The Ultimate Wine Storage Guide: What You Should and Shouldn’t Do

After a difficult day, all you need is to pour a glass of nice wine to relax and wash away all the stress. Be it red or sparkling, it’s important to store your wine the right way so that you can preserve its flavor and aroma.

If you live in Houston, you need to pay extra attention to store wine and protect it from temperature spikes. You must build a custom wine cellar at the right place and place climate control systems to keep your wine in the best possible condition.

Let’s Discover The Dos And Don’ts Of Wine Storage, And The Impact Of Custom Wine Racks:

1. Do Store The Wine At The Right Temperature

Temperature is one of the most crucial aspects in wine storage and you need to pay extra attention to make sure that your wine collection is resting at the right temperature. Different types of wine have different temperature ranges for preservation. For instance:

• Red wines with full bodies should ideally be stored at 53 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit
• White wines prefer a lower storage temperature of 46 to 53 degrees Fahrenheit
• Sparkling wine or Champagne must be stored inside wine cellar storage racks at even lower temperatures of 41 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Don’t Forget Power Backup To Avoid Temperature Swings

Your responsibility doesn’t stop at setting up the ideal storage and climate control for your wine collection. It’s crucial to provide a dedicated power backup for your wine cellar. Power outages caused by factors like heat, construction, storms, or other events can be disastrous. You wouldn’t want the refrigeration units in your cellar to fail, as temperature fluctuations can ruin your carefully curated wine collection.

3. Do Ensure Proper Positioning Of The Wine Bottles

Proper wine storage significantly contributes to preserving the distinct flavors of your wine. Opt for wine racking systems that enable horizontal bottle storage. This orientation ensures the cork maintains continuous contact with the wine, keeping it adequately moist. Storing wine bottles vertically may lead to cork drying and shrinking, which allows air and surrounding microbes to infiltrate the wine, resulting in undesirable oxidation and a sour, vinegary taste.

4. Don’t Bring In Food With Strong Aroma Into The Cellar

If you have an excellent wine cellar boasting beautiful wooden wine racks, naturally, you’d want to flaunt it to your visitors. Hosting wine tasting sessions in your bespoke cellar might seem tempting. However, if you introduce strongly flavored food items, you run the risk of imparting those aromas to the wine. The corks in wine bottles excel at absorbing odors, potentially transferring those tastes to the wine. Hence, it’s best to conduct wine tastings outside the confines of the cellar.

5. Do Control Humidity Levels

Humidity stands as a significant player in the realm of wine storage. Insufficient moisture in the air can lead to rapid cork dehydration, posing the risk of a loose cork that pops out and causes wine spillage. Furthermore, air infiltration might foster bacterial growth and mold formation, which is far from ideal.

Conversely, excessive humidity is also a concern. When humidity levels are too high, water vapor tends to condense on cabinet surfaces and bottle exteriors, paving the way for mold development and potential harm to your cherished custom wooden wine racks. Excessive humidity can also cause the labels on the wine bottles to peel off or smudge the letters on them. That’s a nightmare every wine collector and connoisseur wants to avoid. To maintain an ideal wine storage environment, it’s best to maintain relative humidity levels within the range of 55% to 85%.

6. Don’t Ignore Vibrations

Houston doesn’t lie on a particularly earthquake-prone fault line and typically experiences few noteworthy seismic events. Nevertheless, it’s prudent to factor in vibrations when designing a custom wine rack for your collection. Excessive vibrations can disrupt the delicate sediments in the wine, potentially compromising the aging process. The best racks come with isolation pads or other measures to keep the bottles stable in any event. Wine Cellars of Houston has extensive experience building the finest wine racks.

Mastering the intricacies of wine storage is crucial to preserve the bottle’s integrity and the wine’s exceptional quality. Premium wine bottles cost a fortune, and you certainly wouldn’t want to jeopardize their excellence with subpar storage decisions. Ensuring the ideal conditions for your wine is not only about safeguarding your investment but also about elevating your overall wine-drinking experience.