When it comes to eating at home, buying the right wine or having a wine delivery from the liquor store is only part of achieving vinous nirvana; you need to treat your new purchase right if you’re to get the most out of it.
OK, if you’re planning to drink a wine within a week of purchase, then short of storing it in the oven or the freezer it doesn’t matter much where you keep it. But any longer than that and it helps to bear the following in mind. Trust me, you’ll save yourself a lot of ruined bottles, so if you want to keep your wine for a long time you need you need the right accessories and you can go online to find wine accessories wholesale for your winery.
Where to store it
Basically, wine likes the sort of conditions that humans don’t; cool, humid and dark. The ideal temperature is about IO°C (50°F). If you have a wine cooler, perfect. Most wine coolers will have their preset temperature in this range. If not, find a place that ticks as many of the boxes as possible, or you may ask a Wine Cellar Consultant to help you in storing your wines.
But (and it’s a big but) just bear in mind that big temperature swings are an absolute no-no. So storing it in the garage or under the eaves of the house is out. Better to find somewhere that’s dark and a bit too warm but constant — maybe a hallway or under the stairs where it’s a steady I5°C (6o°F) – than somewhere the temperature fluctuates wildly. If you like having perfectly chilled wine, take a look at the best wine coolers here.
How to store it
In a word: horizontally. The lapping of the wine stops the cork from drying out.
How long to store it for
This depends on two things: the environment and the wine itself. The warmer it is, the faster a wine ages, so a bottle that might last a couple of years in a cellar will probably be shot after six months in your sitting room.
Then there’s the question of whether your wine will improve with age, even if it’s well kept. Most modern wines (both reds and whites) are ready for drinking straight away and are likely to deteriorate, rather than improve, with time. So if in doubt, pull the cork!
