How to store your wine safely

THE kitchen is one of the worst places to keep your favourite drop

Most of us are storing our red wine in all the wrong places.

NOT many of us are blessed with a wine cellar. But for those who like a drop — and that’s a lot of us — there are occasions when it would be good to be able to lay down a bottle or two to let it improve with age, and perhaps even value.

But cellar director at Cellarmasters, Christine Ricketts (pictured), says most of us are doing it wrong. Wines, especially red wines, do best when kept in cool, temperature-controlled environments.

“Wine should be stored somewhere with a cool, even temperature, so the kitchen is the worst place in the house to store wine, because it’s one of the hottest and most well lit rooms in the house, with a constantly fluctuating temperature,” Christine says.

“The kitchen and the living room are also both areas with high activity, which makes both those rooms bad wine storing spaces because you should avoid excessive vibrations around the area you store red wine.”

Christine Ricketts, Cellar Director at Cellarmasters.

According to a survey conducted by the wine retailer, the kitchen and living room are the two most common places for Australians to store their wine, which may come down to space.

If you don’t have many options, Christine says there are ways of mitigating the damage to your wine that can occur if it’s left in the kitchen.

Changes in temperature can affect the quality of your wine so look for spaces that are consistently cool and dark. If you’re a fan of buying online, keep your wine in the packaging it arrived in until you’re ready to drink it to maintain an even temperature. Alternatively, look for a cupboard in a less used part of the house where it will not be next to an external wall, which may also be vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature.

More:cellarmasters.com.au

Heat and light can adversely affect the quality of your favourite drop by ageing it prematurely.

TIPS FOR A TIPPLE

Make sure your wine gets better with age with these basic tips:

● Heat is the enemy of wine but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to keep it in the fridge in the long term. Keep it where the temperature won’t change much.

● Stacking bottles on their side to keep wine in contact with the cork is traditional — and space efficient — but not absolutely necessary.

● Sunlight and UV can adversely affect the quality of your favourite drop by ageing it prematurely. Keep your bottles in the dark.