General Questions with Short Answers

Wine Storage (11 Nov)

From Greg Watson: I stumbled across yours and Red Bigots website while surfing the net and have become a big fan. Am a bit of a novice so learning heaps and really enjoying it.

I have a small but growing cellar (60 bottles) and am just starting to buy some more expensive wine which I would like to keep and age. I live in a townhouse and keep my wines in a small room which is effectively under the stairs, it is dark, in the middle of the house and doesn't seem to have much daily temperature variation and pretty good humidity at 65-70%.

However, the temp at the moment is around 19-20c which from what I read is a bit on the hot side. Do you have any tips on how to bring the temperature down without buying air conditioners and wine cabinets ? Would something such as this styrene box help ?

TORB Responds: The biggest danger in storage of wine is not high temperatures as such, its daily fluctuations. If you intend storing First Growths or Grange for 20 years, or delicate whites and Pinot you want ideal storage conditions, but if you are buying stuff that’s less than about $70 a bottle and you will be drinking it under about 8 years of age, ideal conditions are not critical.

20 degrees is not a problem, but if it goes above 25 in summer it’s not great. If it’s 25 or less in mid summer then all it means is that the wine will mature a bit faster. Something that may peak at 7 years will possibly peak at 5 for example. If its above 25, you may need to drink your wine a bit younger still.

The only “solid” solution is a plonk fridge or air-conditioned cellar. Styro boxes work well to reduce daily fluctuations, but in your situation it doesn’t sound like they will be much help. If you have room in your garage, you can get a fugly but good value cabinet from Kitchener (spelling) in Melbourne. But if you buy a cabinet, get one at least twice the size you think you now need. As soon as you have one, you will have no trouble filling it.

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 © Ric Einstein 2007