Good wine storage requires the right balance… What are the right conditions to meet in order to store my bottles of wine in the cellar? ? Discover them here…
This is one of the most frequently asked questions. You want to age your wine so that it reveals all its character and complexity ? But you don't really know what the conservation rules are. You are in the right place by coming to this blog dedicated to wine !
Be careful of preconceived ideas and overly promising commercial speeches : not all wines improve over time ! To have a guard capacity, a wine must be able to limit the oxidation process either by the presence of its tannins (antioxidants) either by a sufficiently high acidity.
- 90% wines are aged to be tasted quickly
- less of 10% have an aging potential greater than 5 years
- less of 1% have a potential greater than 10 years and are bottles for collectors
What temperature for your wine cellar ?
First of the pillars of wine conservation, and can be the most complicated to respect. The temperature of the cellar must be between 10 to 15 degrees with an ideal of 12 °C constant. Wine will withstand slow seasonal variations better than thermal shocks.
Too high a temperature will have the negative consequence of accelerating the aging of the wine which will not have time to develop its character. Too low a temperature will slow down the aging process of the wine until it stops.
Champagne should be stored at a temperature between 8 to 12 degrees with an ideal of 10 °C.
Your wine must be calm
The vibrations tire the wine and disrupt its aging process. The deposit that should form in the bottom of the bottle will have difficulty forming, because the particles will remain in suspension and the older the bottle, the more sensitive the wine will be to these vibrations.
For our city friends, your cellar must be as far as possible from metro or elevator passage areas.
What light for good wine conservation ?
If wine has a sworn enemy, this is the light! It must therefore be kept in a dark room., even obscure. Just like too high a temperature, the light will lead to too rapid aging of the wine which will lose its qualities. Neons are to be absolutely avoided where you store your wine, because they can cause a wine reduction phenomenon.
Wine can also develop a defect called " Taste of light " : this vixen aroma will remind you of the good smell of rotten egg.
Pay attention to smells
Wine, even locked in its bottle, is sensitive to bad smells. Avoid storing odorous chemicals such as paint, cleaning products or gasoline near your precious bottles. Stagnant water will also lead to the proliferation of bacteria and bad odors.
Does my wine cellar have to be wet ?
The average humidity level of the atmosphere must be greater than 50 %. The reason for this humidity is mainly related to the plug : a dried out cork will retract and the wine will then "cry", that is to say that small pearls of wine will pass through the cork.
Too much humidity, without standing water, has little impact on wine.
There are small hygrometers with digital display or not around 10 €. This will give you an idea of the humidity in your cellar and allow you to correct too low humidity by installing a sand basin with water..
Should we lay down the bottles of wine ?
Sometime ago, an oratorical joust close to fist fight broke out in a friend's cellar. With a lot of arguments, we each defended our positions. There is a correlation between the previous point on humidity and this one.
Basic principle for keeping your wine well : bottles must be stored horizontally. The objective of keeping them lying down is to avoid the oxidation of the wine. For this reason, it is essential that the cork is in contact with the wine. This prevents the cap from drying out and shrinking over time. It would lose its seal and let too much air enter the bottle. This excess oxygen results in premature aging and therefore the deterioration of your precious wine.
And the corky taste in it all ?
You might be wondering if keeping bottles upside down might cause corkage to develop.. Except that the storage position does not affect this defect in the wine. Corky taste, comes from a molecule : trichloroanisole, more simply called TCA. It is present and develops in certain cork stoppers before contaminating the wine on contact with the cork or by the air trapped in the bottle.
Which wines can be stored upright ?
Horizontal bottle storage is only valid for bottles corked with a cork stopper. Screw caps or plastic caps are unlikely to shrink over time, so it is not necessary to put them to bed.
Mutated wines, like port, are an exception to this rule. They can be stored vertically. Champagnes, just like the other effervescent, also seem to support an upright position. Indeed, studies tend to show that the gas that escapes slowly from the bottle is enough to moisten the cork. However, I advise you to keep them horizontal.
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