The 5 Wine Storage Do’s and Don’ts
Whatever your wine collection consists of (five bottles or 500), you don’t want your wine to go bad or lose its flavor before you get a chance to consume it.
Not everyone who appreciates fine wines has the luxury of a personal cellar (if you have, please send us a photo), so it’s important to understand how best to keep the wine fresh until you’re ready to open and enjoy it.
You can ensure that you’re not doing your wine collection any harm by following these five dos and don’ts when it comes to storage.
Make sure your wine is kept cool.
To be honest, most people’s living rooms are much too warm to comfortably serve and keep their wine. If the temperature in the room is too warm, the wine will age and get stale more quickly.
For those of you who have ever left a bottle of wine in your vehicle during the summer and then puzzled why it tasted like pure alcohol or even a touch vinegar-like, you are aware of the damage that heat can do to a bottle of wine.
Naturally, this is an extreme situation, but wines served at room temperature are unable to express themselves completely, and as a result, taste duller than wines served at chilly temperatures.
Avoid storing wine in the refrigerator for an extended period of time.
While many individuals believe that storing their wine in the refrigerator would solve their temperature issue, doing so maybe just as hazardous as not utilizing a wine refrigerator in the first place.
Not only is your typical kitchen refrigerator too chilly for your wine, preventing it from developing properly, but it also dries off the cork on your bottle of vino as well. Have you ever forgotten about a tomato that was left out in the fridge for too long?
Take a look at how the tomato shrivels up in a matter of a few days? That’s because, unlike a wine refrigerator, your kitchen refrigerator cools by removing moisture from the air.
Water must be kept in the corks for them to function correctly. It is possible to have a musty-smelling wine because of a dried-out cork.
DO: Keep your wine in a handy location for easy access when needed.
However, storing your wine in that upstairs closet, away from dangerous factors, may be beneficial for the wine, but it is neither practical nor handy for you.
The purpose of wine, whether served open or closed, is to serve as a conversation starter and a means of gathering people.
Always store it in a suitable and immediately accessible location so that it may be retrieved and accessed whenever necessary.
DO NOT: Place your wine bottles on top of your refrigerator’s shelves.
It is crucial to consider the integrity of the wine as well as the ease with which it may be served. There are three reasons why keeping your bottles on top of your refrigerator is one of the worst locations to store them in your home.
I can’t tell you how many homes I’ve been into and seen this same situation, but it is one of the worst places in your home.
Think about all of the vibrations produced by your refrigerator when the compressor cycles on and off, when the ice maker spittles out ice, when you’re using the water dispenser, and so on and so forth.
Without going into too much detail about chemistry, vibrations disrupt the processes that are taking place in your wine, changing the flavor and aging process of the wine in question. Your refrigerator, for the second time, emits heat!
There is a large quantity of heat generated by the compressor and other internal components as they work tirelessly to keep the inside cold. Is it possible to feel the top of a refrigerator’s door? Warm temperatures prevail.
In addition, the top of your refrigerator is most likely extremely near to the light lights in your kitchen.
This may not be the case for everyone, but if it is, your wine is not in a favorable position at this time. The heat generated by light bulbs might cause your wine to age prematurely.
DO: Place the bottles of wine on their sides.
Cork wetness may be summed up in two words: Your wine will not be “corked” if you store your bottles on their sides, allowing the wine to come into continual touch with the cork.
Keep your wine upright if you want to keep it for an extended period of time.
It is not suggested to keep wine upright for the same reasons that it is not recommended to store wine on its side. In an upright bottle, the wine is not striking the cork, which is a good thing! It is at this point that the cork will begin to dry up, leaving a musty, malodorous wine behind.
To summarize, it is OK to keep wine upright for a limited period of time, which is why many convenience shops and liquor stores can get away with it since they are counting on the bottles being sold in a timely manner. Over a period of many weeks, I would not advocate storing bottles upright.
DO: Maintain a consistent temperature for your wine.
Fluctuating temperatures, like vibrations, may have a deleterious influence on the age and chemical processes that are taking place in your wine. As a result, temperature regulation in wine cellars and wine freezers is quite strict. The ideal temperature is one that is pleasant and consistent….
WARNING: Do not store your wine at room temperature for an extended amount of time.
It has already been noted that the ambient air temperature is often much too warm for both serving and storing wines over lengthy periods of time. In extreme circumstances, warm wine may be extremely alcoholic or vinegar-tasting, and it can be dull and flat in its flavor.
DO: Store your wine in a convenient location where you can easily observe and pick a bottle.
Remembering what you have in your collection and where you may locate it is really crucial! A clean visual presentation of all of your bottles, despite the fact that you should record your collection, is preferable.
WARNING: Do not store your wine in a location with bright indoor lighting or direct sunlight.
One approach to make your collection easier to choose from and observe is to use lighting to illuminate it.
It is important to consider the sort of lighting employed. We now know that heat is emitted by most common residential lighting fixtures, and this is not healthy for humans. It’s much worse for your wine if it’s exposed to direct sunlight or ultraviolet radiation.
Keep your wine away from windows and other sources of natural light to ensure that it retains its quality. In terms of lighting, LED is your best option.
LED lighting emits a pleasant glow and does not generate any heat, unlike traditional lighting.
Your wine will appreciate you if you just follow these simple guidelines. We make no representations as to the validity of our warranty.
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