No matter if you love wine from the core of your heart or not, you might know that one fact about wine – the older, the better. To age wines, the best, and maybe the only option is to store the wine for a long term. It’s no doubt that people keep wines for years, even a hundred years sometimes, with the proper technique. But how can you store the wine for the long term without getting into trouble? Well, that’s what this article tells about – five tips for wine storage for a long time.
Your Perfect Wine Storage
Before we tell you the tips to store wine for the long term, you need to know there are two options to store it- an underground or a dark room in your house, which is dark and humid. Another option is to rent a wine storage unit. This way, your monthly pricing to store wine will slightly increase, but rest assured, you will have wine stored under the best conditions.
-
Temperature Is The Key
Believe it or not, the temperature at which you store your wine can make or break your wine’s longevity. So the vital thing to do is know what weather will suit your wine in the long term. Although the ideal temperature varies a lot, generally, you should store wine at 13 to 15 degrees Celsius. To be rock-solid sure, you should contact the manufacturer or retailer of your wine, and they will be able to tell you things correctly.
Even if you don’t bother and try knowing the right temperature for storage, never store wine under minus three degrees Celsius. This will cause the wine to freeze and accelerate the aging of the drink.
Another thing to take care of while preparing wine for long-term storage is consistency. You should keep the temperature constant at all times. Otherwise, the cork will expand and contract. This will give way to the wine coming out of the bottle or the air going in and oxidize.
-
Proper Humidity Is Paramount Too
If your wine storage place doesn’t have optimum humidity levels, the chances are that your wine will suffer the cost. In an area with significantly less humidity, the corks will dry out, and the air in the atmosphere will affect the wine quality. Also, there’s a catch with high humidity too. If there’s too much humidity in the cellar, the gum on the wine labels will let go of the glass. Hence, all the labels will peel off eventually, causing the aesthetics of the wine bottle to become substandard.
Optimally, the wine cellar’s humidity level should be between 60 to 70 percent to get the perfect wine after 20 years down the line.
-
Take Care Of Open Bottles
If you have an open bottle of wine, you shouldn’t just leave it as is. This will dissolve all the magic of wine, and it will leave you with nothing but a sweet water-like taste. There’s a single technique that can help you store an open wine bottle for the long term – correctly. So you need to tightly put the cork on whenever you feel that the wine that’s left behind will be used after some time. A good idea to do this the old way is by putting wax paper or butter paper on the inside of the bottle’s mouth and then putting on the cork. Another good idea if you don’t want to indulge in the old ways is by using a wine vacuum pump which you can get online. This will close the wine cork tightly, not allowing the passage of wine or air from either side.
If the cork has minute holes in it, you should buy a rubber wine stopper online, which will act as a good seal.
-
Store Them Horizontally
It’s a thumb-rule to keep your wine bottles horizontally. Earlier, we talked about the humid cork’s role in keeping the wine intact for a longer time. Well, horizontally placing wine bottles does just that. The horizontal wine bottle lets the wine inside the bottle moisturize the cork, time and again. When it’s wholly moisturized, it doesn’t act as a membrane that allows the passage of air through it, hence keeping the wine from the Oxygen around.
Apart from the humidity factor, horizontally storing wine bottles will save significant space in your cellar.
-
Protect Your Wine Bottles From Vibration & Illumination
Whether you are reading this post because you want to keep your wine stored for months, days, or weeks, you should not keep it under the presence of direct sunlight or any source of light. UV rays from these light sources might damage the flavors of your beloved wine.
Also, if there are too many vibrations around, they won’t allow the sediments in the wine to settle. These sediments are crucial for wine to age gracefully. Without a sturdy keep, wine won’t age with good flavor.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to store wine for the long term, you will be able to enjoy your wine after years and add up to your good health by improving glucose metabolism and taking your skin quality to the next level. So grab your wine fridge or look for a place that can be your wine cellar and start ageing your wine.
