Why You Need To Properly Store Your Wine
If you’re like me, you like your wine…a lot, and you drink it after work, with a special meal, or for a particular occasion. You probably have a couple bottles on hand with one white in the fridge and a red in the pantry, unless you are a true wine enthusiast and have a full cellar stocked. That’s what I always did but I didn’t know one thing: how to properly store my wine.
Though there is a whole world out there of wine rules and standards that many enthusiasts follow to a ‘t’, I was never one to follow their convention. I just figured knowing the simple stuff would be enough. At first, I didn’t use a wine decanter or even gave a second thought to the type of crystal wine glasses I was using. This went for how I stored my wine as well. I decided to try something different, I stored my wine the right way and it made a huge difference in the taste of the wine.
Temperature: First off, no matter what type of wine you have on hand, it should always be stored in a cool setting-yes! This is why people have wine cellars for optimal taste! The best temperature for wine storage is approximately 55 degrees F.Any warmer than this temperature and you will definitly notice a difference in the taste of your wine. Try to keep your wine at a constant temperature, as this change will dramatically change the taste of your wine.
Light: To help keep you wine in full flavor, be sure to keep it out of the sun. If a bottle of wine is in the light for extended periods of time, it will age the wine considerably, affecting its flavors.
Humidity: It’s not the heat it’s the humidity, keeping humidity level right are another key to optimal wine storage. Overall, It should be more humid than not in order to keep the wine corks from shrinking. Air will oxidize your wine, so make sure you don’t get cork shrinkage. So, what the right humidity level for storing wine? Between 65-75%. So it only makes sense that basements and cellars are perfect for wine storage.
Sideways: So many wine racks and cellars hold their wine bottles sideways instead of upright, this may seem a strange one to some, but it’s worked for thousands of years? Yes. It is because in order to ensure that the cork is protected from shrinking, it needs to stay moist. This said, keeping a bottle of wine on its side, keeps the wine in constant contact with the cork, thereby keeping it moist.
Travel: When traveling with your wine, you know, to a party or to a BYOB resaurant be sure to use a wine tote bag. This will help keep your wine at the right temperature and keep it protected from bouncing around.
