Hi everybody,
I would like to start this topic because I have some doubts about how I can store my wines the best way.
For the last years, I just kept my wines in dark, cold places without too much temperature changes.
Recently I talked to a friend of my who recommended using a humidor, so that you constantly can be sure of the same temperature and humidity.
What is your opinion on this? I am interested in hearing your opinion about this.
Iâd think you only need humidity control if your area is very low. Over lots of years you might get some cork shrinkage/failure.
As much as Iâd love to have a walk-in wine cellar, thatâs not in our current budget or lifestyle. Given that, weâve settled on two wine refrigerators, totaling about 100 bottles of storage capacity. We chose this path for several reasons:
To your ultimate question, I highly recommend a proper storage option, at least for bottles youâre planning to lay down for a bit. If youâre going to drink everything within a couple weeks or even months of purchase, a windowless closet will suffice.
Caveat: that depends on your location. When I lived in Orlando, that was easy and acceptable given the relative humidity. Now that we reside most of the year in Las Vegas, I still keep some overflow bottles in the closet but theyâre bottles I intend to open within a few days or weeks of purchasing. I would otherwise be too concerned about cork failure if I left them in dry conditions for too long.
Pro tip for buying a wine fridge: check Ikeaâs as-is section. They list items online and you can reserve without payment. Most of their appliances are re-branded items and in the as-is section, theyâre incredibly discounted. I got a 54 bottle for under $100.
Is this for storing wine that will benefit from extended aging over a period of many, say 15-30, years? Or short to medium term storage for wines that will be consumed over 5 or 10 years? The requirements for shorter term storage are not as stringent.
For the longer term, a quick web search represents conventional wisdom pretty well, nominally 55 degrees at 60-80% humidity, with minor seasonal variations not so bad, but wanting to minimize short term variations and any light and vibration.
With my totally passive cellar (the original coal room in my 101-year old home) in my Wyoming very âdryâ climate the humidity drops down to around 40% each and every year during the âcolderâ months (essentially, half the year) and only gets back up to around 50% during the âwarmerâ months. Iâve had some wines (my Dunn Napa and Howell Mtn, my Dead Arm, my Guigal dâAmpuis, some 2000 Bordeaux, etc.) stored continually down there for well over 20 years and some over 30 years or so). Iâve never had a cork fail due to shrinkage. Not one. Iâve also noted that the Diam corks I am seeing in these current and more recent vintages of Oregon Pinot Noir seem so tight in the bottle necks that I probably have even less cause for worrying about the humidity issues in my cellar. I know plenty of folks seem to think itâs really important to have humidity above 50%, but my own experience suggests it just is not an issue.
You can always spend money and effort on more perfect storage, but if your wines are in a cool, dark place, I wouldnât worry about it. I have a 150-ish bottle wine fridge from Costco and then the rest of my wine is âunprotectedâ in my subterranean basement in Virginia. I have no idea what the humidity is, but am unbothered by it.
I used to care more about humidity but donât as much now; my cellar is usually 60-70% but can be a bit lower in the winter but I donât worry about it. As mentioned previously some people have stored wine for a very long time at very low humidity without any issues. I do keep a bit of water in my cellar with the highest dollar wines to keep it at about 80% as all of the bottles are plastic bagged to keep the labels pristine.
When I began this wine-cellaring journey about 36 years ago I was inspired by this old wine book I checked out from our local library that had a section on cellars. There was this wonderful picture of a centuries old cellar over in France. The narrative that accompanied the picture suggest a half-inch or so layer of pea gravel on the floor, and periodically spraying water on the pea gravel floor to maintain a nice level of humidity. I did that for about a decade or less and it really did help keep my level at or even above 50% in my drier months. But I eventually just quit doing it. Still have the pea gravel on the floor. On a side note, the worst part of that pea gravel was/is that I learn (the hard, painful way) that mixed in with it were a handful of âgoatheadâ burrs. So, I mostly make sure to wear shoes of some sort when heading into the cellar, as those little bastards really hurt the feet when stepped on. 
I suspect, at this point, Iâve managed to âretrieveâ and remove most of them . . . . 
I hate to tell you this, Adam, butâŚthe only way you can be guaranteed âperfectâ storage of your wine is buy an underground cellar in BDX and store your wines there!!
Much of what we know about storage of wine over the long term is what was written by âwine authoritiesâ many yrs ago where the ideal was to store the wine in the cellar and not move it from where it was made. And every wine writer since then as simply repeated that admonition.
Storing wine at âidealâ temperatures is 55Deg F. Temperatures fluctations will âfatigueâ the wine. There must be no vibration as this âfatiguesâ the wine & makes it out of sorts. You must never move the wine because that movement is âknownâ to damage the wine. It must be stored in absolutely dark conditions because presence of light can âseverely damageâ the wine. Yada/yada/yada!!
