Are You Storing Your Wine Properly?
By Ian • Feb 21st, 2008 • Category: Features, Wine Storage
Wine cellars provide a natural way of keeping wine in a controlled environment, dark with constant temperature and humidity. This is important because all types of wine will suffer if exposed to heat, light, temperature fluctuations, humidity and vibration.
The problem is that most of us don’t have access to a wine cellar so how should we store our wine?
There are specialised wine storage facilities but if you are not storing expensive wine for lengthy periods of time it is probably not worth the investment.
You should however make the most of what you have available. Store your wine in a dark place away from heat sources. The most important factor is a constant temperature. It’s better to have a steady but slightly warm storage temperature than a large fluctuation. Ideally the storage temperature should be between 12-16 deg C. Find somewhere in the centre of the building away from heat sources.
Wines with a cork closure are normally stored horizontally so the wine is in contact with the cork. This prevents the cork from drying out and possibly shrinking. Ideally humidity should be around 70%. In very dry areas put a bucket of water in the storage area to maintain the humidity.
If you have some expensive wine that demands greater care you can buy wine storage units similar to a fridge but designed to keep the wine at the optimum storage temperature and humidity. This is quite an expensive option with prices starting at $1000 for small unit. Domestic fridges are not suitable. They are designed to preserve food and their operating temperature is too low. Fridges also reduce humidity to provide a very dry atmosphere.
There are also companies specialising in wine storage. It might not be the most convienent method but it does stop you drinking your expensive wine on a whim 
I’ve regularly seen the above advice since I started taking an interest in wine in the 70’s. What I’m wondering is: is there any evidence that those recommendations are correct? ‘Modern’ wines are vastly superior in terms of mechanical (closures) and bacterial (preservatives) spoliage prevention than even those wines of the 80’s; yet the same recommendations that Len Evans would have (rightly) espoused for the 1973 barossa cabernet still seem to apply, and those recommendations seem to stem back from much earlier days. I wonder where the research is up to in this area; both with respect to storage (to prevent spoilage) and for cellaring, to allow for maturity.