How do you store your screw cap wines?

Since the guy who built my cellar failed to install an extra few hundred slots that I told him we would never need, I was in my cellar last night reorganizing the cases of wine on the floor. Hunting for empty slots, I realized that I probably didn’t need to lay down my screw cap wines just to keep the plastic liner moist. But that means finding a convenient way to stand them up. What do you do with your screwcaps?

Vertically. That being said only a tiny percentage of the wines that I buy to keep have screwcap closure.

Back into a box and stack them up

Plastic does not dry out like cork. That is the point.

Standing up in boxes, all 500+ of them.

Mostly I just leave mine standing up in boxes but I’m not bothered either way with the screwcap bottles which probably amount to two thirds of what I have. I certainly make sure my cork sealed bottles are laying down though. If I am going to stack boxes with the bottles upright, I’ll make sure that boxes on the bottom are full and that the bottles are the same height.

It’s fine for the wine to store them upright but it can be inconvenient to get to some of the bottles, whether they’re on shelves or in stacked boxes.

This is my point. I like instant access to everything and stacking up boxes is not my favorite choice.

Then you need more racking.

That will keep your wine safe from Open House thieves.

Obviously, no need to store them lying on their sides. Storing them standing up is not very convenient, so storing them
on their side in racking makes ultimate sense. One danger of this is that when you’re racking btls around them, you can sometimes
hit the screwcap w/ the base of another btl and, potentially, nicking/denting the screwcap and, potentially, breaking the seal.
I’ve had a number of screw-capped btls that have had dented caps, but none have shown any signs of oxygen leakage.
Tom

The reds lined up 4 deep in a center storage cabinet and the whites/rose on open shelves next to the lower fridge as MsG likes her’s chilled.

Placing the blame squarely on the person who built the cellar for not having ESP

In all honesty, I’d be interested to see how the Aussies have been storing theirs since they have been doing it for so long.

Yep, you don’t need to worry about a cork drying out, so the general rule has been to store them anyway you’d like.

I agree with Tom’s concerns - and also agree that a tiny ‘ding’ on the cap itself is usually not means for concern . . .

Cheers.

While they don’t need to be stored on their side (and I’m not entirely convinced that is as much an issue for wines with corks as most people believe, but that’s a different issue), I doubt it’s a problem to store them on their side since most of us have storage units, racking, etc. designed in that way. Does anyone think storing them on their side is going to cause anything bad to happen?

Wherever they fit.

I store them standing. My cellar is narrow and it gives me more room to squeeze into my cellar with shelving for standing bottles on one wall and racking for bottles lying down on the other.

I also store them standing straight up in a cabinet. This is probably best for the easy access that Jay is referring to. I truly don’t see the need to keep them in a box unless you intend to keep them on a floor and don’t want to accidentally knock a bottle over and break one.

Stored standing up on a shelf any more than two deep isn’t it a pain to get to the bottles further back, and also a risk for knocking some over as you do that?

Three deep can be handled easily, assuming there is enough clearance above. But when I needed to squeeze more bottles in I cut some boxes down so that there would be a sort of wall on the shelf.