When you age or “cellar” wine, it means that you choose to store a wine you bought in a cool and dark place for several years, and this allows the wine to improve its taste as it stays in the bottle.
Many of us are unsure about which wines are suitable for cellaring and which ones should be consumed immediately. Fortunately, there is some info online, and even better, wine consultants that can help us make this decision with ease.
People in the wine industry often discuss the topics of cellaring and collecting wine, as there is a certain romantic appeal to the idea of drinking wine that has been aged for a long time.
Drinking an old wine can take us back to a special year that holds significance in our memory, such as the year we got married, or had our 1st anniversary.
It also allows us to taste a wine from a time period that we may have never experienced before. In addition, when we drink wine that was intended to be aged, the aging process contributes to the development of unique flavors and textures that we wouldn’t have been able to taste if the wine hadn’t been aged.
If you have an impressive collection of wine, adding a wine cellar to your home is a great way to store and manage it effectively.
If you want to have a well-organized wine collection, it’s important to store your wine in a way that makes it easy to see and access.
A proper cellar can help you achieve this. And by using this method, it is easier to stock, consume, and refill your wine, while also ensuring that you’re drinking it at the best time for optimal taste.
Even if you don’t have a cellar of your own, there are many wine consultants that offer to cellar
If you love collecting wine, then storing it properly is crucial to maintain its taste, quality, and overall integrity. And when you keep it in the right conditions, it will age nicely and develop a more intricate flavor.
To keep the wine in good condition, it’s important to store it at a specific angle so that the cork stays moistened by the liquid.
Keeping the cork damp and allowing for slight expansion and contraction of the air bubble can be helpful in case of temperature variation as the cork stops air or liquid from going through it.
Wine’s biggest foe is oxidization. A properly designed cellar ensures that the bottle is stored at the necessary slight angle on its side.
Maintaining a consistent temperature is crucial for proper wine storage, any fluctuations in temperature can be harmful to the wine. If you keep your wine in a pantry, kitchen cupboard, or even a refrigerator, it will affect the wine’s quality. So it’s very important to make sure that the temperature doesn’t get too cold during the maturation process of wine.
If it does, the process can slow down or even stop completely. Additionally, the wine could freeze and this could change its chemical structure, and it could also cause the corks to pop out of the bottles.
But if the temperature where the wine is stored goes above 30°C, the wine’s volatile components could evaporate completely, and this will affect the wine’s color and clarity.
Your wine can be damaged more by big changes in temperature than by being stored at a consistently warm temperature. It’s recommended to keep your wine at a consistent temperature of 20°C rather than storing it in the garage where the temperature fluctuates between 25°C during the day and 15°C at night.
Many people used to believe that storing wine at 12-13°C was the best temperature, but now experts think that’s too cold. To let wine develop and mature properly, it’s better to store it at an average temperature of 15-18°C. Just make sure the temperature doesn’t change too much.
Storing your wine in a passive underground Spiral Cellar or a temperature-controlled Wine Room will help maintain its quality over time.
Wine doesn’t like being exposed to bright artificial or UV light. If wine is exposed to too much light, it can harm the organic compounds that give it its unique aroma and taste.
Winemakers and producers, especially those who make Champagne and Sparkling wine, often use green or dark glass bottles to protect their wine from being damaged by light. This is because exposure to light can negatively affect the quality of the wine.
When you store wine under a cork, this factor becomes crucial. When the relative humidity is too low, it can cause the corks to dry out, and this can lead to ineffective sealing, which can cause the wine to evaporate out of the bottle.
This increases the risk of oxygen contamination in the wine, and when there’s too much humidity in the air, it can lead to the growth of mold.
This can be harmful to the labels on the bottles and also doesn’t look very nice and professional. Remember, it’s crucial to have a climate-controlled cellar, whether it’s natural or mechanical, to make sure that your valuable wine is stored and safeguarded in the appropriate conditions.
It is generally considered acceptable to have a Relative Humidity between 50-80%, with many sources citing 60-70% as the ideal range.
When wine is exposed to vibrations, it can cause sediments that naturally occur in the wine to mix back in. This can also change the chemical makeup of the wine. A cellar that is well-built should remain stable and free from any vibrations.
Another reason why refrigerators may not be the best option for storing wine, in the long run, is due to the dry atmosphere inside. When wine is stored in a place without any vibrations, it helps to preserve its flavor and aroma. Your red wines will require some time to settle down peacefully, and the same goes for your white and sparkling wines.
Storing wine in a cellar allows you to purchase your preferred type of wine in larger quantities at a lower cost. As the wines mature, their flavor will get better with time, leading to a greater return on investment.
Having a good stock of wine ensures that you can always enjoy it when it’s at its best, and it’s a great way to plan for the future and make sure you have plenty of wine on hand.