This has probably come up a million times for y’all but it’s time to settle this for me personally once and for all – do I store my wines laying sideways or upright?
So far, I’ve read many credible sources that virtually all wines including high alcohol wines such as Port should be stored lying on their sides to keep the cork moist and form a seal with it that allows graceful aging of a wine but will help block other contaminants from getting in.
But now I’m coming across many other credible sources including here that says wine should be stored upright as the alcohol will do a number on the cork itself over the years and essentially erode it causing taint in the wine where previously there may have been none.
I’m confused because I’ve read so many sources that say Madeira should be stored upright because the cork won’t last as long as the wine yet so many sources say that Port should be laid down. They both have the same high levels of alcohol that can do a number on the cork if this is true, so why should one be stored upright and the other laying down?
The only thing I’m sure of right now is that all screwtop and glass-lok topped wines can be stored safely upright without any issue and that is in fact the preferred storage method.
Your help would be appreciated because all my wine is stored sideways and I hate to think I’ve destroyed my wine by doing what I thought was proper for it. If it helps you formulate an answer for me, remember that I’m a sweet wine fanatic and I have bottles of nearly every sweet wine made on Earth.
Have you ever tried a white Recioto, that is a dessert wine made from dried grapes from Veneto, like the red Recioto but using white grapes? Hard to find but worth the effort. dc.
Is it even an option to store all your wine upright? Other than putting them all in 4x3 boxes and stacking them up from the floor, I don’t see any way to do that.
Just google ‘port bottles douro cellar’ and select images. If the producers store their bottles on their side, often for decades, why would you even think about storing them upright?
And the reason Madeira should be stored upright has nothing to do with the alcohol content - it is due to the very high levels of acidity (which would not be an issue in vintage port).
You can store them upright on shelves, however many deep your shelving will allow. Doable, but totally inconvenient with deep shelves since you have to move everything to get to the bottles in back, or space inefficient with shallow shelving only holding a bottle or two deep.
I don’t think upright is a problem for the short term (a few months) but well could be past that if the ambient humidity where the wines are stored is low.
I wonder about the same thing with all of the large format wines I have that don’t fit into a rack, and are displayed as part of the cellar. Advice on 3/5/6 ltr storage?
I kind of understand the sense in coming to this conclusion, but essentially this is just begging the question - port cellars do it, so it must be right.
My own view is that for short-mid term cellaring, it doesn’t matter how bottles are oriented. For long term (say greater than a decade), that’s a tougher question. I happen to think there is enough moisture in the head space of a bottle standing up to keep most corks from drying out too much (assuming that’s one of major risks). I’ve also seen quite a few corks from bottles stored on their sides that had deteriorated from what looks like essentially rot. So I think you’re kind of damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
One anecdotal story I’ve told before: I have a bottle of crappy wine that was a commercial give-away at a conference over 20 years ago. I’ve had that bottle standing up in my living room, through the heat of 20+ summers. The cork in that bottle is still solid, and the ullage has barely budged.
Wait. Who’s saying this? I’ve never, ever heard of the idea of alcohol eroding the corks and causing taint.
Personally, since we know via experience that storing most wines on their sides works, why risk otherwise? Aside from special cases like Madiera (which, face it, is oxidized already), I’d go with the consensus. Sure, it might be fine to store a wine upright, but do you want to find out that it isn’t after aging a lot of it for two decades?
I don’t understand the wood aged upright part. Do you mean that wines the spend a great deal of time in barrel can be stored upright once they’re bottled?
Might be, but I think it misses the point. It’s not about the cork or ullage per se, but the fact that without enough humidity, the cork will start to dry out, and therefore retract, letting air in. So the proper conclusion for your anecdote is probably: the cork in the bottle is still solid, the ullage has barely budged, and the wine is oxidized to death
Re: Tran’s question, maybe you’ve been reading too much about Madeira. I have yet to see any credible source suggesting that ANY wine (except maybe Madeira, and even then) should be stored upright.
Guillaume, I don’t think your conclusion is correct. If the seal is letting oxygen in, it will let water out, so my belief is that ullage is actually quite a good indication of oxygen ingress.
I don’t understand the wood aged upright part. Do you mean that wines the spend a great deal of time in barrel can be stored upright once they’re bottled?
Fortified wines that are predominately aged in wood can go upright. These include Madeira, Tawny and Colheita Port, Setubal. Those that predominately age in bottles go horizontal, Vintage, Crusted and LBV Ports.
Madeira historically is stored upright since it revels in oxygen and the corks were so crappy, they’d fall in the bottle.
In bottles? (Never seen or heard of that.) Or do you mean in botte – huge oak casks? (Yes, that was the tradition, though not for many years, as they once did.)
