If you’re getting the hang of wine, you may be making some mistakes without realising it. We’ll tell you what you should and shouldn’t do right away.
When choosing a wine, we take into account many factors. We value the variety of grape with which it is made, the moment we plan to open the bottle, the company, and even the pairing. However, sometimes we neglect what comes after and do not store it properly.
The conservation of wine at home is something that we should all take care of so that our bottles reach the moment of consumption in the best possible condition.
Keeping the wine in inappropriate conditions can cause the experience when consuming it to be far from what it could have been. If you are also one of those who usually buy wines with the excellent ageing capacity to open them in the future, what we will tell you next is of particular interest to you.
What you should do with wine storage
1. Store in a horizontal position
Always keep the bottles in a horizontal position in the red wine fridge to cause the wine to be in permanent contact with the cork, keeping it moist and improving its tightness.
2. Keep in a place with a stable temperature
Find a place with a relatively stable temperature, like the wine cooler. Sudden temperature changes can produce variations in the diameter of the bottleneck due to the contraction or expansion of the glass and variations in the volume of the wine that end up causing liquid losses through the cork.
You may be thinking what temperature should a wine cooler be. The wine cooler should be at the ideal storage temperature of the wine. This does not directly imply that the wine is spoiled, but it may be the beginning of premature oxygenation.
3. Store under stable humidity
In addition to being stable, the storage temperature must be low and the humidity relatively high. Ideally, we keep the room temperature between 6 and 18ºC approximately without significant changes. The humidity, meanwhile, should range between 60 and 80%. These conditions usually occur naturally in underground rooms, such as basements or (naturally) cellars, but it is always possible to favour them by using ventilation or air conditioning.
4. Keep out of noise and sunlight
Vibrations, noises of a certain intensity, and strong odours are the enemies of wine. That is why the kitchen is usually the wrong place to keep our bottles since, in addition to supporting high temperatures or smoke, extractors and other devices typically cause vibrations.
Do not expose your wine bottles to direct light, sunlight, or artificial light. Protecting wine from UV rays is why most wineries use tinted glass bottles.
What you should not do with wine storage
1. Do not Shake the bottle a lot
You may have seen sommeliers shake the glass before smelling and tasting the wine. You should not shake it too much, as you run the risk of the wine oxidising.
2. Do not store the bottle vertically
This is very important! Wines should be stored horizontally, so the cork stays moist; This prevents leaks and prevents the wine from coming into contact with the air before it is opened.
3. Do not keep the wine for many years
Unless you have a cellar, it is useless to store your wine bottles for years since the ambient temperature of typical houses is not adequate for that. Wines of many years are already acquired in this way, not by keeping them in your own home. So, enjoy the wines you already have, don’t save them for a special occasion. The special event is now!
