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Wine is a living drink that changes its taste and texture over time. To enjoy its authentic aroma, you need to ensure its optimal conditions.

If you appreciate the wine as much as we do, you definitely want to keep it in optimal condition so that the flavour stays intact or gets even more personality. Beyond the rigors of ageing a wine of the chosen variety, and which have been studied for a long time, there are also simple rules, which guarantee the preservation of the wine in optimal conditions, and which any wine lover can implement at home.

1. 4 main aspects to keep in mind to store wine in optimal conditions
2. Where we keep the wine. Ideal places for storage
3. Conditions for storing wine after opening the bottle

As a wine lover, with a few bottles of wine to your taste at home, you certainly want to know how you can make sure that the drink will retain its colour, taste and texture as time goes on. We'll show you that it's not necessarily hard to keep the wine correctly, so that that special wine that you have at home that you want to enjoy on a special occasion has a delightful aroma in a few months or a few years.

From the outset, we must draw attention to the fact that proper storage of a bottle of wine does not guarantee proper ageing. Not every wine lends itself to ageing and you risk keeping a bottle of wine until its contents completely alter. Read the wine label, it will tell you how long you can keep the wine.

4 main aspects to keep in mind to store wine in optimal conditions

Most likely you already know that wine can degrade and lose its qualities if kept in a place where it is too hot or too cold. It is just one of the important aspects when we talk about the ideal conditions for the preservation of wine. To ensure these conditions, you need to take into account four main aspects: temperature, light, humidity and vibrations. We'll talk about each other.

What is the correct temperature of wine storage

The wine is kept well at a temperature between 7 and 18 degrees Celsius, closer to the lower level for white and rose wines and closer to the upper level for red wines. Ideally, however, it should not exceed 13 degrees Celsius. If the temperature passes 21 degrees and drops below 3 degrees, we are already talking about unsuitable conditions for storing wine and we can expect an obvious degradation of the aroma.

We avoid placing wine bottles in the freezer, whether we do it for a few minutes for accelerated or longer-term cooling. Below 0 degrees, the wine is in danger of freezing and loses its flavour. It is also important to have no temperature fluctuations.

Light, an important factor for preserving the quality of wine

Strong light largely affects wine, regardless of type or variety. Wines are not stored outdoors because the temperature is not constant, but also because it is too bright an environment. No type of wine is good for the sun. Wines should be kept in dark places, which is why cellars and wineries are ideal for them.

Humidity level recommended by oenologists

Humidity is an important aspect when we talk about preserving wine. Too much moisture can lead to mold spores, while too dry air can cause the glass stopper to dry out, air to enter the glass and spoil the wine.

Oenologists recommend that in rooms where the wine is stored there is a humidity of 70%, but the drink is safe and if this value is exceeded (50 – 80%). It's also a recommended moisture level for our homes, so if we keep it, we'll also reconcile the doctor and the oenologist.

Effect of vibrations in wine preservation

In any wine there is sediment, which must decant in the bottle or in the decanter. Vibrations make these sediments move in the bottle and change the aroma, texture and color of the wine. That is why it is ideal not to keep wine in places where we always walk or heavily circulated.

In what position do we keep the wine bottles

Bottles of wine shall be kept in a horizontal position. The explanation for this rule is very simple. The corks of the wine bottles are made of cork, and over time they can dry out. Drying and reducing them in size will allow air to enter the glass and will affect the quality of the wine. It is therefore imperative that the liquid touches the stopper.

Where we keep the wine. Ideal places for storage

Once we know the main aspects on which the correct storage of the wine depends, it is clear that the ideal places for the preservation of wine are those where these factors fall within the limits recommended by specialists. But what are these places?

We will discuss at length the places and accessories most suitable for storing wine, but as directorates-general, it is good to know that the wines are kept in a horizontal position, so that the liquid reaches the stopper, in cabinets or other dark places and in areas where there are no air cures that cause sudden changes in temperature.

The ideal space for storing wine depends to a large extent on your possibilities. Of course, if space allows, it's ideal to have a cellar or a wine cellar where you can create the optimal conditions for temperature, humidity and ventilation, but if you don't have dedicated rooms and sophisticated facilities, you can create perfect conditions for wine in an apartment. The important thing is to try by the means at your disposal to recreate the conditions that a manufacturer's cellar would have.

Useful equipment and accessories for the proper storage of wines

If you're a wine lover, you like to buy special wines and you take advantage of every trip to add a wine to your collection, it's worth investing in a special wine storage accessory.

• Shelves for the storage of wine

  – are those bodies with individual places for each bottle of wine. In warehouses and restaurant cellars, wine is usually kept in these shelves.

• Rastels for wine storage

  – these are those uncovered bodies which allow wine bottles to be placed in a horizontal position and which we can easily place in the kitchen of a dwelling or in a closet.

• Refrigerators for wine storage

  – provides the ideal temperature for wine, between 10 and 18 degrees Celsius. They have individual seats for every bottle of wine.

The importance of easy access to any bottle of wine

Wine storage accessories are all created in the same idea – an individual place for each bottle of wine. It is ideal that when we remove a bottle of wine from the place where it was stored, we do not "disturb" the other bottles, because vibration and movement do not do good to the drink.

If you don't have any accessories that allow you to store each bottle individually, try putting the wine bottles you currently consume forward and back to the ones you keep for special occasions. At the same time, try not to move too much the bottles of wine stored in such conditions, because the aroma of the wine will certainly be affected by all these movements.

Conditions for storing wine after opening the bottle

We've all had a bottle of wine opened up at least once and not consumed it all. You want to enjoy that special potion the next day, so you have to keep it in ideal conditions. Here are some things you should know about this case:

• Invest in a vacuum pump to take the air out of the glass and then prevent the air from reaching the wine. Its cost is not at all high – maximum 100 lei.
• Keep the bottle in a place where the temperature is constant and between 7 and 18 degrees Celsius.
• Keep the bottle away from the sun and light
• Consume sin in no more than 3-4 days
• DO NOT place the bottle in the refrigerator where you are holding the food because the temperature is too low. DO NOT place the bottle on the refrigerator door as the temperature changes every time the refrigerator opens.

It's not hard to provide the ideal conditions for a bottle of wine. With a little attention to the storage place, you can enjoy the flavor of the wine even months after its purchase.