How to Properly Store or Lay Wine at Home

If you have been reading the Octavian blog recently, you will have seen that we have really upped our game in terms of bringing you all the latest news and resources you need regarding wine cellarage, investment and of course, bonded wines.

Today, our team has seen fit to publish a somewhat more practical feature and highlight some tips on how you can properly store or lay wine at home. We obviously recommend that you take advantage of bonded wine cellars should you invest in large amounts of expensive, vintage wine. However, if you are just dealing with small amounts for domestic use, the following guide should be of great use.

If you have decided that home is the best place to store your wine, then your key consideration is inevitably going to be temperature. You will have noticed when you have visited top quality restaurants, that all white wines are stored in impressive looking chilling units. And the odds are your red wines are most likely stored in optimal conditions too. This is vital to ensuring that when the wine arrives at your table it is in mint condition, and it should be no different when storing wine at home.

Once you have invested in the sufficient chillers or found the ideal space for your red wines, a common question is exactly what temperatures to store your wine at. Getting this right is absolutely crucial as any mistakes could render your beverages undrinkable and leave you somewhat red faced when the time comes to serve them. Below you can see the recommended wine storage temperature and wine cellar temperature for ensuring that your fine wines full their potential whenever they are drunk.

Red Wine 12˚C – 19˚C

White Wine 8˚C – 12˚C

Champagne 5˚C – 8˚C

Bare in mind that this information can actually become more granular, as there are recommended temperatures for various grapes and vintages. Keep your eyes peeled for more information on that here at Octavian, but the above guidelines will ensure that your fine wines won’t be spoiled.

In order to properly store wine, it should be laid horizontally. The reason for this is that it keeps the cork moist and therefore prevents it from drying out and shrinking. This can allow air to get into the bottle and cause the quality of the wine to diminish significantly.

NB. Never freeze wine, under any circumstances. The chances are that this will destroy red wine immediately and adversely impact white wine irreparably – add to this the fact that the bottle will most likely shatter as it thaws out, and you can see that freezing wine really is something that has a lot of cons and absolutely no pros!

When you are satisfied you have laid your wines suitably and have them in the right temperature controlled environment, there are a few more tricks direct from the Octavian team of experts that can give your wines an added touch of excellence.

Avoid Fluctuations

One of the key factors to keeping fine wine is consistency, both in terms of environment and temperature. So, do you best to avoid any fluctuations whatsoever. Any transit from shop to home or when moving premises should be done as quickly as possible and if you can maintain light or temperature during the process, even better!

No Vibrations

Ideally, you don’t want to disturb your wine at all until the time comes for it to be consumed. Keep your bottles free from any vibrations as this can act as a catalyst for chemical reactions which can ruin your vintage red and white wines.

Avoid Strong Odours

One of the reasons for having wine cellars or cooling units downstairs or in cellars is that, as well as being cool and dark, they are most likely away from any strong odours. These can creep through most corks and can adversely impact the quality of your wine.

This is especially the case when you have opened your wine for the first time, so be mindful of this when storing away. Storing open bottles of wine is even more important as air will have already got to the liquid.

Avoid Humidity

Humidity is an issue for wine quality due to the influence it can have on temperature, which as we know if a huge problem. A good rule of thumb is to prevent humidity levels from passing 70% as this will then allow mould to grow on the labels and will eventually erode them completely. Ensure that your wine tastes incredible and looks the part by keeping humidity at a lowest possible level.

So, that was our list of useful tips for wine storage. We hope that this has helped you to understand the best way to lay and store your wine, and will prevent any mistaken mishaps in the future.