4 Things You Should Know Before Storing Wine in Your Home

Wine has been around for a long time – it was discovered in 6000 BC! So if you are a wine lover, you have a long heritage. Whether it is a social agent at parties or is simply enjoyed between two people during a quiet night at home, wine has significance for many. If you are a devoted wine lover, you probably already know that proper storage is critical to ensure that your bottles of wine age beautifully. Read further to learn about basic hacks of properly storing wine in your home, that will ensure a flavourful wine when the time comes to open it up. 

Decide Where To Store Your Wine

The first thing to consider is where to store your wine at home. Generally, plenty of places in your home provide an ideal environment for storing wine, such as a furnished basement or a less disturbed closet or cupboard. 

However, there are two best places to store your wine:

Get a Wine Fridge

Most people like to store their wine in their fridges. While it doesn’t hurt for short-term storage, leaving your wine too long in the fridge can spoil it. Regular fridges maintain a cold and dry environment. This can dry out the cork, allowing oxygen to enter and encourage oxidation which causes faster aging. 

So, if you’re collecting several bottles of wine for the long term, consider investing in a wine fridge. These specialty fridges have the right temperature and humidity to chill and preserve wine. Keeping your bottles in a wine fridge also prevents cross-contamination from food odors. 

Choose a Wine Cellar

What was once reserved for luxury mansions and wine cellars has become a part of even the average homes. For most wine enthusiasts, building their own wine cellar, even a small one, allows them to collect various bottles and serves as an entertainment area for socialization during home parties and events. 

If you’re serious about collecting a few dozen bottles, then building a wine cellar is a great way to store your collection. It ensures your wines are stored in the right conditions for taste and proper aging. That said, according to Winecellarhq, you may need to check with your local building office before constructing a wine cellar in your home, as you may need to obtain a permit.

Store Wine on Its Side

You may think that just because you’ve seen wine bottles sold upright in stores, this is the proper way to store them. But this is far from the truth. There’s a reason why wine racks and fridges are designed to hold bottles on their side. Keeping wine bottles upright or vertical can hurt their overall flavour and consistency. 

Although it may help save space, storing wine bottles upright means the liquid won’t touch the cork, which causes the cork to dry out. This allows air to seep into the bottle, ruining the overall flavour and integrity of the wine. Accordingly, you should always store your wine bottles on their side, ensuring that the cork is always moist to ensure proper wine aging. 

Choose Dark Areas

Whether you choose to buy a wine fridge or build a wine cellar, location is critical. You must store your wine bottles in dark areas. 

Direct sunlight or incandescent light bulbs can destroy the quality of the wine. The heat from these light sources causes wine to age prematurely. Also, heat may cause the corks to shrink, letting air into the bottle, which, as previously mentioned, spoils the consistency and flavour of the drink. 



So, if you need lighting in your wine cellar, opt for LED lights that create a soft glow without producing heat that can ruin your wine. While most wine fridges are already equipped with LED lights, placing them where the sun hits the appliance can still negatively affect the wine’s consistency. 

No Vibrations

In addition to choosing dark areas, you should also store wine bottles away from sources of vibrations or disruption. For instance, placing a portable wine fridge on the kitchen countertop may increase the risk of bumping into it when cooking meals. Although it may seem harmless, constant disruption and vibration can significantly disturb wine sediments, compromising the aging process. 

So make sure to store wine fridges or racks in less busy areas. Also, don’t place them in areas close to a dryer and washer, above the fridge or stereo speaker, which are prone to subtle vibrations. 

Takeaway

Your wine collection is a prized investment that you can’t put any amount into. And regardless of the type of wine you have, this delicate beverage will need careful storage to ensure that your experience is full of flavor and aroma. How you store your wine at home can have a huge difference between a great-tasting vintage and an expensive bottle of vinegar. We hope that the above points have provided you with essential information to prepare and ensure the proper storage of your wine collection.