Author: In an ideal world we would all have lovely big wine cellars with heat regulators and air circulation systems. These mean you can put your feet up and not concern yourself with your wines welfare as they will always be in the best environment to age beautifully. This is very rarely a reality however and the majority of us just try to make the best out of what we have. Here is some great advice for storing your wines safely.
Location. Your bottles, both white and also red wine, are best placed in a cool room, away from the light and with moderate humidity levels. The most efficient temperature for storage of your bottles should be between 10° and 16° C (50° to 61° F).Anything warmer than this will start to have negative effects on the quality of the wine, and a temp 25° C or more will have even more dramatic consequences on flavour. Direct light can not only affect the temperature of the wine and air inside the bottle but also discolour it. The bottle's cork can expand or shrink depending on the levels of moisture in the room air. This can lead to oxidation, a common problem where air seeps into the bottle and causes the wine (over a period of time) to react with the oxygen.
Positioning. You should lay the wine bottles on their side or slightly elevated when in storage. This is due to the theory that if the cork is not in contact with the wine at all times it will lose its natural moisture and shrink. This can again cause oxidation as detailed above.
Display. You don't want your pride and joys to be hidden away the whole time. occasionally you have an urge to bring them out and show them off. A good choice is often a wooden wine cabinet because these tend to maintain a steady temperature and always go for one that lets you store your wines on their side. Don’t use one that has a glass covering as this can lead to the greenhouse effect and warm the wines up.
