Whether you’ve got 5 wine bottles or 500, you probably don’t want your wine to go bad or the taste to be compromised before you get a chance to drink it. Unfortunately, not all wine lovers have the luxury of a personal cellar, so it’s important to know how to keep your wine fresh until you’re ready to uncork and enjoy.
The easiest way to make sure you’re not doing a disservice to your stash is to follow these 5 basic wine storage tips:
1. Keep your cool
One of wine’s biggest enemies is heat so it’s important to store your wine a cool, dry place. Any temperature over 21°C will have the undesirable effect of unnecessarily speeding up the ageing process, resulting in flat aromas and flavours. Ideally, wine needs to be stored at a constant temperature of between 7°C and 19°C. Different types of wines are ideally stored at different temperatures. For example, a full-bodied red is best stored at temperatures between 17°C and 19°C while light- to medium-bodied reds are best stored between 12°C to 16°C. Dry whites, on the other hand, are best stored at temperatures between 8°C to 12°C while sparkling and sweet wines are at their best when stored at temperatures between 5°C to 8°C.
If you’re serious about keeping your wines at their very best, it’s a good idea to invest in a wine fridge. Look for a fridge that offers multiple temperature zones, which can be separately controlled. This will allow you to simultaneously store different types of wine under perfect conditions in the same cooling unit.
2. Keep it constant and steady:
For optimum wine storage conditions, you need to be able to keep the climate as steady and constant as possible. Avoid rapid, extreme or frequent temperature swings, as this will result in cooked flavours, and the expansion and contraction of the liquid inside the bottle can end up pushing the cork out or causing seepage.
A good wine fridge will be able to circulate the cold air to ensure uniform temperature and humidity throughout the entire unit. This guarantees constant and perfect storage conditions for your wine, and the constantly maintained humidity levels of around 50% also prevents corks from drying out.
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3. Hit the lights
Wine also does best in dark conditions. UV rays can cause chemical reactions in wine causing them to degrade and age prematurely. As such light, and especially sunlight can pose a serious problem for long-term wine storage. This is why wine is sold in coloured glass bottles, as they cut down the penetration of the UV rays.
For best results store your wine in a cool, dark place like under a stairwell or in a specially designed wine fridge. Choose a wine conditioning unit with tinted safety glass and an integrated UV filter for maximum protection. Standard lighting in homes usually generates some kind of heat, which is not good for the wine or the labels – often causing them to fade and become brittle. Ensure your wine conditioning unit is fitted with LED bulbs, these don’t heat the air in any way, allowing your wine to be stored undisturbed.
4. Limit vibrations and movement
When it comes to wine, there’s no such thing as good vibrations. It is thought that vibrations can damage wine in the long-term, as it helps to speed up the chemical reactions in the liquid. It also disturbs the sediment in older wines, preventing them from settling and making them unpleasantly gritty.
A good quality wine cooler should be equipped with a specially optimised compressor that runs very quietly and is mechanically uncoupled from the housing to avoid any unnecessary movement of the wines. Other features to look out for are Push2Open and SoftClose technology, to ensure the gentle opening and closing of the unit’s door, further preventing any disturbance of the wine inside.
5. Avoid other aromas:
Another imperative for safely storing wine is keeping it in an odourless environment. Over time, exposure to foods with pungent aromas can seep into the wine through the cork and damage it.
If you’re serious about storing your wine in the best way, invest in a wine unit with a built-in air filter to purify the air to help eliminate virtually all odours inside the unit.
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