Four Key points for correctly storing your wine at home

If you’re just beginning in the world of wine, and you’d like to keep your first collection in the best conditions possible, here we have 4 tips for storing your wine at home, in order to better protect the aromas and flavors held in your bottles.

1. KEEP YOUR BOTTLES AT THE CORRECT TEMPERATURE

Heat is Enemy Number 1 for wines. Temperatures above 21ºC can age a wine much more quickly than normal, and if it’s exposed to temperatures even higher than that, you risk losing the aromas and flavors of the wine, resulting in them fading completely away.

2. KEEP THEM AWAY FROM LIGHT

Any sunlight can cause big problems when it comes to planning where to store your wines, especially if they’ll be kept for many months or years. UV light can degrade and age a wine prematurely, which is why many wines come in colored bottles, like sunglasses for the wine. While normal artificial light in your home won’t damage a precious bottle, sunlight or fluorescent light can, with UV rays damaging the wines after repeated exposure for months or even years.

3. THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMIDITY

When it comes time to store your wines correctly, another important point is to ensure that your chosen spot has the correct levels of humidity. If you’re storing your wines in an extremely dry place, this can lead to corks drying out, and eventually the oxidation of your wine. In order to keep this under control, you can leave a bowl of water wherever you store your wines, which can help avoid an overly dry atmosphere.

4. FIND THE RIGHT PLACE

If you don’t have a place to store wine, or any temperature-controlled storage system to keep your bottles, a shelf located in a spot with the right temperature can be just as good, as long as it’s not in the kitchen, where temperatures will rise when cooking.

If you have a storage space available, for example, you can adapt it to store your wine, but avoid places like attics, covered garages, or on top of your refrigerator, as these are places that will not have stable temperatures.

Always keep your bottles horizontal, as this will keep the wine in contact with the cork, keeping it moist and therefore avoiding a dried-out cork that will oxidize your wine. For bottles with a screw cap, you don’t have to store them horizontally, and can keep them however is most convenient.