How to store wine
The Right Way
Do you know how to store wine? Unless you’re fortunate enough to own a house that was built in the 1800s or early 1900s. With its basement or wine cellar already there, you’re going to have to build your own storage environment to house your wine collection.
Where was wine stored in the past? In deep, dark caves or in deep, dark wine cellars. There are good reasons for this. Wine hates light, motion and heat. While storing wine on top of your fridge is convenient, it’s seriously the worst thing you can do to a poor, innocent bottle of wine.
The ideal requirements for wine storage is cool, dark, still, and sideways.
Choosing the right storage For Your Wine
If you’re like the majority of people, you don’t know a whole lot about wine. Well good news to you, this wine blog will be sure to help you out. So you know you enjoy the odd glass of it, but you tend to just buy it when you’re ready to drink it. Storing wine, whether for the short or long term, never enters your thought processes.
You may, however, find yourself getting more interested in keeping wine on hand. It’s better than having to run out to the wine shop every time the urge for a glass hits you. You may also be thinking about wine as an investment strategy, and this means holding wine in storage.
Cool
You may, however, find yourself getting more interested in keeping wine on hand. It’s better than having to run out to the wine shop every time the urge for a glass hits you. You may also be thinking about wine as an investment strategy, and this means holding wine in storage.
Dark
Most colored glass bottles of wine have UV filters incorporated into the bottle glass, but this does not necessarily offer full UV protection. If a wine is in direct light consistently, it will affect the flavor of the wine significantly, a result of premature aging. Typically, white wines are the most sensitive to light degradation, but reds will also lose if they are subjected to excessive light.
Still
For some peculiar reason, the top of the fridge seems to be one of the most favorite places that people naturally tend to keep their wine. Maybe, it’s the convenience of it, maybe it’s that the cute wrought iron wine racks fit well there – but either way this is one of the worst places to keep wine. First of all, there’s the heat and the direct light. Then there’s the risk of losing bottles out of the rack every time the fridge is opened and closed, but there’s also the vibration from the fridge itself. The constant vibration of the refrigerator or other major appliances in close proximity just agitates the wine and can keep the sediment from settling in red wine. Constant or consistent vibration will wreck a wine and you don’t want that to happen.
Sideways
By intentionally storing wine on its side, you will help keep the cork in continuous contact with the wine. This will keep the cork moist, which in result should keep the cork from shrinking and allowing the enemy of wine, oxygen, to seep into the bottle. When oxygen comes into contact with wine the result is not good – the wine starts to oxidize and the aromas, flavors, and color all begin to spoil.
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If you have a designated area in your property that you would like to be renovated and turned into a cellar. Please get in contact with us today to get a free consultation. We are happy to be of service!