Ever had the misfortune of serving wine to guests, only to find out later that it tastes foul. Well, there’s always a solution to everything and that is taking precautionary measures. Here are a few ways to keep your wine from losing its freshness and crisp without having to invest in a wine cooler.
1. Maintain Temperature and Humidity Levels
The key to storing wine for long term is to maintain humidity levels and store at low temperatures. The ideal temperature for storing wine is between 53 degrees and 57 degrees Fahrenheit. Note that any irregularities in temperature can negatively affect the quality and aging of your wine bottles.
Similarly, maintaining humidity between 50-70% also prevents wine from maturing early. This won’t be difficult if your storage is safe from excessive light and heat. The right humidity keeps air out and ensures that the cork doesn’t dry up early. If you don’t have a wine cooler and are storing it in your basement, keeping a pot of water nearby can help. Bear in mind that you need to adjust humidity levels according to your own climatic conditions. If the humidity levels increase, it can speed up mold growth.
2. Prevent it from Shaking
Do you know what speeds up wine aging? Excessive shaking. This disturbs the sediments present in wine causing it to mature sooner. When the bottles are moved continuously or frequently, you are basically agitating the wine. This, however, doesn’t include the tenuous vibrations caused by appliances such as your fridge, wine cooler or freezer. So no need to fret over that.
3. Keep Safe from Heat and Light
Believe it or not, heat and light are your wine’s biggest enemies. Therefore in order to keep it fresh and crisp during its aging process, you need to keep it somewhere cool and dark. Placing it in the kitchen is probably the worst idea as it makes the wine directly targeted by UV rays. It isn’t just the sunlight but the fluorescent bulbs present almost everywhere in our house that emit enough UV rays to age your wine prematurely. Storing it in a basement cabinet, safe from heat and light is the best place there could be.
4. Fridge isn’t for the Long Term
While refrigerators are considered as the ideal storage option for your wine, truth is that they are extremely dry. This might be good for prevention of mold but is a huge hindrance in keeping the wine cork moist. A dry wine cork means more air in the wine which oxidizes it and causes it to lose its freshness. Most wine coolers come with an additional feature of customized humidity setting, allowing you to set it between 60-70%, keeping storage conditions ideal.
Dual zone temperature wine coolers also give one the flexibility to keep the temperature between 53-57 degrees Fahrenheit, which is perfect for wine storage.
What’s the Ideal Storage Space?
So, it all comes down to this one question: What is the ideal storage place for storing wine? If you’re not looking for a big investment in a wine cooler, it is ideal that you keep the aforementioned factors in mind regardless of where you plan on storing it. If you want to store it in a wooden rack or a cabinet, make sure you do not place it in an area directly hit by heat and sunlight. This is why cellars are an ideal place to store your wine. Now that in no way means you can’t store wine in your house if you don’t have a basement.
Rooms with no windows can also have a cabinet or rack built for this purpose. This could be a small store room or even your guest room where the curtains and blinds keep light and heat from entering the room.
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