I previously purchased about 6 Rubbermaid “dish washing tubs” from Dollar General or Family Dollar (not sure I remember which) for about $3 each. I would guess each holds about 4-5 gallons of water. They have a nice shape, both deep and with a lot of surface area to allow for evaporation. I placed 2 of these in my wine cellar for a while (refilling them about every 2 weeks as the water evaporated). I found that they successfully raised the temperature by about 25% (originally ranging from about 45%-55% to a much better range of 55%-75%). I placed them on the top of my wine racks so they wouldn’t be in the way (or detract from the aesthetic view of the wine racking, etc.). The problem with a humidifier (I would assume) is that it would run out of water every 12-15 hours and need refilling. Most are only intended for overnight use (for a couple of nights, maybe).
Over time, I simply quit doing it, as I’m comfortable that 50% “un-corrected” humidity level is fine…As an aside, I have since found innumerable uses for these. They’ve very practical as they are lightweight and “stack” (so 6 tubs, stored away, takes up only the space of 1). They can be used for anything you’d need a “bucket” for (although carrying them around full of liquid is much more precarious, due to their wider, (and less tall). I use them for soaking wood chips/chunks prior to throwing them into smoker. I also use them on utility shelves as storage bins. I’ve gotten probably 12 years of use out of them, so it was a great value…
That’s possible, I guess, but I would have thought that as the cork becomes even just a bit dryer, it should absorb liquid even more readily (since I would presume the material has a sort of “steady state saturation point”), although I take your point that maybe there is a gradient within the cork (i.e. the outside being the driest, and the inner portion being the most saturated), and it’s possible that the top half of the cork being dryer could cause it to be compromised. However, part of my own feeling about it not being an issue was that I one left a cool-looking but crappy bottle of wine on my counter in my kitchen for about 10 years. On a lark, I opened it, and the cork (and wine itself) had no issues (despite being stored vertically, with no direct wine contact on the cork, and despite being stored at room temp (which likely reached as high as 76-80ish on rare occasions, such as during occasional brief power outages in the summer, etc…but probably averaged 69 over the years. That said, the wine itself was exactly “as expected” (i.e. kinda crappy), but showed no specific flaws such as oxidation, extremely advanced age, etc.
I once bought some older wines at auction that had likely dried out corks due to humidity (great labels, shriveled corks) and most of that lot was pretty shot. They might also have been stored upright for a long time, at some point in their life. Ullage was not extreme for their age (25-30 yrs) so it was not obvious to a prospective bidder from either pictures/labels.
I’m not as sanguine as other commenters here on the low humidity issue.
This seems a bit like Pascal’s wager. Once you realize you have a problem, there’s no recourse and you’re faced with a total loss.
Do you really want to risk the current bottles and the subsequent 15 years of wine purchases? And we all know you’ll have more than 150 bottles down there in 3 years!
I’m not as worried about your 5 yr wines as I am your 15 year bottles. I’d also feel better about your situation if you were sure the temp fluctuation is as small as you mention. Temp fluctuations and partially dried-out corks are a no-go for me.
I also don’t think you want to be in a position of wondering why some bottles taste “off” 5 years from now because that happens to everyone even with perfect storage.
I feel bad that I’m not more laissez faire about this because I am on plenty of things!. At a minimum, I’d add some humidity to the space via pail and wick/sponge. I’d also consider a wine storage cabinet for your 15 year wines or modifying part of the crawl space with a vapor barrier.
I think your wines will be fine. Corks don’t dry out from one end and get soaked from the other. It’s a nice theory but it isn’t what happens. If you’re seriously worried, all you need to do is go out and buy a little Saran Wrap and put that over the corks. But considering that they probably have capsules anyway, you don’t need to worry.
And that temperature isn’t horrible. It’s a bit higher than everyone says you need, but I’ve kept wine at those temps for years and it’s been fine. The heat pipes suck in that space, but you make the best of what you have. For me the whole problem would be the crawl space - slithering down under there into the spider webs and mice poop and who knows what else moved in!
Anyway, I wouldn’t worry as long as you really do keep those temps. I’m wondering how you keep the temps even though. Most crawl spaces are pretty much at ground level. That would mean that when you get one of those polar vortex things, it has to be much colder, and in the summer, when you get those hot days, it has to be much higher. I would check the temps weekly and see how it is. The dryness would be a much smaller concern.
Thanks, everyone, for the replies, all of which are really helpful. John’ K’s thought process had been on my mind too: i.e., if one side of the cork is in constant contact with liquid, how will it “dry out”? On the other hand, it could act as a wick and draw moisture from the bottle. This would presumably result in greater oxidation due to ullage, etc., but presumably wouldn’t be as dire as the cork ‘failing’ and losing its seal.
The suggestion to have bins of water makes sense, but unfortunately, I’m not there where the wine is stored most of the time, so I wouldn’t be able to replenish the water bins. Usually, I live in a small apartment on the East Coast (where I have a 36 bottle wine cooler and some wine racks in the closet for everyday bottles). I have my wine meant for aging shipped to Colorado, and then plan to take a mixed case back with me every time I return to the East Coast.
I’ve looked into off-site storage on the East Coast, but given the amount I’m spending on wine, it doesn’t seem to make sense. I’m mostly buying ~$30-$45 bottles (Oregon Pinot, Halcon etc. California Syrah, Sociando-Mallet Bourdeaux). With the ~$5/bottle/year storage costs I’d end up paying double for storage over the life of the bottles.
Interesting to hear the concerns that the temperature may be more of an issue, especially for bottles stored, say, over 10 years. It will be interesting to see how these wines develop and whether the accelerated aging is noticeable. I guess if it is, I’ll just have to drink up.
It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders for this stuff and aren’t going to go into panic mode.
I’m comfortable, just from the standpoint of my experience and subjective point of view, that your wines will be fine both as far as the temperatures and the humidity. Though I respect that others guess differently.
As far as premature aging, I highly doubt that’s going to be an issue. Maybe some of the wines you leave there for 10-15 years will have matured a little bit more than they would have at 55 degrees in a Eurocave? And even if that’s the case, it’s not necessarily worse that they have.