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It is worth giving a little thought to the storing of wine. Undoubtedly it is worth paying a little extra for a good wine so it would be a shame not to enjoy it at its best. Wine is not particularly fussy about its storage the best conditions are dark, cool and ideally slightly damp. This is why a cellar was the traditional place to keep wine, however very few houses today have cellars and certainly almost no new builds.
There are a number of companies who will install ‘cellars’ these are generally a concrete cylinder, a sort of spiral staircase encircled by horizontal wine storage spaces sunk into the ground, often the garage floor which for the avid collector and drinker offer a very practicable solution but do not fit everyone’s budget or property. Another option is a wine storage cabinet these can either be single or dual temperature, have varying capacities and can be incorporated into a kitchen design. However, for many of us it is a case of finding a suitable place round the house.
Wines not over fussy about temperature anything from 7-18˚c will do although 10˚c is ideal but what it really doesn’t like is large variances in temperature. Therefore storing wine in the kitchen next to the cooker is not a good idea nor is next to a boiler. The cupboard under the stairs is often a good option being dark and generally not too warm, disused fireplaces are also an option and can make a nice focal feature in a dining room for example.
Traditionally bottles are stored lying down to ensure that the corks don’t dry and shrink, allowing air into the bottle. With the advent of screw cap or stelvin closures this is less of an issue and the same can be said of synthetic or nomacork closures although when covered with a foil capsule you often don’t know what type of cork is in the bottle so best to be safe and keep the bottle laid down.
Remember every wine collection started with just one bottle you don’t have to keep a huge stock, the more you keep the more choice you have on hand but it can also lead to wines going past their best by being forgotten or you just having too many that have similar optimal drinking windows. Record keeping is up to you, some people keep very detailed records others no record at all. Cellar books are available for those that way inclined or a simple note book or more often and not these days an electronic record is used.
Ultimately wine is for drinking not storing!
