It is well known that the character of many wines improves with time. While it generally applies to red wines, there are many white wines that also age in the bottle. Of course, there is always a chance that a bottle of wine has been stored too long and is not drinkable. Mostly when this happens it’s the fault of the way it was stored, rather than the wine itself. Self Storage Runcorn
Have you ever proudly opened a bottle of wine that has been kept for several years for a special occasion and alas, turned to something that resembles vinegar? This has happened to the best of us. At Stop & Store Runcorn storage, we recognize that wine is a particularly interesting commodity that requires special attention when being stored to ensure that the wine is going to last and improve over time.
Whether you are a collector of wine, with a cellar that has been designed especially for your wines, or someone who intends to do so, self-storage of wine is an art of its own. You will make some errors in the process of perfecting your storage, and as the quantity and value of your wines starts to increase you will be conscious of how important it is to get storage conditions right.
At Stop & Store Runcorn storage, as a top self-storage business, we advise on storage all the time, and know that our clients enjoy an occasional glass of wine. What better way to enjoy life than with a wine that’s been stored correctly and has aged properly to deliver its best to the drinker when opened?
Here are some important tips for the best way to store wine.
It’s Fun Collecting Wine
The main reason for collecting wine is to drink it. Maybe not immediately but sometime when its character has changed over time. This character can be described in several ways, the wine could become softer, with the taste lingering in the mouth for a lot longer, and its aroma stronger. Whichever way you look at it, the collecting of wine requires some discipline and planning as you would want your collection to grow. This growth would be both in the number of bottles you have on hand and the value as your wine collection increases.
Good wines do grow in value, particularly as they become scarce. The vintage of the wine denotes the year it was made, and depending on the region and country, every vintage has its own set of characteristics which is often described in good or bad terms.
For instance, if the weather in the year has been very dry, the vintage is likely to be smaller than in a wet year, and wines will have a different character according to the type of year that the grapes were grown.
It’s fun to start with the basics and find out where the grapes are grown, getting to know the origin of the wine you are interested in. There are schemes in which wine lovers can make their own wines, or buy into the production of the wine, or even participate in making the wine themselves.
Of course, all the fun of wine is in the drinking, which is probably where wine lovers started their interest in the collecting of wine. A wine tasting of a range of wines, which should involve taste swirl and spit, rather than drinking, will start you on the right track. In this way, wine tasters can learn the characteristics of different varietals.
Getting started
Reading up about wines and tasting them are the two most common ways to learn about wines and is the best way to start your collection. Doing it with likeminded people is fun. There’s not a definite answer to what wine is best, and what you enjoy is your personal choice. It’s a topic you can debate about and enjoy for hours and hours, especially if the wine is flowing!
Back home you’d want to start your cellar in the coolest part of the house. If you can’t make trips to the wineries, then scour your off-licence for some interesting wines for your collection, having read about them first. A sojourn to France is the dream of many, but these days it may be more prudent to find a reliable shipper to buy your favourite wines through.
Once you start to know what you like, you will expand your horizons, and start to extend your choices to say, six or more regions across several varietals of red, white rose or sparkling wines.
Managing Your Collection
The first rule is: drink less than you collect and have some wines for everyday drinking that are not part of your collection! In this way, you can grow your collection. As a rule of thumb try to buy 300 bottles a year, depending of course on your budget. Buy at least three of the same at a time so that you can taste the wine at different stages of its development. Keep a journal of your tasting notes, as you are not likely to remember everything. The same goes with the recording of your purchases, where and when you bought the wines.
By keeping an inventory, you’ll know what’s there and how old every wine is, so you can rotate as and when you want to and taste when you think a wine is ready for enjoyment.
As some of your collection will be stored for longer than others, store the long-term wines low down near the ground, where its coolest.
Warm conditions spell danger for your wines, as they could spoil, while too cold could result in corks popping when don’t want them to.
You could even keep your expanding collection in one of the Stop & Store Runcorn self-storage units. They range in size from 12 sq ft to 200 sq ft. To make this easy to imagine, our space calculator on our website https://www.stopandstore.co.uk/space-calculator/#/unit/listing is designed to help you.
Conveniently located in the heart of the town, with easy access to load and unload your goods, Stop and Store Runcorn storage is open 7 days a week from 8 am to 8 pm.
Call us on tel: 01928 246400