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Author: Kevin Preble
Need to store your wine? The following are a few steps to ensure your wine collection is stored properly:
1. Do not expose your wine to the light as wine can get 'light stricken' easily. When this happens, the wine often begins to emit a rather distasteful smell. This is the reason that many wines are placed in dark, tinted bottles. Still with enough exposure to ultra violet radiation, the light can still make its way through the bottle effectively. Thus it is always best to keep wine bottles in dark locations (thus the invention of the wine cellar).
2. Always keep your wine cool. Ideally, wine should be stored at 54 degrees F (12.2 degrees C). When the temperature gets hotter than 75 degrees F (24 degrees C), wine starts to oxidize, which renders the wine worthless.
3. Make sure corked wine bottles are placed on their sides, as opposed to straight up and down, for long periods of time. Storing the wine upright for a long period of time will dry up the cork, thus letting air into the wine and spoiling it. Also make sure you place each bottle in a stable location, such as a rack, so that they will not move around. Constant and prolonged movement could have a negative effect on the integrity of the wine.
4. Use a hygrometer to make sure the humidity of the wine cellar, or other storage location, is at approximately 70%. Humidity over and above 70% will cause mold to grow. Humidity below 70% will cause the cork to dry up, thus, allowing evaporation and/or oxidation to occur. Use humidifying or dehumidifying techniques as needed.
5. Always separate the wine from anything that has a strong smell. Strong smells, depending on the source, can leak into wine corks and spoil an otherwise healthy wine. Good ventilation is a good deterrent for musty odors trying to find their way into your grapey goodness. After all, like humans, wines do have to "breathe" for good health.
6. Always know, ahead of time, how long the wine should be kept or stored. Not every wine improves over time. In fact, inexpensive wines will usually not improve at all. Most white wines can be stored and aged for 2-3 years to maturity. An exception to this rule is white burgundy wines (chardonnays) which can be aged for over 20 years. Red wines can reach maturity from anywhere between 2-10 years, or much longer, depending on the type of red wine and the concentration of its sugars, acids and tannins.
7. Consider talking to any local wine connoisseurs who may have wine cellars of their own. They may recommend ways of storing your wine or they may keep some of your wine while you figure out how to store it on your own. It is always best to constantly improve your knowledge of wine every day, every week, and every year. If you enjoy wine enough, learning about it becomes a hobby, not a chore.
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Kevin Preble has been a wine enthusiast since he was old enough to drink wine. He's always on the lookout for new wine gadgets and wine gifts. If you are looking to sell your wine collection, Kevin invites you to visit the Wine Buyers Purchasing Group store and talk with one of his experienced wine buyers today.
