Clients often come to me to ask how they should store their wine cellar.

Today, I want give you a few tips on how to do this more or less easily and inexpensively.

The first thing you should ask yourself is, “do I like the wines when there are in the fruit-aromatic phase or do I prefer maturity?” Nothing is more unpleasant than if you know how a well-liked wine should taste, only to put it in the cellar and after maturity you don`t like it anymore .

Which wines are even suitable for storage?

The aging potential of wines depends on several factors: tannins, varietal, income limits, good year and production. During the storage of the bottle many changes happen such as how tannins, fruit, and fruit aromas combine and the wine becomes softer. Examples of this are great Chateaux of Bordeaux, Grand Cru Burgundy, Hermitage from the Rhone, Madirand and Cahors, Italian DOCG, Spanish Gran Reserva or Portuguese Barca Velha. White wines are usually not stored so long, but this should not mean they don’t have the potential to do so. They require a certain degree of acid and / or sweetness. Examples include the Moselle or large burgundys. For sparkling wine, only champagne is for storage because this adds to the quality. We should not forget the magnificent Vintage Ports, Madeira and Sherry, which taste much better after storage.

What happens in the bottle?

When a wine leaves the barrel and is bottled, it must be carefully maintained so that the desired result is obtained.  For this to occur it takes constant temperature, the right humidity, and lots of rest and time. One speaks of three aromatic phases that wine goes through. We call the youth phase the primäraromatic, which comes from the grape itself and is usually fruity and fresh. The secondaromatic stems from the expansion, for example in wooden barrels. A clear barrel character and plenty of tannin prevail. In the transition years, a wine can completely close for several years and acts only rough and unpleasant. Here it is important to be patient and wait for the next aromas to break through. With the Tertiäraromatic, which occurs after 15-20 years, the wine reaches its perfect maturity. How long should this phase continue until it has reached the peak and becomes vinegar depends and is best gauged with the wine alongside in the storage conditions. Therefore, in order to find this out, it is important to lay down not just one or two bottles on the side, but several so you may taste the current flavor at a space of one to two years.

What is the right for me? First and foremost, you need to consider a few basic rules.  However, whether the cellar space has room for 10 or 100 bottles, is not really relevant.
1. The temperature: this should remain as constant as possible. The higher the temperature the faster the maturation will occur. The ideal storage temperature is 10-14 ° C.
2. The humidity: between 75 and 85 percent is perfect.  If it is too low, there is a danger that the corks will dry out, but if too high the corks and labels begin to get moldy. The horizontal position is used so that the cork is moistened from the inside. For your everyday wines, this is not necessary and the wine can certainly be in a standing position , which also saves space.
3. The light: Wines are sensitive to light, especially ultraviolet rays. The cellar must and should be dark anyway. If this is not possible, better to leave the bottles in the box.
4. Stability and odors: An overlapping wine should be disturbed as little as possible in its maturation. A resulting damage cannot prove it, but the wines should not be exposed to large vibration. It is important that the storage space is odorless and well-ventilated. It must be noted that the odors of vegetables, tires, etc. penetrate rapidly into the bottle and change the taste.
5. Keep track of things: Finally, it is important, when buying wine, that you don`t put it in the cellar and just left it there only to be forgotten there after a week because there is no order. Keeping a cellar book and the labeling of the shelves in order of regions or countries, while seemingly tedious, is a huge help. There are wine racks in various shapes and designs and whichever you decide depends on the existing or required space and budget.
Also the company Klimawatt at Kilchberg can help you very competently and can give you many tips.

Tip: doing this yourself is a lot of fun and it does not take much to do if you are a true wine aficionado so I wish you lots of fun in arranging your new cellar.

 

Comments are closed.