Few are aware of the significance of adequately storing wine. This holiday season makes wine an essential component of their social experience.
Even though there have been alcoholic drinks for millennia, none can compare to wine's dominance in our society. Wine possesses a draw that extends beyond straightforward enjoyment and also has spiritual overtones. For instance, the Bible frequently references wine as the symbol of Christ's blood. Wine symbolises happiness, festivity, and celebration.
Wine is one of several alcoholic beverages drunk in huge amounts nowadays. But wine continues to have a sacramental function, serving as a focal point of social life and a status symbol, fashion statement, and class indicator. Only some people know the significance of properly storing wine. The Chairman & Managing Director of the Alcostar Group of Companies, Arundeep Singla, offers some advice on how to store wine.
Horizontally position the bottle
Few people consider the positioning of the bottles when storing wine. Corked bottles should always be stored horizontally. This ensures that the wine stays on its side and maintains the cork's moisture, which is essential for long-term preservation. A dried-out cork may seep and, in certain circumstances, age too quickly, which may ruin its flavour. While horizontal positioning might be a terrific method to use the storage space effectively, screw-top wines are typically not required to be stored on the sides.
No direct sunlight
When storing wines, you should consider light exposure, especially direct sunshine. The sun's UV rays cause the wine to age more quickly, which lowers the wine's quality. Wine is packaged explicitly in coloured glass bottles to block light. Therefore, try to store your wine bottles in dry, dark areas to protect them from exposure to sunshine or artificial lights. If you must expose the wine bottles to light, attempt to cover them in a cloth or place them inside of a box.
Safeguard against vibrations
To preserve wine against vibrations, one must take special precautions, just as with exposure to light. Constant shaking or vibrations, similar to lighting, can cause the early ageing of your wine. As a result, it is usually advised to keep wine bottles away from the typical vibrations produced by devices like stereo systems, juicers, grinders, and washing machines, among others. When wine is sufficiently shielded from vibrations, it can keep more of its flavour and age more favourably.
Store open bottles with caution
While keeping wine in storage might be difficult enough, keeping open bottles in storage is an entirely different story. An opened bottle of wine can last for three to five days if stored correctly. The recorking procedure is the key to conserving open wine bottles while maintaining their original properties. You must wrap the cork in wax paper before sliding it back into place to cork an open bottle. While the wax helps the cork enter the top more easily, it also prevents any stray pieces from getting into the bottle. You can use a rubber wine stopper or wine vacuum pump if recorking is not an option.
Verify the temperature
The temperature is unquestionably the most important component that affects the quality of wine among the important ones. Depending on the kind of wine, 55°F (13°C) to 60°F (13°C) is the best temperature for both long- and short-term storage. Although it is usually desirable to abide by the manufacturer's temperature guidelines, regardless of the kind or label, one must make sure that wine is not kept at temperatures that might freeze it (below 25°F, -4°C) or accelerate ageing and destroy volatile components (above 68°F, 20°C). Additionally, you must guarantee that wine is kept at a constant temperature without any variations.
Purchase a wine refrigerator
Even if the number of people drinking wine continues to rise, not everyone has the luxury of a wine cellar or other specialised storage area for their preferred alcoholic beverage. Wine consumers typically use their ordinary refrigerators to keep the bottles. Although a standard refrigerator can keep your food cold and dry, it might impede the wine's ageing freshness and delicacy. Because of this, we advise utilising a wine freezer or cooler to keep your priceless wine bottles at the ideal temperature and humidity. Additionally, you may avoid cross-contamination from food odours by keeping your wine in a separate refrigerator or cooler.
The necessity for wine enthusiasts to efficiently store and preserve their preferred alcoholic beverage is critical when mounting worries about climate change, droughts, and wildfires continue to endanger the production of wine throughout the world. Life is too short of sipping terrible wine, as the rare literary treasure Johann Wolfgang von Goethe famously said. To continue enjoying your preferred wine, heed the advice above and swear by Von Goethe's words.