Wine Saver
A wine saver is any device meant for preserving and aging wine. It can be anything from a large custom-built wine cellar to a small countertop wine refrigerator. Wine is a living, breathing organism that changes in taste and aroma based on its environment. To age your wine successfully, you need to follow these four essential guidelines:
1. Store your wine between 55 and 65 degrees consistently. It's the "consistently" part that is often ignored. If you live in a cool place, your garage or basement might be the ideal temperature most of the time. However, one hot summer day or very cold winter night can do irreparable damage to your entire wine collection. For this reason, it is best to store wine in a temperature-controlled environment like that of a wine cellar or wine storage cabinet.
2. Keep your wine out of direct sunlight. The UV rays in light can react with the phenolic compounds (the chemical compounds in wine that make up its taste, color, and mouthfeel), and potentially create wine faults. White wine and champagne are especially sensitive to damage from light, and are accordingly most often packaged in tinted bottles. However, whether white, red, or rosé, wine should be kept in a dark place at all times to protect it from the damaging effects of light.
3. Keep your wine away from vibrations. In this rule lies somewhat of a paradox: wine needs to be kept refrigerated to be preserved, but most refrigeration systems include a vibrating unit. Vibration, like fluctuations in heat, can speed the wine deterioration process, ultimately ruining the wine. You can keep their collection safe by never storing wine near your refrigerator’s cooling unit. Or, to achieve a completely vibration-free storage system, you can switch from a traditional vapor compression system like that used in most refrigerators to a vibration-free (and energy-saving) thermoelectric wine cooler.
4. Store wine on its side. Wine is best kept in a horizontal position, which prevents the cork from drying out. A dry cork contracts, letting in air that can turn what could have been a beautifully aged wine into vinegar. If you’d like to store your wine in the correct position but would also like to be able to see the label, look into storing your wine in a hanging rack or high-reveal row, which tilts the bottles at an angle between 9 and 15 degrees, keeping the cork wet but also allowing the label to be visible.
|
