Most of us drink a bottle of wine soon after purchase. From an hour after we get home to a couple of days or weeks. Wine storage in such cases basically is unimportant.
But what about those who actually age wine. Maybe you bought a case at a winery and want to savor it over the next year or two. Or you open one bottle a year on a special day for the next dozen years. Or, maybe you really have gotten into wine and have a sizable collection you want to preserve and keep in optimal condition. What to do? Guidelines:
• Temperature is wine’s greatest enemy. When it gets too hot, say spending a day or two in high summer in your car, heat will dull aromas and flavors. It also may cause the cork to lift and some wine to ooze out. Cold can be bad, too. Your refrigerator likely is around 35-38º F and has very low humidity that eventually can shrink the cork, but even if that does not happen, wine at near freezing temperature dulls flavor.
• The ideal temperature for wine storage is around 55º F, but between 50º F and 70º F will work. You mostly want to avoid temperature shifts, especially significant ones. But don’t fret about this too much. If you are storing in your house and consuming over the next year or so, it is unlikely in today’s HVAC homes you will flirt with danger.
• UV light is the other potential vino villain. The reason most wines come in colored glass bottles is to thwart the rapacious ravages of sunlight. A closet or well-shaded part of your house will work fine.
• Humidity is somewhat controversial. Conventional wisdom is to lay wine on its side so the cork is wetted by the wine, but cork producers contend the humidity inside the bottle is constant lying down or standing up, so don’t stress about this. Whatever. Horizontal is more efficient use of space, which is reason enough.
• Wine enchants you, wise investments enable you, and you are big into wine. Maybe 100 or more bottles, some trophies you want to age. Time to invest in a wine fridge. From my personal experience, go with a single temperature zone and go with generous space in the shelving to accommodate fatter burgundy/chardonnay bottle sizes. And you will be surprised at how quickly you run out of space.
Last round: I met my future wife while she was working at the zoo. She was in her uniform. Straightaway I knew she was a keeper. Wine time.