Home and Lifestyle - Beer, Wine and Spirits

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!

The ideal temperature for storing wine is between 55?F and 58?F (13?C?15?C). The most important thing is that the temperature
remains constant.

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

If your wines are exposed to wide ranging temperature fluctuations you’ll notice damage straight away from
the sticky deposit that often forms around the capsule. Over time
the continual expansion and contraction of the wine will cause damage to the cork. It’s like having the cork pulled in and out
again every day. When this happens, minute quantities of wine may be
pushed out along the edge of the cork (between the cork and the
bottle neck) allowing air to seep back in. Once the air is in
contact with your wine the irreversible process of oxidation begins
and your wine is ruined.

At 55? to 58?F the wine
will age properly, enabling it to fully develop. Higher temperatures
will age wine more rapidly and cooler temperatures will slow down
the ageing process. Irreversible damage will be done if your wine is
kept at a temperature above 82?F for even a month.

At 55?F wines will age
slowly and develop great complexity and you will never have to worry
about them.

For more information on storing wine and building a wine cellarvisit