How to Store Wine at Home

You don’t need an underground cellar or an expensive wine cabinet to look after wine properly. For most of us, a little thought about where you keep your bottles can make a surprisingly big difference.

If you are buying wine to drink over the coming weeks, storage is relatively straightforward. But if you have bought something special to enjoy in five, ten or even twenty years, the conditions in which it spends that time really do matter.

The aim is simple: keep your wine somewhere cool, dark, vibration free and, above all, consistent.

THE IDEAL CONDITIONS

A traditional underground cellar provides almost everything wine wants naturally: a cool temperature, darkness and very little variation throughout the year.

For long-term ageing, around 10–15°C is a good range, with approximately 12–13°C often regarded as ideal. But unless you have a temperature-controlled wine cabinet, hitting exactly 12°C is less important than avoiding repeated swings between hot and cold.

Keep it Cool – and keep the temperature constant.  Heat is one of wine's biggest enemies. Wine is constantly evolving in the bottle and warmer temperatures accelerate that process. Sustained excessive heat can cause a wine to mature prematurely, lose freshness and, at extremes, become oxidised or 'cooked'.

Avoid Large Fluctuations – Just as important is temperature fluctuation. A relatively cool room that remains at a similar temperature throughout the day and across the seasons is much better than somewhere that repeatedly heats up and cools down.  This is why the kitchen is generally one of the worst places to keep good wine for any length of time. Cooking, ovens, radiators and sunlight can all create considerable changes in temperature. A rack may look attractive next to the Aga, but your wine probably won't thank you for it.

Keep it Dark - Wine and strong light are not good companions either.  Prolonged exposure to sunlight – and to a lesser extent strong artificial light – can cause chemical changes within the wine and affect its development. This is one reason wine cellars are traditionally dark and why so many wines intended for ageing are bottled in dark glass. A cupboard is therefore often preferable to an attractive wine rack sitting in a bright room.

Keep it Still - Once you've found somewhere suitable, leave the bottles alone.  Continuous vibration can disturb sediment in mature wines and may also adversely affect the way a wine develops over a long period.  For this reason, avoid storing bottles immediately beside washing machines, tumble dryers, boilers or other machinery that regularly vibrates.

Store Cork Sealed Bottles on their Side - For traditional cork-sealed bottles intended for longer-term storage, we recommend laying them horizontally. This helps prevent the cork drying out over a prolonged period.  Screwcap bottles don't have the same requirement, although storing everything horizontally is often the most practical use of space anyway.

Humidity - This is another consideration for very long-term storage. An extremely dry environment can eventually affect corks, while excessive damp can play havoc with labels and cases. Around 60–70% relative humidity is generally considered a good environment for long-term cellaring.

WHERE SHOULD YOU STORE WINES AT HOME?

You may already have a surprisingly good spot.  A cellar or basement is the obvious choice. Being below ground generally protects it from both heat and rapid temperature changes, and there is usually very little natural light.

An understairs cupboard can be an excellent alternative. It is normally dark, away from windows and located towards the centre of the house, so temperatures can be much more stable than in other rooms. 

A cool internal cupboard or wardrobe can work well too. Choose one away from radiators, boilers and hot-water pipes and preferably on the cooler side of the house.

A garage can work – but choose the location carefully!  Garages themselves can become very hot in summer and extremely cold in winter, so an exposed external wall isn't ideal. However, a well-insulated garage, particularly a cupboard or rack positioned against the wall adjoining the house, may provide considerably more stable conditions. We'd suggest monitoring the temperature through summer and winter before entrusting valuable bottles to it. Garages with large seasonal temperature swings should be avoided for long-term storage.

For a growing collection, a dedicated wine cabinet is the simplest way to remove the guesswork. Unlike an ordinary kitchen fridge, a proper wine cabinet is designed for long-term storage, maintaining an appropriate temperature while also taking humidity and vibration into account.

PLACES TO AVOID

Kitchens, conservatories, lofts, sheds and sunny rooms are all poor choices for wines you intend to age. A wine rack above a fridge or close to an oven is particularly best avoided.

And don't be fooled by somewhere feeling cool when you happen to check it. The important question is what happens there during a hot August afternoon or a freezing January night?

A simple digital thermometer that records minimum and maximum temperatures can be extremely useful. Leave one in your proposed storage spot for a few weeks – and ideally through different seasons – and you'll soon have a much better idea of how suitable it is.

IN CONCLUSION

Don't worry too much about everyday bottles.  If you've bought a bottle on Saturday and you're opening it next weekend, you don't need to recreate the cellars of Château Latour underneath the stairs. Keep it somewhere reasonably cool and out of direct sunlight and it should be perfectly happy.

These considerations become increasingly important with fine wine intended for several years of ageing. The longer you plan to keep a bottle – and the more valuable it is – the more worthwhile good storage becomes.

For particularly valuable wines destined for decades in the cellar, professional storage or a quality temperature-controlled wine cabinet remains the safest option.

But for many bottles, the best wine cellar might already be somewhere in your house.

Cool. Dark. Still. Consistent.  Get those four things right and you're most of the way there.