I live in Manhattan. If I had to do it over again I would have converted a closet. I’ve put coolers in closets, had one in dining area…still have a nice cherry credenza but it holds only 80 or so. Never loved any of them. Offsite for rest.
But I definitely would convert a closet if I was moving in again.
Might be tough to do in a rental.
Didn’t notice that it was a rental.
I’m not sure it is. OP didn’t get the memo about how bad it is NYC.
Not so easy. For starters, how do you vent your chilling unit? And, by the time you put in insulation, you’d have lost half your space.
Better to just buy a cave.
I’d vent it right back into the room if no window or wall was not an option. How thick does insulation need to be in an internal closet in an air conditioned apartment?
Depends on what you want to pay in electric bills. 
If it’s like most NYC apartments, it’s hot all year round so, to keep the wine at 55, you’d have to run the cooling unit year-round, even with a couple of inches of insulation board.
Just to be clear, I have no idea what I am talking about. I just want a wine closet, dammit!
Would the closet be that much less efficient than the cooler/credenza?
Most stick built Suburban houses are built on concrete slabs. So long as the finished flooring surface (hardwood, etc) can hold the wine fridge, the concrete slab will be just fine.
thanks all, I’ve started looking at offsite wine storage to pair with an in-apt unit. I guess we’ll let the size of our apt wine cellar be dictated by the cost and (in)convenience of offsite storage. we have a good size kitchen, maybe we can sneak a smaller unit under counter.
best,
Jeff,
Is yours a doorman building so you can receive packages? If not, you should certainly have off site storage to have all your wines delivered. Otherwise it is a serious hassle to hang around waiting to sign for packages.
I use River Valley which has a daily truck into NY, and I can highly recommend them. But there are plenty of others around. In your shoes, I would still need a unit that can take at least 100 bottles and the overage leave offsite.
I would guess that a cooler is more efficient, because it would be hard to get a refrigeration unit sized to a closet. Plus, there would be all the hassle and complications of insulation, ducting and venting for a closet. I’d guess it would be hard to utilize the space efficiently, too, with racking, because it would be deeper than a wine cave.
Unless you have a walk-in-sized closet, I can’t imagine it would make any sense.
And if you have a walk-in closet in an NYC apartment, you must be paying a humungous amount in rent and can afford anything.
thanks mark, we do have a doorman but I’m in the phase of life where I’m doing my best to drink the wine we have before shuffling off this mortal coil. So doing my best to curtail new wine purchases…but not always successful.
I’ve been excavating old threads about wine storage in and around NYC and people do seem to like River Valley, I’ll definitely give them a call.
best,