Content

• To step
• Part 1 of 3: Before opening
• Part 2 of 3: After opening
• Part 3 of 3: Storage options
• Tips
• Warnings

Wine has been drunk for thousands of years. From the ancient Romans and Greeks to modern cultures, this rich drink is consumed all over the world. Today, most people simply buy their wine from the supermarket without thinking about how to store the wine to keep it good for as long as possible and to get a better taste.

To step

Part 1 of 3: Before opening

1. Keep the wine in the dark. Keep all wines in the dark, and especially make sure they are not in direct sunlight or fluorescent light. UV radiation affects the wine and changes its chemical composition, giving the wine an unpleasant odor. Dark bottles protect the wine better and some bottles are made of glass with a UV filter, but still enough UV radiation can pass through the glass to ruin the wine. If you can't store a bottle of wine completely in the dark, lightly wrap a cloth around it or put the bottle in a box that you set aside. If you do need to expose the wine to light from time to time, make sure it is light from incandescent or sodium lamps.
2. Store wine bottles with a cork lying on the side. If you keep the bottles upright for a long time, the corks will dry out. Air will eventually get into the wine, causing the wine to spoil. If you place the wine bottles label-side up, you will be able to see the lees that develop over time more easily when you finally open the bottles.
3. Provide a constant temperature. In order to allow wine to mature for more than a year, it is absolutely necessary to keep the wine refrigerated. Even an underground wine cellar is not cold enough.
   • Make sure you keep the wine in a place that does not get warmer than 24 ° C, or that only gets warm for a short time. Wine that gets 24 ° C or warmer starts to oxidize. The ideal temperature for keeping a collection of different types of wine is 12 ° C. It is not bad for the wine if the temperature drops even further. The wine will then ripen less quickly. However, it is better to keep your wine in a room with a temperature of 20 to 22 ° C than in a room with a temperature of 7 to 18 ° C, even if the first room is almost warm enough for the wine to oxidize. When the temperature rises, wine can come through the cork, and when the temperature drops again, air can be drawn into the bottle.
   • Make sure the temperature in the place where you keep the wine is as constant as possible. Also make sure that the temperature rises and falls slowly. The greater the temperature fluctuations to which the wine is exposed, the faster the wine will age through breathing. The temperature should not drop or rise more than 1.5 ° C in a day. In a year, the difference should not be greater than 2.5 ° C. This is especially true of red wine, which reacts more quickly to temperature differences than white ones.
4. Don't move the wine. If possible, store the wine in such a way that you don't have to move bottles to get the wine you want to drink. Do not try to move the bottles when you have put them down. Even vibrations from heavy traffic, engines and generators can be bad for the wine.
5. Keep the humidity around 70%. Due to high humidity, the cork does not dry out and the wine does not evaporate. However, make sure that the humidity does not exceed 70%, as this can cause mold growth and cause the labels to peel off. You can buy a hygrometer to measure the humidity and, if necessary, take steps to ensure that the air becomes more humid or drier.
6. Keep the wine separately. Remember that wine "breathes," so don't keep it with foods that have a strong smell. The scent will penetrate the cork and affect the wine. Good ventilation can keep the wine from smelling stale.
7. Keep the wine for as long as necessary. Not all wines get better if you keep them for a long time. Cheap New World wines, or wines from regions such as South America, Australia, California, Lebanon and South Africa, will generally not taste better from long-term storage. Red wine can be stored and aged for 2 to 10 years. However, the correct storage time depends on the type of red wine and the amount of sugar, acid and tannins. Most white wines should be consumed after 2 to 3 years of maturing, although certain white wines from Bordeaux (chardonnay) can be aged for 20 years.
8. Cool or warm the wine before serving. The temperature at which the wine tastes best depends on the type of wine and can differ from the temperature at which the wine has been stored. Just before drinking the wine, cool the wine or let it heat up until it is the right temperature to be served:
   • Blush, rosé and dry white wine: 8 to 14 ºC
   • Sparkling wine and champagne: 6 to 8 ºC
   • Light red wine: 13 ºC
   • Firm red wine: 15-19 ºC

