In this blog you will read all about wine storage: about the conditions for proper wine storage, how to store wine without cellar, how to store opened wine, etc.
Wine storage: the criteria
If you want to store wine properly, the room where the wine is located must meet the following criteria:
- A constant temperature of no less than 12° C (but between 10° C in winter and 14° C in winter is within the norm)
- A relatively high humidity of preferably between 60 and 75%
- Dark
- Free of odors
- Free of vibrations
- And the bottles should be kept lying down
Check out the blogs on wine storage criteria at the bottom of this blog.
Wine storage in the wine cellar
If you have read the above criteria, then you understand that a good wine cellar is a must for good wine storage, because nowhere else in the house, can you find a space that meets these criteria. In the past, "real" wine cellars were still made. This took into account everything that could affect temperature and humidity.
Nowadays this is a lot more difficult. A floor under the house for just the wine cellar is rarely made anymore, but often it is combined with other spaces, think sauna, swimming pool, game room for the kids, etc. All the other rooms then need to be brought to a comfortable temperature, so they affect the temperature in the wine cellar. But also consider underfloor heating that is installed in most homes, which also give off heat to the space below.
Fortunately, there are wine cellar coolers that control temperature, humidity and air circulation in the wine cellar. Want to know more? Take a look at the EuroCave wine cellar coolers.
Wine storage in a wine room
If we are going to make an above-ground wine cellar, we call it a wine room. You create a wine room by separating part of a room, properly insulating the room in its entirety and equipping it with a wine cellar cooler and wine racks.
It sounds very simple but still there are some considerations to make before starting this:
- How many bottles of wine do you want to store?
- Do you have enough space available?
- Would you also like to be able to see the wine from another room?
- Are you planning to move within a few years?
Storing up to 500 bottles of wine
If you want to store up to 500 bottles of wine, you can of course build a wine room, but with two wine cabinets you are cheaper, they take up much less space and you can take them with you to your new home if you move. If you provide the wine cabinets with glass doors, it also looks very nice.
Another advantage of wine cabinets is that you can possibly opt for wine serving, in addition to wine storage, so a wine cabinet with a chambreer compartment for serving ready to serve some bottles of red wine and a frappe compartment for some bottles of white wine. In addition, the temperature in wine cabinets will be more constant and power consumption will be less.
Would you like to know more about the EuroCave wine cabinets? Then take a look at the wine cabinets overview page for the different options.
Storing more than 500 bottles of wine
We don't want to discourage you, but actually we think that up to 1,000 bottles of wine it's worthwhile to contrast the pros and cons of wine cabinets versus the wine room. Do you need our help with that? We'd be happy to help.
To talk briefly about the advantages of storing wine in a wine room, we focus on the positive aspects. A wine cellar or wine room has much more atmosphere than wine cabinets. Especially if you can place a glass wall in a living area of your home, behind which you place the wine racks and wines. This way you will have a view of your special collection. But also going with friends to choose a wine in the wine room or wine cellar, has of course much more cachet than choosing a wine from a wine cabinet.
You can create a wine room as you grow. If the stock is not so large yet, but you intend to build a large wine collection, you can just continue to fill the wine room over the years. If you want to learn more about the wine room, take a look at the glass wine walls page.
Storing all wine?
Not all wine is suitable for storage. Pay close attention to this when building your wine collection. Your wine supplier can tell you exactly how long a wine should be stored. 90% of all wines produced are wines that do not need to be kept for their development. So these are actually ready to drink right away and can be kept for a few years at most. Wines that still need to develop in order to be ready to drink should first be kept under the perfect conditions and second, not longer than the indicated storage period.
Storing open wine
Once a wine is open, it will deteriorate rapidly due to contact with oxygen. In most cases, the wine is still drinkable a day later, but after that you will have to throw it away. An eternal waste! There are several ways to keep wine good longer. The 2 best known ways are: vacuuming and putting a layer of nitrogen on the wine.
For professional use, in addition to vacuum-based systems(Wine Bar 2.0 and 8.0) there are also nitrogen-based systems(Vin au Verre 8.0) that ensure that in addition to a perfect presentation of the wines, the wines are always ready at the right drinking temperature and that opened wines remain good for up to 10 days.
Want to know more about wine storage?
If you want to know more about storing or serving your wines, let us know, we will be happy to help you with the answers to your questions and the solutions to your (wine) problems.
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