It’s been a couple of weeks since my last update (too long!) and much has happened since then. I’ll be making a few posts to make up for that but as the title hints, this post will center around wine. I’ve recently acquired two awesome wine fridges and rekindled a love for wine that has laid semi-dormant for years.

I, like my dad, love to drink wine. With drinking wine comes purchasing and storing it and with that comes cellaring it and the requirement for the correct conditions. Hence a lot of research and the purchase of the wine fridges. As I’ve come to research more about wine my eyes have been opened as to how many mistakes most people make when it comes to storing and serving wine (mistakes I myself made not long ago). Hopefully most people can learn a little from what I’ve recently discovered. There’s also a pretty decent chance I don’t know some things or have slightly incorrect information, and I’m sure some of the people reading this are far more experienced than I so hopefully they can post some tips in the comments section to help me and others out too.

First of all you want to keep your wine in a good location. Whether you have two bottles, 20 or 50 it makes sense to store them under as favourable conditions as possible. Things to avoid are:

Fluctuations in temperature – Anywhere where the wine will be subject to great fluctuations in temperature is going to be bad for the bottle. Obviously this is anywhere near sunlight or near another heat source but it should also be noted that the temperature inside a regular fridge is always changing so it doesn’t stand as a good place to store wine you don’t intend on drinking soon.

Vibrations –  Even subtle vibrations can effect the chemical processes going on inside a bottle of wine. This means you should stay away from keeping a wine bottle on top of or near any appliance that vibrates (ie fridge, microwave, etc).

Sunlight – Aside from the obvious heat concerns of leaving a wine bottle where the sun can get it, the actual UV (ultraviolet) light will hurt the wine by damaging some of the compounds found within the bottle.

Humidity – The issue of humidity lies with the cork of the wine bottle. If a bottle is subjected to prolonged periods of low humidity then the cork is likely to dry out and ruin the wine. An ideal range is around 60-65%. You should also always keep your wine bottles laying horizontally so the wine is in contact with the cork on the inside of the bottle preventing it from drying out on that end. Fortunately many winemakers these days are moving towards screw cap bottles (in Australia it is rare to find any bottle produced these days with a cork; unfortunately some other countries have been slower to catch on for their own reasons).

Extreme Temperatures (especially extreme heat) – This is going to be the factor that most effects the outcome of your bottle of wine. If you plan to age your wines for medium to long term cellaring then ideal temperature conditions are to keep the bottle at 12-14°C with fluctuations minimised to +/- 1°. Obviously those conditions are going to be tough to mirror without a wine fridge or an excellently built cellar but fortunately you can “make do” for the most part. If you have a large or valued collection that you want to preserve though I suggest investing in a wine fridge or cellar arrangement. You can also rent out storage at an off-suit facility if no other option is viable.

You will want to get to as close to that ideal range as possible with a general rule of cooler being better than warmer. As the mercury starts the rise it speeds up the aging process of the wine. A good red that you want to age for 10 years under ideal conditions might reach its peak in only two years if it’s stored at 22°. ”

What’s wrong with that? It just means the wine matures and can be drunk quicker, right?”

Not exactly. While it does mature quickly, the manner in which it matures is flawed and will create imperfections within the wine. Chemical reactions will occur that would not otherwise at a lower temperature and these reactions can lead to the wine tasting “off” or foul. You might get lucky and have the bottle survive high temperatures but far more often than not it will lead to being ruined or of a much lesser quality than what it started of as.

So is it okay to leave a wine bottle out at high temperatures for only a short time? The short answer is no. I did some research and according to the chart below the rate of aging increases exponentially as the temperature of the wine increases. If a bottle is store in extreme heat (say 35° or higher — not uncommon in Australian summer) then it could age at a rate fifty times that of a properly stored wine. This means that a mere month of sitting out in the heat would age the bottle six years — and not in the good kind of way.

Source: http://www.wineperspective.com/aging_table.htm

A couple of degrees doesn’t make a huge difference but once you started pushing the 20° mark things start to rapidly go downhill. You’ll note the low and high ranges and it is stated in the accompanying article to that post that the ranges are far more likely to be towards the higher end of the range.

Storing wine at lower temperatures is much less detrimental. Essentially what will happen is the opposite to a wine stored in heat, it will age at a slower pace. This isn’t a terrible thing and is unlikely to ruin the wine. In fact I read an anecdote recently about a bottle found in a sunken ship that was preserved and aged impeccably due to the slow aging process. The problem with very low temperatures is that the wine will tend to “stand still” and not age much at all. For a lot of wines to reach their full potential they need time to have those chemical reactions occur so while you’re not ruining the wine, you’re not making it better either.

Well I think that’s the crux of it. There’s another whole blog entry if I were to go into the serving temperature of wines but I won’t ramble on with that in this entry. Moving on to my own fridges, some photos!

The fridges set up in my office

Open wide..

There’s still plenty of space for more bottles to be stores so i’ll be on the hunt for some good finds over the coming months – suggestions welcomed! I’ve started tracking my collection at www.cellartracker.com (a great site, highly recommended) and noticed that almost my entire collection is of Australian wines (no great shock there though). It’s not a terrible thing as we make some fantastic wine here but some diversification would be nice too.

Well I’ll leave this entry there. I’ve got plenty more to talk about and will try to bang out a few entries quick smart (I love that term — I feel like it doesn’t get used enough these days though [these days, look at me, next thing you know I'll start telling kids "back in my day we could get a red frog lolly for only five cents! and an entire McDonalds meal for $5!"]). Yeah, I’ll end on that.