If you want to collect wine or stock up on wine, the question automatically arises as to the best way to go about it. There are a few factors to consider in order to maintain or even improve the quality of the wine.
Here are a few tips on how you should store your wine.
What should you pay attention to when storing wine and what factors can affect its quality? Let's start with the negative factors that can affect the quality of a wine:
Sunlight
heat
large temperature differences
oxygen
vibrations
odours
If you want to store wines, you should choose a place where these factors can be excluded as far as possible. But how exactly is the wine affected by the respective factors? Let's proceed in order:
Sunlight
UV light has a damaging effect on wine. Wine contains organic substances such as polyphenols, anthocyanins and flavonoids, which chemically decompose or react when exposed to high-energy radiation such as UV light. As a result, the properties of the wine change to such an extent that it can spoil completely.
For this reason, the glass of wine bottles is usually coloured so that it only allows part of the light spectrum to pass through. However, this protection is not sufficient if the wine is permanently exposed to light and the wine begins to age prematurely. This can be recognised visually by the fact that the colour of the wine changes. White wine becomes darker, turning into an amber colour, while red wine becomes lighter and turns brownish.
Wine should therefore only be stored in such a way that it is not exposed to direct sunlight in the long term. If there is no other option, you can also leave the wine in its packaging, provided it is in wooden crates. Cardboard packaging can release odours into the wine that are undesirable.
Temperature
The wine should be stored at as low and constant a temperature as possible, as the temperature has an influence on the ageing speed of the wine. The ideal temperature is between 10 and 13°C. Higher temperatures favour chemical reactions. A rule of thumb is: if the temperature is 10 degrees above the optimum temperature, the wine will age twice as fast.
Even more damaging than high temperatures are temperature fluctuations, as these lead to changes in the volume of the wine, which can result in increased gas exchange via the cork. As the temperature drops, the volume becomes smaller and the resulting negative pressure allows oxygen to diffuse through the cork into the inside of the bottle, which can lead to undesirable oxidation. The more frequent the fluctuations, the faster the ageing process. However, the experience of winegrowers has shown that temperature fluctuations of up to 5°C have no negative effects on wine quality.
Odours
Odours can be transferred from food to wine when stored in the fridge or cellar, which is something you certainly want to avoid. However, this is a long-term phenomenon. There is certainly nothing to be said against short-term storage in the refrigerator.
Now that the factors influencing wine quality have been clarified, the question of a suitable storage location arises.
What are the storage options?
If you have a wine cellar at home, you can consider yourself lucky and basically don't need to read any further. As a rule, they offer ideal conditions in terms of temperature and humidity. However, it is important to ensure sufficient ventilation.
If you don't have this and don't want to buy a climate-controlled cupboard, you may be able to store your food in a pantry, provided it is not right next to the kitchen, as otherwise the temperature fluctuations described above could occur. Another option may be a corner in the bedroom, as this is often not heated or only heated moderately and therefore no major temperature fluctuations are to be expected.
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