Wine Lover: Cellaring Wine for the Little Guy

Anybody with enough money can turn a spare bedroom into a temperature-controlled wine palace. This column is meant for those people who are not necessarily serious wine collectors, but have enough wine that it’s worth storing it properly. Storing wine responsibly is not only easy but essential for anybody who keeps wine on hand for more than a few months.
I have a friend who had kept about 100 bottles in her bedroom on wine racks for a little over a year. I visited her once to find her room a scorching 85 degrees. I warned her gravely that this was bad news for her wine. When we opened a few bottles to test them, she was very disappointed. The vast majority of her wine was undrinkable.
When storing wine, it is important to consider a few factors, the most important of which is bottle angle. When I say bottle angle, I literally mean the angle at which the bottle is stored. You don’t want your wine stored either upside down or right-side up. If a bottle is stored standing up, the cork will eventually dry out, and oxygen will be allowed to seep in at an undesirable rate. If stored upside down, the cork will become soaked, and the same negative result might occur.
You want to store your wine on its side or facing at a slight angle downward. That way, the cork stays moist but does not become wine-logged (yes, I made that word up). You can get wine racks to help you do this, or you can simply use sturdy cardboard cases and put them on their sides. I use both methods.
The next thing to worry about is temperature. Ideally, wine should be stored at about 55 degrees. I know, I know — nobody has a closet that stays 55 degrees year round, especially in the San Lorenzo Valley. The 55-degree rule is more important for long term storage. If you are going to keep wine for only a couple of years, then a steady temperature of less than 70 degrees will suffice. Most of the time, the bottom of a closet, a cool garage or even a space underneath the house are all good bets.
I store mine in a small closet under my staircase. It stays a steady 65 degrees. I use a cheap thermometer to make sure it never gets too warm. I also bought a $70 mini wine fridge to store my more important bottles that I plan on saving for years to come.
It is also important to make sure the place you choose isn’t too dry. Again, the cork drying out can become a problem.
The last important consideration is light. A cellared wine should not be in contact with direct sunlight for long (if ever). Do you recall a past column in which my friend dug up a bottle of Port while remodeling his house? There were many contributing factors to that wine still being good, but the most important was that it was buried. Being buried made it so the wine stayed cool and kept it out of the sun. (Note: Don’t bury your wine.)
I hope this helps all of you out there who routinely have wine sitting on your kitchen counters for months, or anyone looking for a simple wine-storage solution. Remember, there is nothing worse than losing a bottle of wine to inconsiderate storage.
By the way, my wife gave birth to our little boy Jan. 25. His name is Thiago Twohig. Cheers!
Austin Twohig is a certified sommelier and partner in The Santa Cruz Experience, which conducts winery tours in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Contact him at au****@th********************.com.