Home and Lifestyle - Beer, Wine and Spirits

Like stemware, wine decanters should also be made of clear glass or crystal so you can easily see through the wine to check its condition. Some of the wine decanters have rounded lips to our over and they usually drip. I cannot think of many things that are more worse than a decanter that drips. So check to see that it has a cut lip that will prevent drips. Read more

Did you know that they way you store your wine affects its taste at least as much as the way it’s made? Wine that’s exposed to light, temperature changes, fluctuations in humidity, and excessive vibration can easily go bad, lose its taste, or suffer other unpleasant effects. This is why people have traditionally kept wine in cellars and other cool, dark places where it won’t be disturbed. Unfortunately, most of us have neither the time nor the money for a wine cellar. Today’s modern replacement comes in a huge assortment of styles, types and a vast array of manufacturers.

Danby Bottle Wine Coolers
The Danby company makes a range of quality coolers for wine storage. No matter what size your wine collection may be, there’s a Danby cooler model that will fit your needs. All coolers are stylish and modern in appearance, so they won’t clash with your d?cor. If you’re serious about wine, you need to add a Danby wine cooler to your home.

Insulated Wine Coolers
Danby and other brands of well-made wine coolers are insulated. That means that heat can’t get in to spoil the delicate flavors of your wine. Wine should be kept around fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit for the best quality. That’s about the same temperature that’s always present far underground, explaining why wine cellars have been subterranean. Now, insulated wine coolers provide a way to simulate those conditions.

Small Wine Coolers
Not everyone has the space for a large piece of furniture just to store wine, or enough wine to fill it! That’s where smaller wine coolers come in. With capacities around thirty bottles, these wine coolers are appropriate for the home without much space, or without a lot of wine.

Countertop Wine Coolers
For the user with even less space, countertop models are available. They offer the same quality wine storage in smaller units. Countertop wine coolers usually hold between six and twenty bottles of wine. They only take up a few cubic feet of space in your kitchen, dining room, or entertainment room, and provide great wine that’s been stored properly, whenever you might want it.

Built In Wine Coolers
Of course, for the person who’s really serious about wine, there are built in wine cooler models. These range from a twenty-seven bottle wine cellar, to an executive model, which provides a controlled environment for up to a hundred and sixty six bottles of fine wine. When you really want to take care of your wine, and have a large collection, these fine pieces of furniture are a must.

If you have a growing wine collection a closet can easily be turned into a mini wine cellar to store it.

Before you build your mini wine cellar consider the position of the closet in relation to the rest of the house. Avoid converting a closet located against an outside wall into a wine cellar. Choose an internal closet where your wine can be stored in a more stable atmosphere. The outside walls of your house or apartment may experience wide fluctuations in temperature.

The degree and the speed of any temperature change are critical to successfully storing and aging wine. A gradual change of a few degrees between summer and winter won’t matter. The same change each day will harm your wines by ageing them too rapidly.

The most difficult part of converting a closet to a mini wine cellar can be finding other places to store the original contents of the closet! Be ruthless … give away / sell / move out all the present contents and start with a blank slate!

Purchase some inexpensive wine racks from a hardware store, online retailer or storage shop. Wine rack designs will vary in bottle density. Price variations have more to do with aesthetics than efficiency.

Individual racking is the most convenient for selecting bottles. If you have racks against only one wall of the closet you may still have floor or shelf space available for wines that you purchase by the case. Now fill the racks with your wine bottles and you’ll have a mini wine cellar in a closet!

Tips For Building A Wine Cellar

One of the great joys of building a wine cellar
is being able to select a bottle to accompany a special meal, perhaps a
bottle that you’ve been storing for some years, draw the cork and enjoy
it with friends.

However, wine is an ever-changing thing and how it is stored will
directly affect howquickly and how well it ages and therefore how much
you are going to enjoy it when you take it from the cellar.

Storing wine is very simple … It requires a constant temperature,
humidity, darkness, stillness and a well-ventilated and clean
environment.

The first essential is to create a well insulated environment for your
wine that provides the basics of stable temperature, no light and no
vibration. Polystyrene is an excelent insulation material and you may
want to consider lining your storage space with this product.

The insulation will assist in keeping the temperature stable, however,
you need a constant temperature of between 50?F and 59?F (10?C ? 15?C)
to allow your wines to age with grace. Seasonal temperature changes
will not harm your wine, although fluctuations greater than one degree
a week should be avoided.

Wines stored in less than ideal conditions will age at speeds quite
different to those envisaged by winemakers when they offer suggested
storage times. A hygro thermometer in your wine cellar or storage area
will provide you with accurate information on temperature and humidity
ranges within your cellar.

An alternative to building a wine cellar
is a temperature controlled wine cabinet. Some of these can hold up to
800 bottles but note that some manufacturers’ suggested bottle capacity
can be misleading and the racks may be smaller than you require.
Champagne bottles are wider in circumference than Riesling bottles!