Cellaring wine. What’s the best way to store your elixir?

If you’re a real wine buff owning a good looking cellar is likely to be one of the goals on your wine journey. A room with bottles tucked into tidy wooden racks, neatly parked silently on their sides waiting for the magical moment when they are just right to share, is straight out wine romance. We get it. That’s an enticing scene right there.

Creating a wine collection is a pursuit for the engaged and the invested — both in time and money.

It’s highly likely that the wine you’re buying is a mix of cork, cork substitutes or composite versions and screw caps and there are reasons why these wines shouldn’t all be stored the same way.

Cork is a natural product and there are still many wineries around the world who refuse to step away from using the closure. There are compelling reasons as to why that is. When it comes to storage the cork can dry out and if it does you risk allowing unwanted oxygen into the bottle. The wine will oxidise (start to turn to vinegar effectively) and you’ve wasted your time and money and likely set yourself up for a disappointing experience tasting a wine you wanted to be truly delicious. So for wine bottled under cork — like all quality sparkling wines — you need to store those wines on their side so that cork remains moist.

In contrast a screw cap is made from an aluminium alloy with a polyethylene lining. Once adequately tightened on a new bottle of wine, that cap isn’t changing in any way while the wine is stored. You could argue it’s a little less emotional opening a bottle with a metal cap than with a romantic cork but most wine fans will know about ‘cork taint’. Cork taint is caused by a fungus that attacks the bark of the cork tree. This fungal disease then transfers from the cork into the wine and impacts aroma and taste severely enough to render the wine undrinkable.

It is common for wineries who use cork closures to incur a 5-10% loss of all wine made to cork taint. Most wineries who use cork are prepared to wear this loss sighting the other advantages of the closure (better for aging red wines and allowing a living wine to, well, live). However, in the late 1990’s an infection devastated the cork trees of Portugal (the main place of origin for wine corks). This exacerbated cork taint and wineries were losing up to and beyond 30% of their total production (that’s 3.5 bottles out of every 12 bottle case of wine). Luckily, the screw cap had been invented years ago in the mid 1960’s and while then dismissed due its unnatural and unromantic appeal and use on cheaper wines, it suddenly became the saviour for the wine industry in the early 2000s.

At Huia we started trials with the screw cap in 2002 with full production being moved to the screw cap in 2005. It was a nerve-racking time. We didn’t know how the market would respond and, most importantly, we didn’t know exactly how the wine would respond over time either!! Thankfully, you picked up what we were putting down and the wine itself retained freshness and elegance beyond what we think a cork would deliver.

Now screw caps have become the norm — at least in the new world so cork taint is something that neither the winery or the wine buyer needs to worry about. But what does that mean for storage? The short of the long there is if the wine you’ve bought for cellaring is under screw cap, it doesn’t need to be stored on its side because it won’t alter over storage time and won’t allow unwanted oxygen into your precious wine. In fact is better to be stored upright for the wine and that saves you space in cellar.

Well that’s a dilemma for building that beautiful wall of wine racks you envisaged as your dream wine cellar right?!

It’s our recommendation that a great wine cellar should have a little area for boxes of wine that remain upright and racks for those wines needed to be stored on their side. If you’re really wanting to put amazing wine away for a number of years, then consider the space needed for large bottle formats. They definitely nurture the wine better over time, but that’s a whole other article.

There are cost effective ways to build a cellar like popping a few low cost racks under a staircase or in the study. Once wine is bottled, like most of us, it doesn’t respond well to change. Temperature fluctuation and direct sunlight (cork or screw cap) are both major no-nos for cellaring wine. If that cute wee spot under the stairs is exposed to a hallway heater and a frequently opened front door you might want to reconsider. If the study boasts a lovely strike of warming sunlight mid-afternoon then it isn’t going to be wine friendly either.

A dark spot with a constant temperature (and low humidity) is the way to go for your wine cellar spot. Include some space for those upright bottles, some space for racks for those wines to rest on their sides and some space for large format (everyone loves a magnum) and also try to ensure the area is free from movement like the vibrations felt from someone hooning down the stairs!

Please note: if you’re someone who would like to cellar wine but deep down in your heart of hearts you know you’ll never actually manage to cellar wine for long at all (like most of us!) then that hallway cupboard or wardrobe in the study will be just perfect for the high rotation supply required for your dinner parties. And that’s a great place to start working out if a wine cellar is in fact your jam!

Quick facts:

Ideal temperature range for wine (most) storage: 11-14˚c (52-57°F)

Cork: store on its side

Screw cap: store upright

For individual wine varietal cellaring times, you’re best to consult the tasting notes of the wine in question or enquire with the wine maker. However, acclaimed NZ wine writer, Michael Cooper has put together a great guide that you can find here.