Wine Storage Tips For Maintaining Your Collection

Posted by Binod Bhandari on January 28th, 2018

To drink wine or not? That is a million dollar question when you are wondering whether you should drink a wine from your stored collection. While most wine varieties should be ideally consumed right after opening, there are some wine kinds that get better with aging as they reach their ideal maturity levels.

So when you are thinking to buy your next wine bottle to add to your collection, here are some tips that will help you decide:

No 1: Typical wine bottles. These refer to common bottles used for storing speciality yet popular wine varieties like Merlot and Sauvignon blanc. They usually bear tall shoulders and are straight sided, with an even shape --they are also around 3 inches in diameter and can be easily stored in the majority of wine racks or storage units.

The can also be stored in the fridge, but that depends if they are of the red or white kind.

No 2: Champagne bottles. Champagne bottles have a typical diameter of 3.5 inches and closely resemble wide-structured bottles only with a thicker and much denser composition. Due to their special size and form, they don’t easily fit an ordinary wine rack. Since their storage is important, you’ll also have to readjust the order of your wine racks, wine cooler or fridge to fit these properly.

No 3: Large structure and heavy, dense bottles

These kinds of bottles appear similar to an upside-down turned champagne line with tall, thin forms and necks. Riesling varieties are usually stored in these bottles. Furthermore, some wine varieties produce extra tall wine bottles to display vintage varieties, for parties, or other special occasions.

Tip for storage: In spite of their elegant and impressive appearance, these wine bottles are a bit challenging to store. Expand wine racks to increase their depth and store ideally in units with controlled temperature and humidity levels or at a wine cellar.

Now, wine storage needs proper temperature and atmospheric conditions to make sure that the wine matures at a proper speed to enhance its flavor. Prior storing your wine bottles, bear in mind these key storage factors:

1. Temperature levels. While there is not a unanimous agreement regarding the ideal temperature of a typical bottle of wine, most suggest that storing them in around 55F is a solid temperature, especially for red wine varieties. White wines, on the contrary, can be kept in slightly cooler temperatures.

1. Humidity levels. There are many wine producers that seal their bottles with natural wooden corks--these are vital for preventing deterioration of the whine due to living oxygen molecules. As in the case of temperature, opinions regarding ideal humidity levels may vary, but in most cases, a humidity range between 55-85% is ideal to preserve the airproof seal and prevent damage of whine.

1. Light. When the bottle is subject to direct sun rays or even artificial light, this can also affect the flavor of the wine. Even though most wine bottles are darkly shaded to prevent excess light exposure, it would also be wise to store them in a shaded place away from direct sun rays.

Where you can store your wine bottles

There are several wine storage options available today for storing your wine, depending on your space, your collection, and the purpose of storing your wines.

If you are staying in Los Angeles and don’t have enough money or space to keep your own big collection of wines, you can use rented wine storage units near Los Angeles for a reasonable monthly fee. These are also equipped with the right climate levels e.g temperature and humidity on their own so no need to worry about these.