Part 2 of 3: After opening

1. Store opened white wine in a wine cellar or wine cabinet. If you don't have a wine cellar or wine cabinet, keep the wine in the fridge. This generally keeps the wine good for three to five days after opening, but there are ways to make it last longer:
   • Make sure the wine is exposed to air as little as possible. Put the cork firmly in the bottle. If you only have a small amount of wine left, pour the wine into a smaller bottle.
   • Make sure that the wine is exposed to light and heat as little as possible. If you have several fridges, put the wine in the fridge that gets the least amount of use. If you only have a refrigerator, try to keep the door open for a short time.
   • Buy a wine valve and a pump.
2. Save Red wine at room temperature. Red wine will keep for a few days, as long as you put the cork on the bottle and put the bottle in a dark place.
3. Keep dessert wines like sauternes, most port and most sherry longer. These wines do not lose quality even after 3 to 5 days, but how long the wine remains good depends on the type of wine.

Part 3 of 3: Storage options

• Wine cellar. This is an obvious possibility. If you have a wine cellar, don't worry. Just put the bottles of wine in a rack, close the door and you're done. Make sure you have a system to find certain wine bottles in your wine cellar, because otherwise you will soon have to search for a certain bottle for a long time.
• Improvised wine cellar in a closet. It may seem best to dig a large hole in the basement, but that's a big job that will cost you quite a bit. A homemade wine cellar in a cupboard is ideal for the regular wine enthusiast and will likely cost you as little as two to three hundred euros. Just make sure you want this, because it is not always easy to turn your wine cabinet into a regular cupboard again.
  • On the ground floor of your house, find an empty closet in a quiet place.
  • Glue 2 to 3 inch thick strips of foam board to the walls and ceiling of the cabinet. Use construction adhesive to attach the strips.
  • Replace the door with an insulated door (preferably one made of steel). You can also stick foam board on this if you want.
  • Fasten draft strips to the edges of the door to prevent air from flowing in and out of the cabinet. Heat can spoil the wine.
  • Make sure it is relatively cold in the closet. There are several ways in which you can lower the temperature in a cupboard. Look for a method that works for your closet.
• Wine fridge. In a wine fridge, the temperature generally remains constant, as long as you don't keep opening and closing the door. The refrigerator also ensures a good humidity level. Some refrigerators have different temperature zones for different wines.

Tips

• Wine that you have left outside the wine cellar or refrigerator and is spoiled is no worse for you than wine that has been properly stored. The wine just tastes different. Don't throw the wine away. You can still use the wine for cooking.
• Some wines are meant to be drunk straight away, while others need to be aged to get a better taste. Only for the last type of wine you will have to look at how you can store the wine for a long time. If you have white wine that you want to age, don't put it in the refrigerator. This is when a wine cellar, a wine cabinet, or even a cool, dark place is very important.
• If you discarded the cork but want to keep the leftover wine, seal the opening with a piece of cling film and wrap a tight rubber band around it.
• Deliberately aging and improving the taste of your wine by controlling the conditions in which the wine is stored is an art and science that requires far more knowledge than can be described in an article.
• Talk to a local wine connoisseur with a private wine cellar. See what he or she recommends, or ask him or her to keep a few bottles of wine for you if you don't have room to store the wine yourself.
• You can easily store wine bottles in polystyrene fruit and vegetable boxes. Place the boxes at the bottom of a cupboard on the ground floor in the center of your house. You can also put Styrofoam flakes in the boxes to better protect the wine. If you put the boxes in the linen cupboard, you can even put your linen on and around the boxes. Not only is this a very cheap and easy way to store your wine (especially if you are renting), but it will also make it less likely to loot your stock because it is more difficult to access.
• There are some companies where you can have your wine stored for a certain amount. Your best bet is probably to go for wine storage if you have a rare or delicate bottle of wine that you don't want to drink anytime soon.
• Whatever storage method you choose, make sure the wine is safe. If you only want to keep the wine for a short time, this is less of a problem. However, if you want to keep a bottle of wine for an extended period of time to allow it to mature, make sure to keep the bottle in a safe place."Safe" means that the wine bottle is not exposed to light and heat, cannot be drunk by others, cannot be broken, cracked or dropped to the floor.
• If you plan to make your own wine, it is best to have your own wine cellar, especially if you plan to sell the wine.

Warnings

• Always drink sensibly.
• Do not store wine with foods that can ferment (such as cheese) or rot (such as fruits and vegetables). Mold odors can penetrate the cork and affect the wine.