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Wine Storage and Aging Wine at Home

Wine lovers often pay close attention to the wines they buy, the glasses they serve wine in and the food they pair with wine. Equally important to the enjoyment of wine, however, is storage.

How you store and care for your favorite beverage will have a dramatic impact on its taste. Basically, the better you treat your wine, the better it will taste when you uncork it. Here are some guidelines to help you properly store your wine.

Wines to Store

Today, many people go to their local wine shop or grocery store, buy a bottle and uncork it for the evening's dinner. For the majority of wines, this is fine, as many of the inexpensive varieties on the market won't really benefit from the aging process. A good rule of thumb is that a bottle that costs less than $25 doesn't need to be aged.

If you aren't sure if you should age a wine, ask a salesperson at your local store. He or she should be able to tell you if it will benefit from aging.

Storing Wine: Aging Reds

People age red wines to make the tannins (the organic compounds found in the skins and seeds of grapes) taste less bitter and to improve the wine's overall flavor profile. Here are some basic guidelines to aging some of the more popular red varieties:

Cabernet Sauvignon: Often, Cabernet Sauvignon wines are meant to be consumed young. However, many of them will still improve with aging. Bordeaux, France, produces many Cabernet-based wines that have various degrees of aging potential.
Merlots: Bordeaux's best Merlot-based blends need 10 to 15 years to mature. Lesser Merlots tend to peak at around five or six years.
Pinot Noirs and Burgundies: Pinot Noir, the wine grape most often associated with the Burgundy region of France, produces many wines that benefit from aging.

Good red Burgundies need at least five years or more to fully develop.
Syrah/Shiraz-Based Wines: Shiraz-based wines, especially those from the Rhône, are excellent candidates for aging. Some Shiraz varieties require more than 20 years to completely develop.

Storing Wine: Aging White Wine

Many white wines don't require aging, as they lack the tannins found in reds. There are, however, some whites that benefit from the aging process, including:

Burgundy Chardonnay: The highest-ranked Burgundy Chardonnays can last up to 20 years, although it is probably at its best after three to five years.
Riesling: Although drinkable without aging, Rieslings have great aging potential. German Spätlese, Auslese and Alsace Grand Cru Riesling will often benefit from 10 to 15 years of aging.

Storing Wine: Aging Sparkling Wines

Many people don't think to age Champagne. However, some bottles of bubbly greatly improve with a little aging.Non-vintage Champagne will improve if you age it for a year or two. Vintage Champagnes, those that are six to eight years old when they are sold, will be best if you age them for another five years.

Storing Wine: Aging Fortified Wines

Most fortified wines don't mature in the bottle. Therefore, they don't benefit from aging. The exception to this rule is vintage port, which should be aged for at least 10 years. Some vintage ports might even need to be aged 20 to 40 years. As these ports age, they develop a taste of overripe, oxidized fruit.

How to Build a Wine Cellar at Home

If you choose to age your wine, you will need a cellar for it, or at least an area with conditions similar to a cellar.

Ideally, a wine cellar should be in a dark basement. If your house lacks a basement, though, pick a room with a constant temperature and one that is out of direct sunlight. (Direct sunlight can prematurely age the wine and negatively impact its flavor.) You should also pick a spot that won't be subjected to vibrations.

Also make sure that your cellar is well ventilated and relatively odor-free. If odors penetrate the cork, your wine could be ruined.

The following areas all make ideal cellars:

a bedroom closet
a cabinet
a garage
a fireplace that isn't used
the kitchen pantry.

You might also want to ask you local wine store if they offer a wine-storing service.

Wine Storage Conditions

When aging wine, temperature is of the utmost importance. Wines should be kept in a room that is 50˚F to 59˚F. If it gets too cold, it could freeze or expand and push the cork from the bottle. If it gets too hot, it will spoil.

You should also pay attention to the humidity of your cellar. Ideally, it should be kept in 70 percent humidity, but anywhere between 50 percent and 80 percent is fine.

Wine Accessibility

No matter where you decide to store and age your wine, make sure that your collection is accessible. After all, you won't get much pleasure from it if you can't monitor your bottles or grab one every now and then for a special dinner.

To keep your cellar organized, you might consider grouping your bottles by vintage, region, etc. Whatever method of organization you choose, make sure it works for you.

Storing Opened Bottles

Some young, tannic wines actually taste better after they have been uncorked for a day. However, most wines rapidly deteriorate once they are exposed to air. If you can hold off the effects of oxidation, however, you should be able to keep an opened bottle for several days.

The easiest way to store opened wine is to replace its cork and place the bottle in the refrigerator. However, most specialty stores sell vacuum pumps, which do a great job of keeping opened bottles fresh.

Vacuum pumps work by extracting air from the bottle, creating a partial vacuum. Then, you reseal the bottle with a special stopper to preserve the wine's natural freshness.

Storage and Bottle Angle

When storing wine, make sure to keep the bottles on their sides, so that the corks remain moist and the bottles remain airtight. Bottles with screw-top caps can be stored standing upright.

You might also want to store the bottles with their labels facing up, so that you will be able to easily identify your different varieties.

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