One of my wine fantasies goes like this. Just before the guests arrive for dinner, I open a sturdy wooden door in the hallway and carefully negotiate some worn stone steps down into the cool, quiet depths of a well-equipped cellar. I wander for some minutes among the rows of rather dusty bottles sleeping in their tidy piles, plucking out one here, one there, until I've found what I came for.

For some fortunate SmartHouse readers with genuine underground cellars, this fantasy might be a reality. But cellars like these are as rare as hen's teeth in modern homes. While professional storage is one option for the majority who lack proper cellars, it's an unsatisfying option for those of us who want to have their wines to hand – either because planning ahead to the degree that professional storage requires is an unwanted hassle, or because we just enjoy ogling and fondling our precious bottles.

The answer is to buy a wine refrigerator. Why? Because wine needs to be stored at a constant temperature and, secondly, a wine fridge looks cool, modern and is highly practical.

How should wine be stored? Wine ageing involves a complex series of chemical reactions, and these take place faster at higher temperatures. The problem is, not only do these reactions speed up as the mercury rises, but their nature also changes. So while a wine kept at a steady 20°C will mature faster, it is likely to be less interesting and complex than one kept at the conventional cellar temperature of 11–12°C. Still higher temperatures will cook wine, completely ruining it.

Keeping a wine above 25°C for a few months will inevitably kill it, as will shorter exposures to temperatures above 30°C. At the other end of the scale, temperatures below 10°C aren't going to damage wine, but they will slow down its maturation. But go down too far and there's a risk that the wine will freeze. Not recommended.

Fluctuation in temperature is also undesirable, because it increases the risk of oxygen getting to the wine. As the temperature changes, the liquid in the bottle expands and contracts, and if the cork isn't forming a perfect seal there's a danger that small amounts of air will enter.

If you want to keep your first growths in pristine condition, it's going to cost. The cheapest option is to buy a standalone wine cabinet. The key issue in buying one of these standalone wine cabinets is capacity. If you are a fairly motivated wine geek, it won't take you long to fill up a 200-bottle unit. Wise counsel seems to be to think how many bottles you are intending to store, and then double that number. One of the great attractions of these units is that they are simple to install (you just plug them in) and you can take them with you if you move. But above all they make a great talking point. Hey, mate, do you have a wine fridge?