Red Wine storage question

Oct 13, 2010 3 Replies
J

I am trying to determine the best way to store red wine. I did buy a 6 bottle Cusinart wine cooler with thermoelectric cooler and it broke after a few months. Lost the receipt so I was unable to get it replaced under warranty. After reading many reviews, it became appearant regardless of the manufacturer that ALL thermoelectric wine coolers fail within a year so I don't see the point in buying another one.



I typically hold around 6 bottles at a time and drink them within several months. Recently I bought a case because I got a really good deal on it. If I drink the wine within several months does it even matter what the storage conditions are like? I have read about using a mini fridge with a separate temperature controller which I would do but heard that the humidity is too low which can dry out the cork and the vibration from the compressor hurts the wine (really?) Again if I am just storing the wine for a few months is that long enough for the low humidity and vibration to be more of a problem than temperature variations? Also read about lining a closet with insulation to reduce temperature variations. Right now I keep the wine in the garage and the temperature can vary from 40 to 100 degrees although most of the time it is between 60 and



  1. If I keep it in the house then probably 65 to 80.

Thanks


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A

When you are holding for a few months temperatures don't matter much if you are able to keep them below 65F, say. Even 70 is acceptable, but not ideal.

75-80 probably not good at all :-) When we are talking years or decades 50F is an optimum, 40 will keep wines for a very long time. But even then, in my cellar, the yearly fluctuation is 41 to 66 and I've kept bottles for 20 years without problems. Anders

"Joel" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@h37g2000pro.googlegroups.com...

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B

I beleive Dale and Mark did a little personal test on time/temp storage and concluded no big deal at room temp for short amounts of time.

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D

We had some mixed results, but over a bit longer span. Personally, I think it's unlikely that 75 degrees for 3-4 months will do any noticable damage to most red wines (assuming not a natural/no added sulphur cuvee). But over 80 really dramatically increases chances of wine being cooked, AND of expansion causing leakage/oxygen ingress. In OP's case, for 6 bottles there's no sense in any kind of cooling system. If house really pushes 80, I'd opt for fridge. But in general I'd just look for coolest/stablest spot- floor of a closet or whatever, and place blanket over them for insulation. The garage would probably be fine for 8 months of the year if temps range from 40 to

100.
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