Lets get to the point, you have purchased your favourite wine and paid top dollar for it! You want to feel at ease that your precious wine is somewhere safe, secure and ready to drink at its best and when you decide to do so!
So what are the 3 most important wine storage tips? Follow these below simple ideas to ensure your wine matures just as the wine maker intended.
1. Light
A cellar should be as dark as possible as wine is badly affected by light. Light can cause undesirable chemical reactions within the bottle and often spoil the wine. UV light can cause hydrogen sulphide compounds to develop in wine. Therefore, the ideal lighting conditions for a cellar is no sunlight and all lighting (globes and tubes) to be UV FREE.
2. Temperature
If you intend to mature wines for 5, 10, 15 years or more, temperature is the single most important factor of wine cellaring. Constant temperature is crucially important. Temperature changes (especially rapid change in temperature) cause corks to expand and contract, allowing air to enter the bottle. There is no surer way to create oxidization of the wine and thus render the wine undrinkable. Suitable temperatures for storing wine are between 11ºC to 17ºC but several degrees either side of this are safe.
3. Humidity
It is crucially important to monitor humidity within the cellar. The ideal humidity level for wine is between 62.5% and 72.5%. Most wine cellars suffer from lack of humidity (especially air conditioned cellars), which leads to corks drying out, shrinking and eventual wine leakage and oxidization Placing some warm water in a large tray on the cellar floor can help treat lack of humidity. A very high level of humidity (say too long a time at above 75%) will cause labels to fall off and; if there is no/low level of air movement, will cause mould to grow on corks and labels. Mould is devastating for wine. Therefore, an ideal environment for wine not only pays attention to temperature control but also ensures air flow and humidity control.
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