Sometimes the âauthoritiesâ are full of $hit because theyâre just repeating what the âauthoritiesâ before them wrote about wine storage.
Here is my storage story. I had an air-conditioned/heated (in Winter) storage closet where my wines were kept in as âidealâ storage as I could achieve. Temps would run to near-freezing in the Winter and up to temps in the mid/upper 60âsF. All were stored in racks on their sides (to keep the corks moist). No light except when I turned on the light bulb so I could see for short periods of time.
As it always does, my wine collection outgrew my controlled storage. So I simply started stacking my wines in various closed-off rooms in my house. Some were stacked on their sides but that lead to unstable stacks. So I just started storing them in the cases standing upright. Temps ran to 70-80 deg in the summer to mid 40âs in the winter. Just totally uncontrolled storage conditions. Leaving many of my friends aghast.
I have made 8-10 comparisons of wines from my controlled storage to wines from my uncontrolled storage. I have done several comparisons of wines directly from a wineriesâ controlled storage to the same wine from my uncontrolled storage. In all cases, Iâve not be able to identify any differences in the wines.
Iâve not been able to identify any consistent drying-out of the cork effect from the btls stored upright. In fact, supposedly in Piemonte, they recommend the Nebbs be stored standing upright.
But you should ignore, of course, Adam, all this anecdotal information. I am not a âwine authorityâ. I have no wine credentials. I could very well be full of $hit, like many of the wine authorities. Listen to all the âwine authoritiesâ here on WB and follow exactly what they say.
Tom
Thanks for this. Get similarly humidity levels in Denver. I stick a bowl of water in mu wine cabinet that gets humidity up 10% - I figure it requires very little effort so why not.
I think Tom is probably right. We all fuss too much. The notion that it must be a constant 55F, or that wines shouldnât be moved, seems like baloney to me, and Iâve never seen anyone cite any research to support that notion. Thatâs great if you can achieve it, but not necessary.
As I recall, bad things like brett can take off over 65F or so, but I stored wine in an uninsulated basement store room in San Francisco for 10 years in the 80s and 90s, where air temperatures got up in the 70s in the fall, and am still drinking wines from those days.
Today I have a passive cellar in an upstate NY house that is running about 40F now and up to 67F or so for a couple of months in the summer. The humidity gets high enough in the summer that I have to spray for mold occasionally, and dips to 50% or so at this time of year. After six years, Iâve seen no evidence of problems, even with older wines.
That said, I wouldnât leave them in a closet year round. Iâve had a few bottles over the years that were stored that way for decades in NYC apartments (probably in the 80s much of the summer and, in old buildings, maybe high 70s in the winter with steam heat). The wines werenât spoiled, but they werenât as fresh as they should have been.
You have done exactly the right thing. Donât give a further thought.
My underground cellar is 9° to 13/14° C. 70 to 80% hum. and dark. Not good for the labels but great for the wine.
Donât know what less good conditions would do -
I recall reading something about Chateau Margaux (or maybe it was Mouton) and their passive cellar and how temperatures actually changes a decent amount from winter to summer without much effect. There is the concern of Brett with warmer storage - maybe above 70 F? Clearly, you donât want a usually dry environment with super low humidity. OTOH, too humid and the labels may be more prone to damage.
If you believe Google AI (a significant if):
If thatâs right, thereâs a risk of storing wines at 60F-70F.
I do the same thing for my basement closet storage (which contains ~40% of my inventory). I have a cookie sheet in the corner with some water and it stays 60-65% during Chicago winters when the house struggles to stay 40%. Minimal effort required since Iâm in there at least once a week.
Variations in temperature lead to pressure gradients across the cork. As temperature increases the wine expands (small) and the headspace pressure goes up (could be a lot if ullage is very small). Gasses will flow to equalize the pressure gradient (i.e. bulk flow). Itâs better to keep the wines at a constant temperature thatâs slightly higher (say 62F vs 55F) than have variations in temperature (50-60-50-60-50âŚ)
Greg â Is that really a concern with a good cork? And if the corkâs seal is poor enough that very modest pressure gradient can cause air to go in or out, Iâm thinking that you might have a bigger aging problem.
I divide my wines into two categories: those that are ready to drink, and those that require long-term cellaring. The former sit in a 50-bottle wine cooler at home, while the latter are stored in an off-site cellar that has minimal light exposure and is kept at 55 degrees Fahrenheit and 60-65% humidity year-round.
Under a pressure differential the gas will find a way. Shortly after wine is bottled, there may be a slight negative pressure inside the bottle due to the vacuum used on the bottling line. Within a few months the pressure will equalize. When temperature and pressure are held constant, then only diffusion will drive gas migration, and that is much slower than bulk flow.
But I agree with the general sentiment that wine is pretty hardy, especially over the short term.