It requires systematic planning if you want to store wine for the long-term. Whether you plan to store your precious wine collection at external climate-controlled self-storage units or home storage, the below-mentioned wine storage tips will help you store your wine safely.
#1. Protect Your Wine Collection from Light
It would be best to protect your wine collection from light exposure, or it can age and affect its taste. For this reason, it is recommended to find wine storage that does not get sunlight and has low interior lighting. So if you’re planning to store your precious wine collection at home, you need to find a room or storage space that does not have windows and where you can control overhead lighting. Self-storage is perfect for storing your wine collection, as most storage units have no lighting or little light inside. Furthermore, you can keep your wine collection inside storage containers or drawers to give an added layer of protection from light.
#2. Monitor Temperature
Storing your wine at the perfect temperature is imperative. You should consistently keep white and red wine between 12ºC to 14ºC all year round. It is the ideal temperature range for slowing your wine collection’s aging process and helping to extend each bottle’s shelf life. It can dry corks and freeze wine bottles if the temperature dips below the required level. Conversely, if the temperature rises above the required level, it can age your wine and change its taste. That’s why finding the appropriate temperature-controlled storage environment for your wine collection is essential. If you want to store your wine collection at home, you can set up wine storage in a basement, as this area stays cooler all through the year in most homes. If you prefer storing your precious wine collection at an external self-storage facility, then you should look for indoor climate-controlled units.
#3. Curtail Vibration
Vibration can be a concern, especially when storing wine over ten years old. Be careful when you see sediment appear in older wines, as too much vibration can break and disperse it through the wine. While this can occur once you pick up the bottle, the wine’s continued turbulence could significantly alter flavour profiles. So if you’re storing wine in storage units at home, you must add some padding around shelving units and to the floor to curtail vibrations. Suppose you store a wine collection in areas where earthquake often occurs. In that case, you should take added care to restrict vibrations by keeping wine bottles in individual drawers or boxes, safeguarding wine racks, and storing vintages low to the ground.
#4. The Significance Of Humidity
Most wine bottles in milder climatic conditions will remain fine; however, humidity controls could be beneficial if you store wine in humid or dry climatic conditions.
#5. Store in Appropriate Direction
Typically, it would be best to store wine bottles on their sides or tilt them downward towards the cork. The reasoning is that when the wine is kept in contact with the cork, it’s less likely to dry out while in storage. If you’re storing wine at home or in a self-storage for the long term, it’s best to have a wine rack, cubby shelving, or storage containers that let you keep your bottles on their sides. Furthermore, if you have wine bottles with different caps, such as plastic corks or screw caps, you can store them upright without any problems.
Voila, top five tips for safeguarding your precious wine collection! It’s better to store your precious wine collection in climate-controlled external wine storage units to keep your wine safely and help them mature properly, retaining its original flavour.
