How to Store Your Wine Properly

Whether your wine collection is big or small, knowing how to store your wine is so crucial! The way you store wine can make the difference in whether the wine will last or go bad. Before I started studying wine, I didn’t even realize how many things I was doing wrong when it came to storing my wine. Knowing a few of these simple wine storage hacks will save your bottles from spoiling!

Wine Storage Do’s & Don’ts

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Do’s:

• Do store your wine in a cool environment. Storing your wine at the proper temperature is perhaps the most important thing to remember! Extremely warm or cold temperatures can spoil your wine. The ideal temperature for most wines to be stored at is 55 degrees F.
• Do store your wine lying down. This rule only applies to wines with corks. You must store your wines with corks horizontally for long term storage. This is to keep the wine in contact with the cork, so no seepage or oxygen gets into the wine and causes premature aging.
• Do store your wine in a dark place. Keeping your wine away from UV rays or direct sunlight is important so that the light does not spoil the flavors and aromas of the wine.
• Do store your wine in a place away from vibration. Vibrations can cause the sediment in the bottles to be shaken up, which disrupts the delicate aging process.
• Do pay attention to humidity. Higher humidity areas can cause mold to form on or near the bottles, and lower humidity can dry out the corks which can cause oxidization in the wines. It’s best to keep your wines stored at 60-80% humidity!

Don’ts:

• Don’t store wine standing up. If it’s for a day or two, it’s okay. But permanently storing your wines standing up will cause the cork to dry out, and the wine could potentially oxidize.
• Don’t store wine in the kitchen. The kitchen is often the one room in the house that varies a lot in temperature and has the most vibrations. It’s crucial to keep your wine at that constant, cool temp. and away from those vibrations!
• Don’t store wine near a window or sunlight . Again, keep your wines away from those UV rays!
• Don’t move your wine around too much before drinking it. Constantly picking up and moving your wine bottles can move the sediment and change the chemical structure of the wine over time.

How to Store Opened Wine

Generally speaking, after you open wine, it is only good for about 2-3 days. I would always recommend keeping it in the fridge, because this will slow the oxidization and aging.

Make sure you quickly recork your wine, or use a special stopper to ensure that no air seeps through the top.

For regular wines I love to use these rubber tops from Amazon! You can also add a vacuum pump to suck the additional air out of the bottle:

For sparkling wines I love these pretty gold ones and these are super easy to pop on and off and allows your bottle to last for a few days!

Wine Organization

Wine organization will definitely help save you some time when you go to pick out your wine. I like to store my wine by style, then region. Starting with aromatic whites at the top, then light bodied whites, medium to full bodied whites, then rosé. Then I move onto light to full bodied reds, separating them all by varietal / country / region.

Is a Wine Fridge Worth It?

A wine fridge is such a life saver because it stores your wine perfectly! For the longest time I only had a 12 bottle wine fridge which worked great until I needed more room! We just upgraded to a 180+ bottle fridge from Wine Enthusiast. Here are some great picks for wine fridges that are in all capacities and price ranges:

Wine Racks I Love

Wine Racks are great for wines you intend on opening in the near future (week or month). They can also add some fun decor to a room! Before I invested in a larger wine fridge, I used these wine racks from World Market and stacked them on a bookshelf! I also own a few other wines racks:

Love wine but still struggle with how to shop for it? Check out my blog post on Wine Shopping 101 and Creating the perfect starter wine wardrobe!