Everything You Need to Know About Storing Wine at Home

Do you want to start a wine collection? Some folks might go to the wine shop to get a bottle for supper, but not us. We might spend hours scouring the shelves for exceptional whites and reds to add to the cellar as oenophiles. Safe storage is essential for all that wonderful wine, hard-to-find producers, and limited-edition bottles. There are some principles to follow whether you're holding a bottle for a few months or ten years to ensure the wine stays in the best possible condition. The same storage principles apply to all types of wine, including sparkling (like Champagne), white, red, rosé, dessert, and even fortified wines.

After all, you don't want the wine to turn to vinegar before you've had a chance to savor all of its unique flavors and aromas.

On the outskirts

Wine should be stored horizontally at all times. The racks in every bespoke wine cellar, wine refrigerator, built-in kitchen wine rack, and even top-tier wine shops are designed such that bottles lay on their sides. For one thing, it's slick, but it also serves a useful purpose: it moves the liquid forward to keep the cork moist. As air seeps in through the cork, this also helps to inhibit oxidation. Premature aging and rotting are avoided as a result of this. Wine storage with drawers is a favorite of ours.

You can easily see the labels of your bottles by pulling them out.

Maintain Your Calm

While stacking your wines on your kitchen counter may look impressive, it's not the best idea for your wine. Wines prefer consistent, cool conditions. Heat causes the liquid to warm and deteriorate more quickly. The recommended temperature for wine storage is 55 degrees Fahrenheit. It's also known as "cellar temperature," and it's appropriate for sparkling wines, whites, reds, and fortified wines like Port and Madeira. It's why wine freezers or chilled wine rooms are popular for long-term wine preservation. (Cellar temperature differs from serving temperature, which ranges from 45 degrees F to room temperature.)

Look for a cool part of your home if you don't have a separate refrigerated room (especially for those of us who live in cities). Heat sources, such as furnaces, stoves, and fires, should be kept away from alcohol. That also means you should never put a bottle on top of the kitchen refrigerator. Pantry space is a fantastic alternative.

Consider purchasing a wine refrigerator if you want to keep your wine at the ideal temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. They come in a variety of sizes, from six-bottle micro-fridges for the countertop to enormous wall-mounted units that can hold hundreds of bottles. Many of them can also be built-in into your kitchen or bar area, making them more appealing to the eye.

There's a Thing Called "Too Cold"

Unopened wines prefer cool environments, but they don't do so well in a frigid kitchen refrigerator. That bottle of Champagne in the fridge door that's been there for months? Remove it from the equation. Refrigerators in kitchens store objects at 35 to 40 degrees, which is ideal for food preservation but far too cold for wine bottles. If the wine freezes, the expanding liquid can actually push the cork out! Furthermore, the refrigerator lacks humidity, which can cause wine corks to dry up and oxidize prematurely.

It's More Fun in the Dark

Have you ever noticed how wines, particularly Champagne, are packaged in colored bottles? It's for a good reason. Wines taste better when they're stored in the dark, and thick, tinted glass bottles assist to keep the light out. For one thing, light produces heat, thus a bottle left on a cabinet near a window will certainly spoil faster than a bottle kept inside that piece of furniture. Sunlight also warms the wine without providing the essential humidity, causing the cork to dry up and the wine to oxidize unintentionally.

UV rays also break down the chemicals and molecules that allow the wine to age slowly, causing the process to become unbalanced and potentially destroying your wine.

It's Ready to Eat

For some people, 55 degrees is too cold to drink, especially red wines straight from the cellar or wine refrigerator. Allow the bottle to come to room temperature before opening it by decanting it or placing it on the table for a few minutes. You can cool white, rosé, dessert, and sparkling wines in one of two ways: in an ice bucket for a few extra degrees or in the refrigerator for 15 minutes before serving. Just don't put ice cubes in a glass of wine because it will dilute the drink and mask the flavors.

Save it for a later date

You open that priceless bottle after what seems like an eternity of storage and relish it—but you don't finish it. There are also some guidelines for preserving open wine in good condition. The goal is to keep oxygen from coming into touch with the liquid because it will turn the wine into vinegar. Many individuals simply replace the cork in the bottle, however, this is not recommended. For starters, the cork is not airtight, allowing oxygen to enter. Second, the cork can break, resulting in bits falling into the liquid when you re-open the bottle.

Instead, use a vacuum pump and store the bottle upright in the refrigerator, away from the lightbulb. Why? After removing as much air as possible, the vacuum pump closes the wine. When compared to a bottle on its side, keeping the bottle upright reduces the amount of liquid exposed to air and, of course, light exposure. Wines will last three to five days in the refrigerator. Similar vacuum systems with a safety feature are available for sparkling wines, which assist keep the bubbles over time and prevent the top from popping under pressure.

An inert gas preservation system may be a preferable option for serious oenophiles. These systems, such as the well-known Corvain, use argon gas to replenish extracted wine, allowing you to taste a unique bottle over months. (Months, yes!) It's also ideal for those who merely want a glass now and then but not on a regular basis. The cork, on the other hand, is never removed in this arrangement. When the cork is in place, the preservation system is used, therefore choose this choice before grabbing the corkscrew.

You might be wondering about fortified wines. Fortified wines such as Madeira, Sherry, and Vermouth, as well as liquor, can be kept on a bar cart providing the chamber is kept at a tolerable temperature.

Many of these wines can technically be kept open for a few years, but the highest quality comes from drinking them within a few months. It differs by style for Ports. Vintage ports should be kept in the refrigerator for a few days, whereas Tawny ports can be kept for up to two months.