If you have discovered for yourself how utterly delicious and magical properly aged wine is to drink, you have probably also realised that the most cost effective way of indulging your habit is to buy the wine young and age it yourself.
The very best way of storing wine is somewhere quiet, dark and cool. As a general rule, the longer you intend to keep the wine, the cooler the storage room should be but the most important thing is that the temperature is constant – huge fluctuations are really not appreciated by the wine. The area obviously needs to be secure and should not have any strong, lingering odours. Wine should be stored lying down in order to keep the cork from drying out and shrinking. If you start to get very caught up in the whole thing and find you are buying huge amounts of wine, you do need to keep some sort of log book or tag the bottles so that you remember what you have and where it is. You would be surprised at how easy it is to forget.
To most urban flat dwellers the above is a complete impossibility but thankfully, there are companies who specialise is storing wine for those of you in this situation.
Private Reserves Ltd are our recommended storage company of choice. They will store your wine at £7.50/case a year which includes insurance and they do now offer an internet service which means you can keep an eye on your stock and handle your account on line. You can reach them on 01604 770759.
For many of us who do not yet have the time, money or inclination to buy wines now for drinking later but who tend to keep a rack at home at all times, there are some important guidelines to follow.
Wine racks are almost always kept in the kitchen which is akin to keeping your small baby in the garden. The environment here is completely wrong, for even short term storage of just a few months. The temperature tends to fluctuate more than anywhere else in the house thanks to the cooker and the direct light is incredibly bad for wines in clear glass bottles. Other popular spots which are really not good for obvious reasons are in any busy living area or near a radiator.
The best place, if at all possible, is a hall cupboard where the temperature is more or less constant.