Store your wine the correct way

A majority of wines made are made to drink young (generally up to 5 years) but if you do get yourself some vino worth cellaring, it is essential to know some key things to consider to make sure you are storing wine correctly. Not only can wine be spoilt but also consider ageing a wine for years only to open it and realise it's lost all its vibrancy and has oxidised! 

First of all, wines like a stable temperature 

Wines need to be stored in an environment where the temperature has a small degree of change as wine is susceptible to temperature changes. After all, wines are living things and have natural compounds constantly changing and evolving, which attributes to how a wine will age over time, so we need to keep this in mind while we store a wine.

You might hear that a wine should be kept at ‘room temperature’, but let’s be honest most of the time our homes vary in temperature and generally would be around the 20 degrees celsius or higher and this would be too warm for wine to be stored. Storing a wine above 25 degrees celsius will start to spoil the wine, likewise if a wine is stored below -3 degrees. Generally, a wine should be stored around 13-16 degrees celsius - the cooler end for your Champagnes and the like.

To help with storing a wine at a stable temperature you might want to look at investing in a wine fridge. A wine fridge is a little different to your normal fridge, as the temperature can be set to suit the wine and the fridge in your kitchen would be too cold to store most wine in, damaging the wines delicate compounds over time.

If you have wines with cork, a stable temperature is even more important. Varying temperatures will shrink and expand the cork, allowing air to creep into the wine and slowly oxidising it.   

On a final note, consider the humidity of where you are storing wine. Around 70% humidity is ideal for wine but anywhere from 50% - 80% humidity is considered safe. Dampness can promote mould growth and although this might not damage the wine, it will damage the label on the bottle.

Move your wine away from light and sun exposure

Wines love to be stored in dark environments as light, especially natural sunlight can damage a wines aromas and flavours. The UV from sun can create chemical reactions in the wine and as a result can impart unpleasant flavours. A lot of wine bottles are a dark green in colour which is meant to help with light exposure, but it isn’t the most effective to stop all exposure. Best tip is to look for a dark place to store your wines.

Move wines away from all vibration!

Exposing wine to vibration can damage its ageing ability and the flavours it has over time, essentially the sediment and other compounds in the wine are disrupted and separate causing a quicker and unfavourable ageing of the wine.

Wines should be stored away from a dishwasher, washing machine and loud stereos – anything in your home that will likely cause some rattle. If you’re serious about your wine collection and you live near a highway/main road or a train track, you might want to really think about how you store your wine and consider an offsite wine storage service – after all wine is an investment so make sure you have the right foundations.

Store your wines horizontally

Not as important for screw caps, but still a good practice for the purposes of effective use of space, but most importantly are wines with a cork to be stored horizontally. This will allow the liquid to keep the cork moist and not dry out. A dry cork can contribute to ‘corkage’ when opening the wine. For the purposes of storing a wine, a dry cork can shrink and allow air to seep in (or wine to seep out of the bottle). If you’ve picked a wine, you’re going to crack open, its always recommended to stand it upright a day before you plan to drink it to allow the sediment to fall to the bottom. This will help when pouring the wine to ensure the sediment is separated.

Most wines are made to drink when young, ie 3-5 years, but if you are planning to store wine for years, make sure you do some research on the wines you plan to do this for to ensure they are the right wines to age.  

Now you’re able to navigate your wine storage, our last comment is that wine is made to be enjoyed so don’t be worried that you need to continue to age it or put off opening it. Crack it open and enjoy with your close ones and be transported back to the year and place it was made, cheers!