Many people enjoy drinking wine, but very few are dedicated to drawing the most out of every single bottle so they enjoy the wine to its fullest. The reasons behind this are that people either don’t have the time, or the knowledge to store the wine properly. Here are some of the most secure ways to store wine, so you can get the full taste, and not miss a single note.
Lay them Down
Another important aspect that needs to be considered if you want your wine to be stored properly, and be delicious when you serve it is that they need to be stored horizontally for longer periods. If they are stored in the upright position, the cork won’t keep moist, which will, in turn, allow oxygen to get into the bottle and ruin a perfectly good harvest.
If you plan on drinking your wine soon, there won’t be any need for laying them down. The same goes if your wine bottle has a metal or plastic caps, which physically can’t let oxygen in, but be sure to keep them horizontal if they have traditional corks.
If you happen to have a large wine collection, you might want to invest in proper wine holders, which will help store your wine in the proper position, and will save you a lot of space, not to mention that it will be aesthetically pleasing.
Wine Fridge
One of the most important factors that will impact the quality of your stored wine is the temperature you are storing them at. Certainly, different kinds of wines need to be stored at different temperatures, however, as a general rule of thumb, you shouldn’t store any wine up to a freezing point, or at temperatures over 68 degrees.
However useful the fridges in our daily lives may be, they don’t do a good job at being proper wine storage units. The reason behind this is that they don’t have precise temperature settings, and they also don’t have proper wine slots.
As the experts over at WineCellarHQ.com suggest, wine should be stored in specialized wine fridges, where the proper temperature can be set with ease, and in proper slots that will keep them horizontal.
Watch the Humidity
One of the factors that is crucial to consider when storing wine, but also the one who gets overlooked most often is the humidity of the place you are storing it at, usually the cellars, or special wine rooms.
The logic behind this is very simple, and it’s similar to why the bottles need to be laid down. If the humidity level in your cellar or fridge is low, meaning there is very little vaporized water in the air, the corks can dry out quickly, which makes them significantly more prone to letting the oxygen in.
If the humidity is high, it can cause some of the labels to peel off, however, this can only be a problem if you were planning on selling the bottles, or putting them up on a display. The humidity can be altered with specific devices called humidifiers if it happens to be too low, as the low humidity damages the wine more than high humidity.
Protect from all Sources of Light
The time you were planning on storing your wine should not be detrimental to your decision to keep your wine away from all sources of light. This also applies if you’re going to drink your wine the very evening you bought it.
The Sunrays, which contain different spectra of electromagnetic waves can impact the quality of the wine if the bottles get exposed. In addition to this, the light can alter the wine’s temperature too, which is highly unfavorable as we’ve previously discussed. Some sources of light can be used in moderation, the so-called “cold light” that comes from LED lights, and specific wall sconces that have low voltage.
This is also one of the reasons why cellars have been a favored place to store wines throughout history, as they don’t let any light in. Remember to store your wine away from light especially if you’re planning on storing it for longer periods, and if they have a high quality to ensure the maximum results.
Wine is one of the oldest drinks ever created which has a very long history of production, as well as proper storage. Wine producers in ancient history did their best to manipulate the conditions and to test out which are crucial for proper wine storage. Nowadays when we possess all that knowledge and even better tools to provide the best storage, there is no reason why we shouldn’t do it.
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