Store wine at home like a pro! Practical advice on the dos and don’ts of keeping your bottles safe and ready to enjoy anytime!

How should you store your wine at home? Simple. Put it in your wine fridge and relax. That’s it. One more article done! Don’t forget to comment below, like and subscribe!

What’s that? You don’t own a wine fridge? I see. Well, time to dive deeper then. Let’s talk about the enemies of wine, and what you can do to store your wine properly at home. But before we get into that, a lot of what I’m about to say is more valid if you’re planning on storing wines long term. You can do it for shorter storage, of course, but some of the problems I’ll talk about below will be less damaging for the wines if stored only a couple of months. There are many perils with wine storage. Some can be fixed easily, but others might prove more of a challenge. Let’s go through them one by one.

The Six Enemies of Wine

Time

Eventually, all wine will go bad. High tannins and acidity—and proper storage—will buy you several years, but they only delay the inevitable. Some wines are made to last decades and even improve with time! However, they will eventually peak and begin to rapidly decay. For wines meant to be drunk young[i], this process occurs sooner. You can’t stop time; you can only hope to enjoy your wine before it goes bad.

Oxygen

Oxidation is wine’s nemesis. Well-sealed bottles will do just fine, but faulty corks can allow oxygen filtration into the wine bottle, and long exposure of it will end up dramatically changing the color, aroma, and flavor of the wine. Oxygen is also the main reason wine is difficult to store once uncorked.

Temperature

You particularly want to be aware of higher temperatures for storing wine. The sweet spot is between 50°F and 60°F (10°C – 15°C), but you should be fine with a variation a few degrees either way. When in doubt, aim for the colder side of things, as heat is the bigger problem because it accelerates the aging process. At higher temperatures and for prolonged periods, flavors and aromas will start to change, as the wine loses acidity and freshness. The opposite is true with wine stored at colder temperatures. The aging process slows down and maturity takes longer to achieve. You can keep it at lower temperatures, as long as it’s not below freezing. Remember, wine is mostly water.

Humidity

The ideal humidity for wine storage is from 50% to around 70%. In most places, this is the normal ambient humidity, so you should be fine. But what if you live, like me, in a place where the average yearly humidity is less than 50%? Or what about places like Florida where it typically goes above 75%? If your area is too arid, the cork can dehydrate and start to crumble. A broken cork can expose your wine to oxygen, and that spells bad news.

A couple of tips: Store wine horizontally to keep the cork moist, and place a damp towel nearby to help maintain humidity. If you have the opposite problem, you can invest in a dehumidifier. With excess humidity, the problem is mold. Best case scenario it ruins your label, worst case it gets to your wine if the cork is defective.

Light

You might have noticed that a lot of wine bottles are tinted, specially all of those for wines made for longer keeping. Help it out by storing it in a dark place. Light can contribute to oxidation, but more importantly, it can cause wine to age prematurely, altering color, flavor, and aromas for the worst. Too much light and you wine will become too acidic, tasting more like vinegar.

Vibration

Constant vibration can also accelerate your wine’s aging. This is the best reason not to consider your refrigerator for long term storage! Same with keeping wine next to—or above—shaking appliances. Don’t keep them over the washing machine, for instance.

Tips to Store Wine at Home

Now that you know thy enemy you’re probably already thinking of a few appropriate spaces in your home for storing your wine. If not, maybe these suggestions will help you find a good spot:

• Avoid the kitchen. Appliances give out heat, and when you bake the whole room will likely be too hot for your wine.
• Store wine horizontally in racks. This will not only help keep the cork wet, but it is also more efficient storage.
• Do you have a cold closet that the heater forgot about? If it doesn’t get too hot in the summer, that’s where you keep your wine!
• Be weary of using your garage. First make sure what the average temperature is throughout the year. In my experience, they tend to be too hot for wine, but yours might be ideal.
• What about your basement? Depending on how it’s heated, that might be your best bet. Hot air floats upwards—think hot air balloons—so lower to the ground in the basement might be a good spot.

Now you have some ideas, but should you really worry about it too much?

The Last Drop

Listen, what if you splurge on a pricey wine you plan to save for a special occasion many years from now. Or maybe you’re gifted that bottle. That’s when you start to think about long-term storage solutions like the ones suggested above.

But if you get the little bug and find yourself purchasing a bottle here and another there with the intent of collecting, then my advice would be to invest on a wine fridge or a cellar. It will be better for your wine and peace of mind knowing your age worthy Cabs[ii] and Brunellos are safe.

I was lucky before I purchased my wine cooler (yes, I own one), because I live in an apartment building and my storage room is two stories underground in an un-heated parking garage. It’s a little dry, but also dark and cool all year round.

In most cases, however, I will say don’t worry about it too much. Do you have some wine and plan to drink it within the next year? Then don’t go too crazy looking for storage solutions. Your wine will be fine unless it’s too hot or your bottles are receiving direct sunlight all that time.

The best advice I can give you is to keep your wine cool and dark, and to drink it quick. How do you store your wine long term? Do you have any tips I haven’t mentioned? Please share them in the comments!

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Footnotes

[i] Most wines are produced to be drunk soon after bottling. More than 95% of the wine produced globally is made to be drunk within 5 years, and I wouldn’t even wait that long with most of them.

[ii] How do you do fellow kids? I’m talking about Cabernet Sauvignon. Us cool kids call it “cab”, don’t you know it?

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Cover Image: Store bottles sideways to keep the cork moist! Photo by Hermes Rivera