The Proper Storage of Wine

If you don’t keep your wine in optimal conditions, like a temperature controlled cellar, are you better off stashing the unopened bottles in your refrigerator, a closet or somewhere else?

In rough order of potential disastrousness, there are four things that can damage wine as it ages: temperature, light, humidity and vibration. By far the most harmful is temperature. Wine, in an ideal world, should be stored at 55 degrees and the longer it’s going to be stored, the more important that temperature is. For short term storage say a month or two, regular room temperatures in the low 70’s aren’t going to damage your wine. The higher the temperature, the quicker that loss will occur; above 90 degrees or so – a bottle overlooked on a sunny windowsill or front porch, for instance – and essentially you’ve cooked your wine.

Store wine in the coolest, darkest place at hand. This might be a cool interior closet or a basement (away from the heater) or a cupboard.

Get a maximum-minimum thermometer (an affordable gadget found at any hardware store) to check the highs and lows over the course of a week, since wide temperature fluctuations are so bad for wine. If the temperature proves to be moderate and consistent, you’re all set.

Avoid the kitchen, typically one of the warmest places in the house.

Avoid refrigerators. They’re fine for short term storage, but they’re too cold for long term storage. Also, they don’t keep a constant temperature, they vibrate and they’re usually very dry. Low humidity makes corks dry out, which may allow oxygen to enter the bottle: also, if corks dry out enough, they drop into the wine… not good.

Consider renting space in or Gold Key Cellars if you have a lot of wine or ageworthy wine and nowhere suitable to store it. 

How do you know how long to age a bottle of wine before opening it? How do you know what the right time to drink it will be?

It’s worth noting that the majority of wine produced in the world – really doesn’t change in value over time. However, if you are collecting bottles worth keeping (a few possibilities are premier or grand cru Burgundies, top Bordeaux and California Cabernets, and Barolos or Super-Tuscan wines) remember that wine ages on a slow and not always predictable curve.

Buy a good general wine book like Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia to get a more comprehensive sense of which types of wine age well and what their probable life is. If you have only one bottle of a wine, check out a good book for tasting notes on it, such as Robert M Parker, Jr.’s Bordeaux Guide Michael Broadbent’s Vintage Wine or try calling or emailing the winery and asking if someone, perhaps one of the tasting room staff, can give you advice about when to open the bottle.

Another strategy is to buy a case of an ageworthy wine you love, allowing you to open a bottle every year or two and see how the wine is developing. If it’s still to tannic and rough, stow it away for a few more years: if it shows signs of losing its will to love, then invite some friends over to dinner. Gauging the exact moment that a wine will be at its peak, without having tracked it over time, is always a bit of a risk – but as risks go, it’s a pleasant one.

For more information about proper wine storage techniques or to reserve your private wine cellar locker at Gold Key Cellars, please call 916-933-8989 today.