Is there an ideal temperature to store wine?

Yes - but most of us won't be able to stick to this unless we have wine fridges or perfect cellars. 

Our professional cellars stay at roughly a steady 12 deg C which is hard to achieve in a domestic setting.

When the wine arrives with you , it will have been kept at this temperature and is ready to drink, but if you'd like to keep it for longer, the most important thing is to store it at an even temperature without too many fluctuations.

The importance of light

Light will destroy wine faster than heat, so it is important to store your wine in the dark.

Vertical or horizontal?

Horizontal. Always. 

Short term or long term wine storage?

Most everyday wines - both red and white - will keep for up to about 2 years if they are kept horizontal, in the dark and at an even temperature. They will not generally improve much with age and will come to the end of their life span and start to degrade after this time - particularly white wines which are made to be drunk young and fresh.

However, there are some wines that are produced with ageing in mind - and we will always mention this on our website. These tend to be the more expensive bottles and older vintages. In which case we will sometimes refer to their ‘cellar life’. These wines will improve still further and can be kept to enjoy at a later date - but they will have to be kept in cellar conditions - either in a special wine fridge or in a cellar.

How to ruin your wine

Store it in a kitchen

Store it upright

Store it in a light place

While some mass produced wines will cope with this, due in part to the large numbers of chemicals they contain, ours will not. 

Signs that your wine has not been stored correctly

White wines will start to become deeper and darker in colour, maybe with a brownish hue

Red wines will start to taste bitter or dry - with no sense of the fruit

Where not to store wine at home

Do not be seduced by pretty wine racks that may look impressive but will almost guarantee that your wine will not keep - particularly if they are destined for a kitchen where temperature changes are constant and above all, open to the light.

Good places to store wine at home

1. Under the stairs in a dark cupboard. You can buy wine racks to fit in odd spaces that are inexpensive and effective. For example from Cranville Wine Rack Company  but you can find elsewhere.

2. If you don’t have any stairs, find a suitable cupboard that is in the coolest part of the home and deep enough to hold the bottles horizontally. Again, you can find small wine racks to fit including this one from IKEA. 

If you don’t have either of the above, keep your wines in the box they arrive in, with the bottles held horizontally and slide it under a bed or somewhere in the coolest room.

More information about storing and serving wine

We are big fans of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust who run excellent courses for anyone wanting to learn more about wine. Check out their comprehensive guide to storing and serving wine here.