Wine storage - living in constant fear
Something had to be done
Last week I finally got a wine fridge. I was debating it for a long time. A wine fridge, after all, is not cheap. And it needs a place, somewhere.
The question about proper wine storage rose again at a tasting of aged white wines. Each of the six aged wines we tasted had gained significant complexity during maturation. Intense bouquets of honey and thyme, flavors of ripe grapefruit with the woodland tang of mushrooms and weathered wood. Without doubt, the aging of age-worthy wines is worth the patience. But does it justify the purchase of a fancy wine fridge? I thought that my basement was a good enough place and I would rather invest the money in more wine. But even during the winter months a feeling of uneasiness crept in every time the heating unit kicked in, which also happens to be in the basement.
Most of my wine-loving friends had already gotten a wine cooler. One of them had even stored his precious bottles at a professional wine storage warehouse in Brooklyn. I was the only one who kept resisting the purchase of a wine fridge. Did I really need one? Or were wine fridges just the latest marketing strategy to oversatisfy gullible people like me or those who already have two iPhones? But what if indeed wine has such a fragile soul? How easy it is, how easy, to cause sleepless nights for someone who happens to have a few bottles of age-worthy wine sitting in a basement, intended to rest undisturbed and age gracefully. The seeds of doubt and fear were in me and during the summer they found plenty to feed on and grow.
Something had to be done
On one occasion this summer I went down to the basement in the middle of a hot, humid night to check the temperature where I had stored my wines on plain wooden wine racks. The stark light of the bare light bulb forced me to repeatedly close my eyes and I kept losing the mark on the thermometer. After turning the instrument in all possible directions my concerns grew: Mercurius had climbed several of the black strokes and had reached the 25°C (77°F) mark. I turned off the light, and returned to bed, sick with apprehension.
From then on I kept checking the High temperature on three different weather websites every day. Eventually, I panicked and built a flimsy cooling unit with some sheets of styrofoam and ice bags from my freezer. I feared for my "Les Charmes" Premier Cru 1999 from Domaine Leroy, I feared for my fine Auslese Rieslings from the Mosel. I feared for every single wine I had. My badly built cooling unit probably did not help the wines but it did make one thing very clear: I was desperate.
As always when in dire need for help, I turned to the purple pages. Lo and behold, Jancis Robinson's article on wine storage confirmed the fears I had: my basement may actually not be as safe for my wine as I thought it was. I felt responsible for my wines. Consequently, when I saw the "Wine Storage" hyper-link in the Google ads section on this site I got hyper-excited and was easily seduced by a sleek 100-bottle Eurocave, which happened to be on sale. And with free shipping, how could I not?
Of course, I had done some research before. I consulted friends, books, magazines and the internet. And I found that in regard to the aging of wines, four factors need to be taken into consideration: light, humidity, vibration and temperature.
Light
Ultraviolet light affects organic compounds in a wine which can lead to a reduction of aromas and off-flavors. This is the reason why most wine is bottled in dark glass. But colored glass does not protect a wine fully. Therefore wine should be stored in a dark place. Even if kept only for a couple of weeks a bottle of wine should never be left in direct sunlight or under fluorescent light on a kitchen counter.
Humidity
Humidity does not affect the wine itself, rather the cork of the bottle. Natural cork has for centuries been the ideal closure of wine bottles. It is made from a renewable source, it is biodegradable. It allows just enough oxygen to reach the wine which is necessary for the maturation of the wine but is dense enough to protect the wine from serious oxidation. Oxidation will give white wines a brownish and red wines an orange color. Which is what happens when the humidity level is too low. The cork will dry out and thus will no longer act as a proper seal. For this reason wine should not be stored in a normal refrigerator since refrigeration dehumidifies air. And wines should be stored horizontally rather than standing up. Contact with the wine will keep the cork from drying out.
Vibration
Another reason why the fridge is not a good place for long-term storage of wine is the vibrations caused by the motor when the cooling unit is active. Vibration can be harmful to all wines.
Temperature
Temperature plays by far the most important role during the storage of a wine. It is generally assumed that 52°F (11°C) to 57°F (13°C) is the ideal temperature, based more on century-long tradition of storing wine in underground caves, rather than scientific research. If a wine is stored at a constant temperature of 61-65°F (16-18°C) it will not turn into vinegar within a month. Rapid temperature variation during a short time span is more detrimental to wine than storage at constant higher temperatures such as 65°F.
However, the fact is that higher temperatures do accelerate the aging process. In other words, if a winemaker says that his wine will peak in 10 years from now, it is assumed that the wine will be stored at around 52°F and storing it at 65°F may reduce the recommended storage time by a couple of years. Conversely, a wine stored at 40°F (4°C) will not harm your wine (as long as it does not start to freeze), but will certainly slow down the aging process. Cold temperatures may cause tartrate crystals to form in the wine - tiny crystals that look like not quite dissolved sugar. Usually these are removed during the stabilization process in the winery. They are completely harmless and are not a wine fault. In fact, I am always happy to see them because it tells me that the winemaker chose to leave the wine untreated as much as possible.
Which wines to store
Not every wine is age-worthy. In fact, most of the wines which are sold these days are meant for immediate consumption. In order to gain complexity during maturation a wine needs to have phenolic compounds and a solid structure for these compounds to build upon. Thus a simple, inexpensive wine will not get any better if you keep it for a few years because the little amount of phenolics it may have will diminish quickly, leaving an even duller wine. More expensive wines should come from better vineyards with better-suited soils and microclimates and therefore the grapes should have collected enough structural and flavor compounds to benefit (or even require) additional aging.
The wine label will give you all the information you need. The more specific the origin of the wine (a single vineyard) or the more prestigious its quality category (Qualitätswein mit Prädikat for German wines, Grand Cru for wines from Alsace or Smaragd for Austrian Rieslings) the more likely a wine can age. If on the other hand the label says "Riesling from" and then simply states a region as the origin with no further specification then the grapes are of lesser quality and the wine should be drunk young.
For many people, including myself, enjoying wine is a very personal matter. The majority of my wines have a special meaning to me, for various reasons. Even if I paid only $20 I still would hate to open these bottles after years of anticipation just to find out that they had gone bad or matured too rapidly because of improper storage.
Storage options
Where does that leave us in regard to storage space? There are quite a few storage facilities that let you store your wine in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment for a relatively small fee. But if you always want to have immediate access to all of your wines then you need to find a spot at home. A kitchen cabinet is not a good place (warm, temperature variations). A normal refrigerator (dry air, vibrations from motor) isn't much better. A cool, dark place which is not too dry and has a somewhat constant temperature (like a basement) is the best place. But if your basement temperature reaches 77°F (25°C) on a hot summer day, like mine did, you may want to start thinking about digging and put in a spiral cellar underneath it. Or simply click on one of those Google ad hyper-links and get a wine fridge. If you are lucky they won't charge you for shipping.
