Cork exposure and bottle aging

WINE TALK
1

Let me preface this by saying that Im relatively new to the board. I’ve been collecting for about 6 years. Last year I finally decided to build a cellar for long term storage. I chunked down for some nice racking. Part of the racking has one of those angled display shelves. The other day I noticed, due to the angle, some bottles when you look closely the cork on the inside of the bottle is exposed to the air bubbled inside (see link to picture). Now I’ve read a bit and see all sorts of comments about how to prevent cork from drying out, proper humidity in cellar etc. But I’ve also read some comments that the inside of the bottle is at 100%humidity so the exposure on the inside is less important than the exposure and humidity (or lack of) on the outside.

So does anyone feel strongly that this cork exposure would do any long term damage to wine in a properly controlled cellar? While it would be a bummer to lose this display shelf for storage, im more concerned about the wine itself. Also I did try to see if I could flip the bottles but without some sort of odd modification they would slide out of the display shelf.

http://1drv.ms/1Yd7Nre

Wade

2

As long as the humidity situation isn’t absolutely barbaric (and likely even if it is) you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. A) This is how many storage configurations position the wine bottle – what you theoretically have to worry about with corks is the seal on the outside, not the inside. B) Wine is far heartier than most people give it credit for, and in a properly controlled cellar your wines will be A ok!

3

Wade - it’s not a problem. I’ve stored wines upright for years. The idea of storing wine bottles on their sides came about when the cylindrical bottle was invented. The shape made it very easy to stack the bottles, more efficiently using space. And even though I don’t like them, corks today are better than ever. Don’t sweat it. The racks look nice BTW.