or Syrah - Known in France and the US as Syrah and in Australia and South Africa as Shiraz this grape variety produces powerful red wines. This style of wine often has firm smooth tannins, with flavors such plum, black and white pepper, cherry, dark berries, licorice and dark chocolate. Typically Shiraz or Syrah is a medium to full bodied wine. This style of wine is often enjoyed accompanying food like steak and lamb and wild gamey meats.

2. Cabernet - originally from Bordeaux in France this is probably one of the most well known styles of wine. Cabernet Sauvignon is often blended with other grapes due to their mellow flavors that are produced after maturation. Cabernets are often medium to full bodied styles of wine and have high tannin content. Typical flavors that may be found in a Cabernet are red berries, cherries, vanilla, warmer style spices, tobacco, and plums. Cabernets go really well with red meats, tomato based pastas, and darker style chocolate.

3. Pinot Noir - Perhaps the most difficult grape variety to grow pinot noir grapes produce a lighter bodied fruiter front palette style of red wine. Originally from Burgundy France, pinot noir is now grown around the world in areas like Victoria Australia, New Zealand, Oregon, California, and some parts of Europe. Pinot Noir is a much lighter style of wine with flavors like cherry, tomato, red berries and earthy or woody flavors. Pinots go really well with duck and poultry; it is great with spicier styles of food and creamy sauces. It is great to drink by itself as well. Pinot Noirs often come in larger style bottles which require more room in your storage space, this means you cannot fit as many bottle in a wine fridge - remember this when looking at coolers such as the Vinotemp wine cooler.

4. Merlot - Originally from Bordeaux in France the merlot grape is used to make a medium bodied that is quite soft often with juicy flavors. The flavors that are produced with merlot are a mixture of berries and plums with a juicy style. Merlots have nowhere near the amount of tannins that can be found in the bigger more robust reds like Cabernets and Shiraz. Often the Merlot grape is blended with the bigger grape varieties to produce outstanding wines. Merlots are great for wine 'beginners' as the fruit can be tasted on the front palette and the finish is not as strong as wines with big tannins. Merlots go well with many kinds of food.

If you have a Vinotemp wine cooler it is a good idea to use it to keep your reds away from the heat. Remember the optimum temperate of your wine cooler is about 53F. Many wine coolers - like an Edgetar wine cooler- have dual compartments for storing both red and white wine. The only real reason that you should store red and whit wine at different temperatures is for drinking. Of course you would like to drink your white wine at a slightly cooler temperature than your red wine.

Also if your wine is being stored under cork it is a good idea to keep the humidity level in your wine fridge at a good level. If the air in your wine cooler is too dry then the corks may dry out causing them to shrink and allowing air and oxygen to enter your wine - you can also tell if this has happened if the wine has slightly dribbled out of the bottle beside the cork. This may cause your wine to become oxidized and go bad. If your wine fridge doesn't have a built in humidity regulator - you can put a small tray of water in the bottom and this should suffice nicely.

If your wine is stored in a screw cap or stelvin cap then humidity doesn't pose a problem. Stelvin caps are actually very good for keeping wine and many good quality wines are now stored in this way. Screw caps prevent wine from being damaged due to cork faults.

Taking good care of your wine is important and if you do it properly your wine will benefit from ageing and you will end up with some very nice wine.