Posts Tagged ‘wine cellar’

A wine cellar is a room for long-term storage of wine in bottles or barrels.  A wine cellar is necessary to protect ageing wine from external factors which would prevent effective maturation or ruin the wine.  To store wine correctly, it must be kept at constant temperature and humidity and have minimal exposure to light or vibration to prevent spoilage.  When properly stored in a wine cellar, ageing wine will retain quality and also develop in aroma, taste and complexity during maturation.  An ‘active’ wine cellar has a climate control system in order to maintain optimum wine storage conditions; ‘passive’ wine cellars are usually built underground to stabilise temperature as they have no method of climate control.  A wine cellar at ground level is known as a ‘wine room’ whereas a more modest cellar (up to 500 bottles) is called a ‘wine closet’.

While ‘active’ wine cellars need to be highly insulated and correctly constructed, it is possible to build a home wine cellar for a fraction of the price in an isolated area of the house.  A ‘passive’ wine cellar should be located in a naturally cool and moist area, for example, a house basement in a mild climate.  Wines enter youth, maturity and old age stages in maturation and it is essential to taste test each one to gauge maturation point.  Red wines tend to age better than white wines and expensive ones are designed to age longer.  Wines at the cheaper end of the scale should be consumed by 6 to 12 months from the purchase date.  The maturation time depends on wine type: expensive Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot can be aged for around 10 years, whereas Shiraz, Chardonnay and Riesling should be consumed within 5 years of the purchase date.

Having a well-stocked wine cellar is advantageous when wine must be matched to cuisine, bottles can also be purchased young and aged to the satisfaction of the consumer.  Vintage wines are a good investment as they appreciate in value but the storage conditions of the wine cellar must be adhered to constantly to protect investment.  Wine bottles must be stored horizontally and at around 70% humidity to maintain cork integrity.  A low humidity environment will dry the cork, thus shrinking it and air will enter the bottle and oxidise the wine.  A high humidity environment will encourage mould.  The optimum wine cellar temperature is 10-12?C, but any temperature between 5-18?C is acceptable as long as it is constant.  Cold conditions will lead to cork shrinkage, warm will lead to unwanted accelerated ageing.

Continuous temperature variation will make the wine expand and contract leading to oxidation and spoiling.  The light in a wine cellar should be from incandescent sources which produce less UV light than fluorescent bulbs: too much light exposure can lead to wine being ‘light struck’ which gives it an unpalatable aroma.  It is best that wine is stored completely in the dark and certainly kept away from sunlight. Wine cellars should also not be exposed to any sort of vibration, which could interfere with sediment formation.