Have you ever tasted a wine that you liked, then brought it home, only to discover that, a month or two later, it didn’t taste anything like it did when you first tasted it? How did you store it? Part of the home winemaker experience is storing the wine after it has been bottled. Home winemakers devise many ways to “cellar” their wine because they know there are internal effects on the quality of the wine as well as external effects. Internal effects are those that were created by the winemaker – the type, size and color of the bottle you put the wine in, and the closure (cork or screw cap) used.
So what are the external elements that affect the wine after it is bottled?
Temperature
Temperature is the greatest concern when cellaring wine. Room temperature at a very comfortable 70 F is great for humans but lethal to wine. Also the temperature in the home varies, warming up during the day and cooling off at night. It is even worse in the kitchen, where many people store wine in the short term. Consistency of temperature is as important as the temperature itself. The ideal temperature is 50 F to 56 F, but several degrees either side of this is quite safe. Provided the wine does not freeze, it is okay if temperatures drop lower than the ideal. The worst that may happen is that some non cold-stabilized wines may throw a small deposit of harmless triturate crystals, which would have no real consequence to the taste.
A little above 56 F, up to about 60 F, is also quite a safe temperature for storage. Wine will not spoil at this temperature, but the aging process will be accelerated. I don’t recommend doing this unless you plan to drink the wines sooner rather than later. Temperature fluctuation is another great concern. Should the wine experience a constant change in temperature, expansion and contraction of the wine occurs. This is not good for the wine and will probably result in some loss of its original character.
One of the first things I do when opening a bottle of wine, any wine, is to look at the cork and see if there is a consistent ring around the bottom of the cork. If not, then it is either a bad cork or the wine has undergone temperature swings during storage or shipment. If it shows up on the second bottle, then most likely it was a storage problem and not a cork problem. Try to keep your wine at a constant temperature even, if possible, during transit.
Humidity
A moderately damp cellar is ideal, as humidity helps to keep the corks from drying out. This is just as important as keeping the corks wet from the inside of the bottle. Keeping the cork wet is achieved by storing the bottles on a horizontal plane or even upside down, so that the wine is in constant contact with the cork. A cork that is kept moist keeps its shape, and thus remains well expanded and maintains a good seal.
Light
Darkness is ideal for a cellar. Ultraviolet light destroys wine, one of the reasons wine is traditionally bottled in colored glass. Some wines today come in clear glass. This has more to do with packaging than purpose, and wines in clear glass are more susceptible to light than those in colored glass. The best thing to remember is to store wine away from the potentially damaging effects of light sources.
Vibration
Wine needs to sleep, and frequent disturbance of the wine will agitate it. This is unlikely to be a significant problem in the home, the small and occasional vibrations from domestic appliances being too slight to cause any real problem. But once you store your wine, plan on keeping it there until you are ready to consume the treasure you have stored.
Jack Bertram is a Sonoma resident and brings a unique perspective to home winemaking. He is president of the Valley of the Moon Dilettante Society (www.VOMDES.org) and can be reached at jbertram@comcast.net.
