It would be an interesting study to measure oxygen permeability through cork as a function of humidity. Inside the bottle the RH is 100%, outside is your cellar RH so there will be a gradient in the cork. While I wouldn’t worry about the corks drying out too quickly short to mid term, I do wonder if keeping the outside of the cork higher RH lowers the oxygen permeability. Seems like something UC Davis or DIAM would study.
Alan,
How did this turnout?
that’s the reason I’ve stopped buying any reds past 2005 . . . well, many reds . . .
alan
I’m using an evaporative cooler to keep the humidity up.
I could make the humidity higher but then I’d be concerned about label damage plus it’s annoying to have to fill the cooler more often. Right now I only have to fill it twice a day.
1 Like
Not sure what your point is, actually. The fact that no one has done a ridiculously expensive scientific study on something for which there’s no great interest or consequence doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer to the underlying question through peoples’ personal experience.
The market has an answer. People who have tasted (a) versus (b) in a blind setting for many years have an answer. Both are right.
Are you using this in the winter? Won’t that convert your sensible heat into latent and cool the cellar?
It does cool it a little bit, but not appreciably. It mostly just adds humidity. Once the relative humidity gets much above 60% it doesn’t do much except maintain the humidity. I had a traditional humidifier as well, but the room is way too big for that. I have a big hessaire evaporative cooler and it keeps the humidity in this ~5000 sq/ft room in the 60-70% range, pretty good. Have to add about 8 gallons of water every 12 hours.
Filling up 2X a day? What do you do when you go on a 2-3 week vacation? That’s commitment for you folks. 
My point is that there is likely no actual, scientific data to prove what is the optimal storage condition. That doesn’t mean that there is no consensus or good guidance (e.g. lower temperature results in slower aging). But if you’re looking for input on whether 52F is “better” or more “ideal” than 55F, that data doesn’t exist.
I can hook it to a hose attachment but haven’t played with that yet.
That 6-quart humidifier I am using isn’t big enough for your cellar.
Twice a day would already count as annoying in my book.
That could be a risky proposition if something goes wrong and you’re away.
True, that’s why I haven’t done it. I think setting it to drip wouldn’t be overly risky but still haven’t done it yet.
1 Like
It’s not too bad, I just check in on it in the AM and PM.
Has anyone here had their wine collection ruined due to low humidity? I have seen many posts from people in CO, NM, AK winter where humidity plummets to ~10% and they always say that they have had no problems. Conversely, there is the one off posts of people who bid on auction and the collection had seepage and it is assumed that this is the result of low humidity. Or I have seen someone say that their corks became “crumbly” and assumed that to be due to low RH. It does not make sense then why other people with collections in equally low humidity do not also have all “crumbly” corks.
2 Likes
The inside of a wine bottle under the cork is 100% humidity. If bottles are stored on their side i doubt drying out would be a huge problem in a cool cellar. Maybe a bunch of 75 yo bottles would be at risk in a very dry cellar, but really, how many of us are going to worry about that?
I ran a few years at 55 then eventually landed at 57. My cellar is well insulated with a good strong ducted system. Yet, after experimenting for 3 years, 55 ran the cooling unit more heavier while 57 seemed to jive with what was more passive and ran magnitudes less. Better power bills, better for the life of the unit, and greener. It became a so-what.
Edit: The cellar temp is controlled by a bottle probe. I also invested in wireless tags (thanks to folks here) and the temp jives with it. The humidity over the last year was at a peak 70 in the mid-summer and 63 around 6 months of the year. Not bad for the south.
I’m interested to see how the evaporating cooler works in the summer.
I’d be curious too on a long term basis, how it performed vs a baseline. My cellar is a ducted split system. My tasting room has a separate in-wall Samsung unit that I can put on dehumidify (or heat or cool), and that easily rivals the ducted. Just not sure how long that can be sustained, at what cost, and what the humidity dropping like that does in the long term. i.e. Efficiency.