Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wine Tasting

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Wine Storage - Racks for Storing Wine

Although wine can often have a strong, full, hearty taste the truth is that wine is generally a delicate substance, easily ruined or distressed if stored improperly. It's possible to be too obsessive about one's wine storage conditions, but in general most people are probably too lax about their wine's storage conditions. If you really want to get the most out of your wine, and especially if you have spent very much on your wine, you need to pay more attention to the conditions your wine is stored in.

How Should I Store My Wine?

Aging Wine in the Szegi Wine Cellar, Hungary
Aging Wine, Szegi Wine Cellar, Hungary
Photo © dustpuppy

Proper wine storage depends on achieving and maintaining the optimal conditions for wine: cool and consistent temperature, high and consistent humidity, physical stability, darkness, and an absence of strong odors.

Some wine experts believe that there are absolute best numbers that must be held at all times, but some variation is possible without damaging your wine. Most important is consistency: the less change and the slower the change the better your wine will be.

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Wine Cellars - Storing in Wine Cellars

Chianti Wine Casks in a Tuscany Wine Cellar
Chianti Wine Casks, Tuscany Wine Cellar
Photo © roblisameehan
Once you understand the proper conditions wine needs to be stored in, you know that you can't put your wine absolutely anywhere in your house. To best protect your wine and help it mature, you need a place in your home where you can maintain and monitor the conditions, ensuring that they remain at optimal levels. For some people this means adapting a space to create a wine cellar while others will need to use a wine cooling unit.

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Wine Racks for Storing Wine

Cubby Hole Wine Rack
Cubby Hole Wine Rack;
Photo © tannazie
Unless you have a specially designed wine cooler, you'll need some sort of rack system to hold your wines in your wine storage area because wine is best stored lying on its side. Fortunately, just about every type of rack system is (more or less) equally good in terms of how well it protects your wines. So long as you ensure that your wine racks are stable, the choice of racks will be determined by quality, convenience, price, and aesthetics.

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Balancing the Types of Wine in Storage

Aging Wine in Moldova
Aging Wine in Moldova
Photo © dittaeva
 

If you have to worry very much about the storage conditions of your wine, it probably means that you have a lot of wines to store. This, in turn, raises a new issue: ensuring that there is some balance in all the wines you have. It's not good to have all white wines, all red wines, or all wines that need to sit for a few years before reaching their peak potential. Once you start planning on storage conditions for your wine, you should start thinking about ensuring that your wine collection is well-balanced.

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