I’m storing about 150 bottles in my crawl space. It’s at ~8000 ft in Colorado. The temp seems pretty constant around 63-5 (heating pipes run through it), which I understand is on the upper end of the temp range. But the humidity is at ~35%, which is much much lower than anything I’ve seen recommended. All of the bottles are stored horizontally, but is that enough to protect from cork failure? Probably 1/2 of the bottles I plan to drink within 5 years, the other half within ~15 years.
The corks will dry out, which means they’ll sometimes break during removal with a normal corkscrew, the wines will be fine. I have a passive cellar with temp range ~58-68 but low humidity, eastern Washington desert. Capacity around 800 bottles. My oldest bottles going on 10+ years in that cellar and I just know to pull cork carefully and screen into a decanter if I lose half a cork. I’ve never had a wine I thought was prematurely over the hill.
Adding a humidifier would help but not sure in a crawl space if it works without an enclosure.
I don’t think of 15 years as medium term. It depends on what you’re storing, anything natural or with low sulfur is at risk with temperatures that high. Your 15 might be equivalent to 30 in a 55 degree cellar.
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I consider that humidity level to be risky for the wine. If corks dry out, they often shrink, which can lead to evaporation and oxidation. They might be fine, but they really might not. I’d look into ways of increasing the humidity if at all possible.
Labels can also fall off as the glue dries up, but that’s only a problem if you intend to sell them. You can wrap your bottles in plastic wrap to keep the labels in place if that matters to you.
I stored wines in very similar conditions for about 5-6 years. The corks did dry out and become crumbly. The wines were fine. I’d be nervous about longer periods of time. It seems to me that once the corks are that dry, they will eventually fail.
I lived at that same elevation in CO for many years (Nederland). You will be hard pressed to find the answer as there are no studies. With that said, I would certainly add humidity if you are in a room that is closed off and it is possible. I used an evaporative humidifier as they do not create white dust and actually cool a tiny bit as well. There are other options as well. You have to fill it up every few days and replace wicks once they get too much mineral in there so a tiny unit is not your friend.
On your temps I had a similar situation and eventually went active cooling. I was not super concerned about the wine but as I had increasingly valuable wine I wanted to ensure that stayed close to 55 and did not reach into the mid 60s. If your wines are generally nor super collectible (say over $500) or aging for 30+ years, then I probably would not worry too much. A cost effective alternative is to get a small cooler for the special bottles and call it a day.
James, I’m in Denver and I bought an old wine cabinet off FB Marketplace and a SensorPush- humidity was steady at 35%. I added a bowl of water and a sponge that I soak regularly, it’s now up to just over 50%. Will probably add another sponge to bring it up more. Not sure what else to do, but if you have more space, get a humidifier.
Interesting. Do you have any experience with storing natural/low sulfur wines at an extended period at those temperatures? I have a passive cellar that reaches 65-68 in the summer (55 in the winter).
I do have some natural wine there, but most of them i will only store for 2-4 years. (my humidity is also 55-75 year round)
Sheesh. What did people do prior to the days of Eurocaves? I’ve has some broken corks (usually seems to be older bottles of Riesling), but I’ve also had 20 year old bottles of Bordeaux with no issues.
I though you were a frequent poster to the winter weather thread, Mr. Minnesota.
Sometimes natural wine isn’t moved to the offsite quickly enough, don’t know if that’s the reason some wines get screwed up. It’s a risk I prefer not to take.
Yup. Passive basement with concrete walls and floor. It’s 57 degrees right now, and about 60-62 during the summer. The advantage I have over those Florida folks is that I don’t have to worry about having electricity to plug those wine coolers into.
Just to go back to my point; are we getting anal about all of this? I would be interested to see Mr Audouze weight in on this. I imagine much of the wine he has consumed did not spend most of their lives in temperature and humidity controlled units.
Would a Durand help with this issue?
I’d be concerned about both temperature and humidity in the conditions you described for longer than a few years. There is an argument to be made that maybe we are getting to anal about this - but that really is warmer and drier than the no tech approch (deepish under ground).
It also depends on the wines you are drinking. If you are throwing anything in there that is low sulfur, I’d be scared. If you are throwing a bunch of bordeaux in there, I’d be less concerned.
It is interesting and i am a bit concerned myself. So all my best low sulfites wines is still at an off-site facility. The rest will just have to be part of an experiment i guess 
I only had my passive cellar for 18 month’s now. I will report back in 3-4 years hehe.
I’m located in rural VA, and employ the same bowl of water trick over the winter month in my active cellar. Amazing how small a bowl of water makes a noticeable difference in humidity. Well worth a test run, I think.
Zero risk. None. Regardless of the humidity on the outside, it is 100% humid inside the bottle. Any “drying” of the cork on one side should be ameliorated by moisture contact on the other. If a cork can “dry”, it can also “absorb” just as easily. That’s my best “common sense” guess, but (i) no one knows for sure, and (ii) I strive for a higher humidity “just in case”. Similarly, I am a skeptic about “travel shock”, but I nonetheless dutifully allow my wines at least six weeks after shipping…why take a chance when one can never know for sure, especially when there is no downside to doing so. I guess it’s the old adage: “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best” (even when the “worst” is very unlikely to occur).
For the longer term, I would be more concerned about your (higher-than-ideal) temperature than the humidity, but for “medium term” (i.e presumably wines to be consumed within 5-10 years?) I wouldn’t have much concerns about that either…
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I will say the sponge seems to work better because it dries out regularly and I have to soak it. It could just be that there’s lesser water and it seems like it’s having a bigger impact…
I understand the idea behind this, but if you have a bone-dry upper half of a cork, once the wine gets to it it will permeate it more easily. I could be wrong, but I don’t think a dry cork absorbs liquid the same way a more moist cork does. Like you said, most of this is all about just in case…