Things to Know About Wine Storage

19 Aug Things to Know About Wine Storage

If you are just starting out on your wine collection, you must be hungry to know more about every aspect of wines; and storage is a very important factor that you would have to keep in view at all times. Regardless of whether you are storing wine for the short-term or the long term, it’s important that you store it in the right manner. If you are planning on buying wine as more of an investment strategy, you would be even more concerned about making the proper arrangements as you will be storing the wine for a number of years.

The ideal way to store wine

While some homeowners do consider storing wines in a wine cooler or refrigerator, building a wine cellar is the best way to store wines. Even before we start on discussing what the ideal wine storage conditions are, consider this – Our ancestors always stored wines in dark and deep wine cellars or in deep dark caves and there were some distinct reasons for this.

Wine doesn’t really behave well, when it’s exposed to motion, heat or light. Many people store wine in their kitchens, above refrigerators and that is absolutely one of the worst ways to treat your wine. The thumb rule for storing your whites, reds and sparkling wines is to find a dark, cool place and store them sideways there. Take a look at why these are the ideal wine storage conditions and things to know about wine storage:

Cool

Wines dislike heat and anything above 21°C will completely damage the wine. You should ideally store your wines at a temperature of 12-13°C and try to maintain it in this range. Humidity is the other important factor as the right level of humidity helps prevent the wine bottle’s cork from drying out; consequently, it also prevents the oxygen from seeping into the bottle and oxidizing it.

Dark

If you prefer, wine can be likened to a vampire and it just can’t stand light (especially UV light); as this will only cause the wine to age prematurely. Whites tend to get more affected than reds; but the latter are also susceptible to getting damaged from exposure to sunlight. It’s also why wines are sold in coloured glass bottles – these filter out the UV rays.

No motion

Too much of vibration or shaking will cause the wine to age prematurely (in a negative manner). If red wine gets shaken, the sediment that’s settled at the bottom of the bottle gets disturbed and moves all through the liquid and will make the wine go bad.

Sideways

There are 2 distinct reasons for storing your wine bottles on their side; when it is stored this way; it helps prevent the cork from drying out. In addition to this, storing wines in a horizontal position also helps save space and you will be able to store more bottles in a much smaller space.

The kind of storage that will suit you best

• The kind of storage you require is entirely dependent on the amount of wine you want to store as well as the duration for which you plan to store it.
• If you don’t plan on stocking wine for more than a few months, a wire rack or wine cooler will suit your purposes.
• If you are more than just a casual wine drinker, and are planning on starting a serious wine collection, consider all the conditions that we have just talked about and conduct a certain amount of research. These conditions would have to be maintained over the long term and you will need undisturbed spaces for the racks you will be using for wine storage.

We at Signature Cellars are the custom wine cellar experts that know what it takes to provide excellent wine cellar solutions. For any information about wine cellars and cellaring wine, call Signature Cellars at 02 9340 7515. Alternatively, simply use this contact form to connect with us and we will get back to you shortly.

Thanks for reading,
Neil Smallman
Signature Cellars
1300 570 636