I can’t tell you how many times I have been invited to a friend’s home for a dinner party and witnessed a site that would be disheartening to most wine makers!

Multiple bottles of expensive wine (over $20.00 + a bottle) being stored improperly in a wrought iron wine rack sitting on top of the kitchen counter, next to a hot stove.

This always throws me into a temporary state of shock because I know, from my own wine making experience, all the time and effort that have gone into producing a good bottle of wine.

It starts with the fruit that the wine grape grower painstakingly grew and carefully picked at the perfect point in time, and the wine that the vintner labored to produce in perfect balance, and lastly the wine buyer, who has spent their hard earned dollars, to end up with a ruined bottle of wine. All of those wonderful fruit flavors gone forever - burned off by inappropriate storage! Does any one have a box of Kleenex?

You may be saying to yourself, whoops, that’s me! If it’s any consolation, few people have perfect storage conditions for their wine but this does not negate the importance of following a few guidelines that will protect your wine from potentially damaging conditions, and a premature death.

The major public enemies of wine are HEAT, LIGHT, and VIBRATION.

You have to think of wine as a fragile, living substance that is constantly in a state of change, and vulnerable to ill treatment.

In my Wine Tasting 101 class, I use the analogy of wine being perishable like ice cream that will melt if you don’t place it

immediately into a freezer, or when you buy a fine cigar, you have to place it into a humidor to protect its freshness and to keep it from drying out.

The same applies to wine. When you purchase it you want to immediately protect it from any harmful situations.

The ideal temperature at which to cellar a wine is 55 degrees. Because wine tends to mature faster at higher temperatures and more slowly at lower temperatures keeping it at a constant 55 degrees protects the wine and allows it age properly. Sunlight and ultra-violet light is also bad for wine. Most wines receive some protection against potentially damaging light by the dark colored glass used in the manufacturing process.

Ultimately, wine should be stored in a completely dark environment with no, or minimal, exposure to any kind of light. Wine also does not do well in a state of constant movement, or vibration. Normal household movement is unlikely to damage your wine. Car trips are not too hard on wine as long as they are not too hot or too long. The wine may throw a little sediment, but should recover from the vibration in a few days. Wine should be stored on its side to keep the liquid in contact with the cork and to stop the cork from drying out and letting air in which will prematurely oxidize the wine.

The simplest way of storing wine is in a common wine rack. These days you can actually buy your own temperature controlled home cellar. Many retail stores are now carrying temperature and humidity controlled refrigerator cabinets that come in various sizes, holding from 12 to 500 bottles. They are effective, space saving, and affordable and I recommend them if you are planning on storing your wine for any extended period of time.

Happy Tasting!
Brian