At EuroCave , everything revolves around one mission: storing and serving wine under the best possible conditions. For 50 years, our R&D teams have been working on solutions that protect and improve the quality of wine. In recent years, they have focused on an aspect that often remains invisible, but is of great importance to the taste and integrity of wine: the air quality inside the wine cabinet.
To understand this topic in detail, our R&D specialists partnered with researchers from a technical agricultural college. Together they investigated the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in wine cabinets and developed a new, highly effective way to reduce them.
Why the air in a wine cabinet becomes naturally polluted
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are everywhere in our living environment - so also in a wine cabinet. They come from the room in which the cabinet is located, from materials of the cabinet itself and even from the glue of wine labels. These substances consist of numerous chemical compounds that evaporate at room temperature. This allows them to accumulate in the air of the wine cabinet.
Available soon for multiple EuroCave series.
This is a problem because corks never completely hermetically seal a bottle. Via nano-infiltration, VOCs can enter the bottle. In addition, they cause unwanted odors in the cabinet. Both factors can affect the quality of the wine.
EuroCave's design philosophy: materials that protect the wine
Because air quality plays such a crucial role, EuroCave has been consciously choosing materials that do not emit harmful VOCs since the 1970s.
That's why all our wine cabinets have an aluminum inner wall. This material:
- emits no VOCs,
- Ensures an even temperature,
- And promotes stable humidity throughout the cabinet.
It's a choice that sets us apart from wine cabinets with plastic inner walls, which can give off VOCs and also create less stable storage conditions.
But for our R&D teams, this wasn't enough. They wanted to know: how can we make the air in wine cabinets even purer?
A year of research into the purest air
Together with a research group from a technical agricultural college, our teams analyzed VOC concentrations in EuroCave wine cabinets for over a year. Different filter technologies were tested, with variations in filter surface area, adsorbents* and lifetime.
The goal: to develop a filter that removes VOCs more effectively than anything else on the market.
The result: a filter that raises the bar again
From this research has come a new filter that performs exceptionally well. The test results speak for themselves:
After 72 hours of use, odors and pollutants are reduced by 50%.
After three months, 74% of all VOCs have been filtered out of the air.
It makes the air inside the wine cabinet even purer than the air in the room around it - a unique achievement in the market.
The ROYALE: the culmination of 50 years of expertise
This new filter is used in the Royale, our most advanced wine cabinet. This is where everything EuroCave has learned about wine, materials, air quality and technology over five decades comes together. But innovation never stops. Our R&D teams continue to research, test and improve - always with the same goal: to create the perfect conditions for every bottle of wine.
* Footnote
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are a large group of chemical compounds, including hydrocarbons and solvents. They are found in fuels and everyday products such as paint, ink, glue, cosmetics and cleaning products. Some VOCs can cause odor nuisance, irritation or even mutagenic and carcinogenic effects.
For this study, different filter surfaces were tested, with various types and amounts of adsorbents, and the lifespan of the filters was examined. Adsorption is a process in which molecules adhere to a solid surface - the adsorbent.