Cellar Tips

Ever thought of building your own wine cellar? Or maybe you’re just curious as to how wine should be properly stored. Here are my basic cellar tips for all of the My Wine Cellar family to share…

1. The ideal temperature to store wine is between 13ºC-15ºC. However, variation in temperature is most critical and for this reason constant temperatures between 5º-18ºC will suffice.
2. Temperature isn’t the only factor when considering cellar conditions. Moderate humidity should also be sustained at about 70%. This is to ensure that cork integrity is maintained, preventing wine oxidation.
3. During storage the wine should always be in contact with the cork. For this reason bottles should always be stored on their side. Face the labels up so that they are easily visible, preventing unnecessary disturbance of the wine.
4. Even a regular closet can easily be converted into a wine cellar. Just remember that the cellar space should never be against an outside wall.
5. Remember that not all wines can be stored, in fact only a few can. As a rough guideline 30% of your cellar should consist of storage wine and the rest for regular drinking. Ensure that you know the approximate storage time before cellaring a wine.
6. Lastly, it is recommended that you use a suitable software program to manage your cellar. I have successfully been using mi-vine(m) which can be found at http://www.mivinem.co.za.

If anyone has more questions or perhaps their own wine wisdom regarding wine storage please post your comments below!

Cheers!