In spite of all of those wonderful old movies that show great cellars filled with every imaginable vintage of wine, not all styles lend themselves well to wine storage. In fact, if you are planning to begin a wine cellar or any type of wine storage, it is good to check with your wine dealer to make sure just how long that favorite bottle will last before it starts to go bad.
Basic Wine Storage Information:
The reason that so many wine cellars are found in the basement is two fold: first, too much air can spoil a wine as fast as too much heat. The coolest places around are also those where too much air is not a problem—the basement. So, if you can, start storing your favorite bottles where the spiders and mice tend to live and the children are afraid to visit, that dusky and dank basement that you have been meaning to finish.
Additional benefits to using that basement for your wine storage facility include a greater chance that the corks on your wine will not crack due to getting dried out and there usually is not an excess of light down there. Both of these can dramatically shorten wine storage time, so it is important to be aware of not only air and temperature, but also moisture and light.
Have you ever wondered why wine storage racks are horizontal rather than vertical? Did you think that it was a space-thing? Well, the truth is that when you store your bottle horizontally rather than vertically, the corks remain moist from the enclosed wine, which also helps prevent cracking and drying.
Wine Storage and Styles:
If the wine is under ten dollars, then do not try to store it: it will not keep past six months, because it was not bottled to do so. Other, more expensive wines can be stored for a period of time, but there is a difference between whites and reds. Wine storage time frames for white wines are generally shorter than those for reds; in fact, it is recommended that Reislings and Chardonnays be consumed within five years for optimum taste.
The only red wines that are comparable in wine storage time frame to the whites are those that cost between twelve and twenty-five dollars or all of the Syrahs and Shiraz varieties. Otherwise, red wine storage can be in excess of five years and sometimes more than fifteen. So, it is always a good idea to check with your wine dealer when you are going to purchase a good bottle of wine, then mark it on the calendar, because there can be no better way to celebrate a college graduation than with a wine purchased on the first day of school.
Wine Storage: Which Wines can I keep?
The Value Of Wine Storage Racks
Wine is a very popular beverage especially in Europe where it is consumed day and night. Americans also like wine but it s usually reserved for evenings and special occasions. Most of the people who like wine, keep some in store at their homes in case they have guests or need to entertain.
The Use of Having Wine Storage Racks
Wine is usually stored on its side, especially if it is still unopened. You will need wine storage racks to store several bottles of wine. Wine storage racks can be any size, depending on your preference and need. If you usually store a lot of wine bottles, you can have a rack for entertaining in your kitchen and bigger wine storage racks in your cellar where you could keep several bottles of wine.
Wine storage racks are very useful in storing bottles of wine because you can organize them according to date and region. Organization is needed when you deal with a large number of wine bottles. There are several aspects with which you can store your bottles of wine like the type of grapes used or the region from which the wine was made in or the date of its production.
The larger wine storage racks are usually made from wood. Metal is also an option for larger racks, it all depends on your needs and preference although, most professional wine cellars do use wooden wine storage racks. The smaller wine rack you might have in your kitchen could also be made from wood or metal.
The wine storage racks usually hold tilted bottles so they are usually thicker at the sides. They would appear like bookshelves but may have small wooden slots where the bottles should go. Other wine storage racks allow you to stack up the wine in diamond shaped receptacles one over the other. Yet another design for wine storage racks is wooden shelves with small holes big enough for the neck of the bottle to go through. The bottles are laid down with their bottoms tilted upwards and their necks in the holes.
Whatever design you might want for your wine storage racks keep in mind the durability of the rack to ensure it does not cave due to the pressure of several bottles of wine. Do not overload the rack or you might risk losing several hundreds of dollars worth of wine. It is also best to keep the rack away from sunlight and hot or warm places to keep the wines’ temperature low.