Most Unlikely Place For Wine? But It Works!

raymd skrev i eanked$b73$ snipped-for-privacy@mawar.singnet.com.sg dette:

Someone with scientific insight: Does it really matter? I mean - a cork covered with a capsule of metal on one side and drowned i wine on the other. Any myth busters here?

regards Jan

Jan, We've discussed this before here. A lower humidity will probably promote increased ullage, but you'd have to have a *very* dry environment to actually cause problems for the cork, so long as the bottle is placed on its side. So, for long term storage (>5 years) it makes sense to control the humidity, but otherwise probably not.

HTH Mark Lipton

That is the ideal cellar humidity range. While it's true that keeping bottles on their side keep the cork moist at one end, low relative humidity can dry the cork from the other - an issue only in the case of long term storage. Many a fine wine has been spoiled by bad corks that have dried out over time because a cellar is kept too dry. Higher humidities can cause molds and mildews on the labels - again, only a big issue in the case of longer term storage.

My issue with this 'storage' location; 6 bottles is not a collection. While it sounds great for chilling a few bottles of your stash of ready-to-hand wines, it doesn't amount to a storage solution.

The crisper in your home refrigerator is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate you own. You would fill it up with wine, permanently? Where would you store your vegetables? Or do you mean to get a second refrigerator, and store six bottles of wine in the crisper of that one? Why not just get a cooling unit?

What about people who live in very dry climates as I do? Typical humidity here is less than 10% except for a few months of the year when it climbs to 30-40%.

Yup, the Sonoran desert does indeed qualify as *very* dry, Miles. I'd have some money invested in humidity control if I were you.

Mark Lipton

Along those lines, my cellar has been keeping at 50-60% for some years now, even without my fountain, as I needed the space that it occupied for more wine. I just changed out my WhisperKool 8000 for a split system and have been a bit worried about the humidity with the new unit. So far, 50-60%, but the monsoon is here and I've been running the misting system on the lower level, where the cellar is. Probably not a good control for my test, and I will be watching it closely, when the drier season is upon us. I still have to humidify my cigars, but they really love the monsoon!

In my previous cellar (passive and in Colorado), I used a tray of water with a large sponge in the middle. Much of the sponge was exposed to air and it worked well, keeping things at ~50%. If it dipped a bit, I'd just place a bar towell into the pan, with much of it hanging out. Always worked there and we had relative humidity in the 10's much of the time.

If I built a new cellar, I would definitely have a water feature someplace in it.

Hunt