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+--- Thread: Best way to store wine on a budget? (/thread-19417.html)
- AuroraViva - 05-04-2005
Hello all,
I just turned 21 and have been looking around for a good, reasonably priced wine rack. My family is French, so I love wine and am quite familiar with it for someone of my age. The thing is, up until now I couldn't buy any myself, so I never had to worry about storing it. Well, I recently took a trip to a wine store, and now have over a dozen bottles that I need to do something with. And I'm sure that number will increase with time.
I was browsing the boards, and came upon a post by lizardbrains about declining a case of old, improperly stored wine. I have a small, one bedroom apartment (obviously no cellar) and I am very cold-natured, so I keep it about 75 degrees year-round. The good news is the temperature doesn't fluctuate at all really. I know that the fridge isn't a good place to store wine. I was thinking about getting a nice wine rack and keeping it in a corner of the living room that doesn't get any sunlight. The other possibility is my closet, but that is typically warmer than the rest of the apartment due to less circulation. Would you guys have some advice for me? I'm not planning on buying a bunch of ports that need to be aged for 20 years or anything, but I would like to have a way to safely store wines for a couple years, and I don't have the money for a temperature-controlled wine cave.
Thanks, Viva
[This message has been edited by AuroraViva (edited 05-04-2005).]
- PinotEnvy - 05-04-2005
Aurora,
Welcome to the wine board. Reading about your apartment, I have to say 75 degrees is not optimal for storing wine. I do not know enough to say don't do it if you keep it that temperature all the time, but it would be better if there were a way to store it at a lower temperature. Does your appartment building provide storage lockers that might be at a lower temperature or anything?
- AuroraViva - 05-04-2005
Hmmmm, not really, and storage would not be temperature controlled, and in Georgia it gets quite hot in the summer, I'd say a garage without AC could easily reach 90, so that would be worse than the apartment. I'm looking at wine coolers online . . . some of them aren't much more than a nice wine rack. Here's one from Walmart that looks fairly simple, would it do?
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2490249&cat=103679&type=1&dept=4044&path=0%3A4044%3A90548%3A90546%3A103679
[This message has been edited by AuroraViva (edited 05-04-2005).]
- AuroraViva - 05-04-2005
Hmmm . . . apparently I'm having trouble inserting a hyperlink into the text . . . sorry about that, guess you'll have to cut and paste if you want to see it.
- tw - 05-04-2005
Ya i would definitely go with a wine fridge in your case. Might suggest something bigger than 17 bottles though as you will fill that thing out faster than you think. I also recently got into buying my own wines at 22. Thought i could get by with a 40 bottle as that seemed like quite a lot to me. But ive allready filled it up and have another 40 or so in a back closet. In my case though the basement is about 60 degrees which isnt all that bad. The danby 40 bottle is a nice price if you can find one. Think they have some at American if there is one by you.
TW
- Innkeeper - 05-04-2005
Welcome to the Board. The advice given so far is right on. Sounds like you do need a cooler, and you need one much bigger than you think right now. Go down to the second to last tread on the board and go all the way back on it. There is a ton of good advice on coolers there.
- Thraz - 05-04-2005
For what it's worth... I know people who own a few bottles (up to 10), and people who own 50+ bottles. Rarely in-between. So if you buy a fridge for 17 bottles, I would think it likely that you will soon find out it is really, really not enough as you build up your "cellar" (quotation marks not for the quality of what's in it - only because of the apartment environment!). So, my two cents: if you plan to drink most of your wine within a few months, 75 degrees is probably not that bad, especially if it's constant. I know many are unhappy if the temperature goes above 60, but I think wine can take it for periods that are relatively short (and many stores put the wine we try to take good care of through much worse conditions - so if you buy from a good, temperature controlled source, your odds at 75 for a few months are actually as good as anybody else's with a good cellar but who buys from sources that are not always temperature-controlled). But now that you can buy your own wine, you will probably want to diversify your cellar and include some bottles you will want to age. In that case, you could look into self-storage facilities. Some are air-conditioned, you could enquire whether you can set the temperature for your own unit. You should be able to get by with the smallest, cheapest units.
[This message has been edited by Thraz (edited 05-04-2005).]
- AuroraViva - 05-06-2005
Thanks for the advice, y'all. I think I might just end up buying a wine cooler. A storage unit will cost me probably at least $50 a month, so in 4 months time, I'd have basically paid for a 40 bottle cooler. In 8 months, I'd have paid for two coolers. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img] If I keep the wine bottles at 75 degrees, until I have saved the money to buy the cooler (say, 2-3 months?), will that hurt it? Will I still be able to age it a couple years, even after it's been at 75 for a few months?
- winoweenie - 05-06-2005
A the wine shouldn't be harmed with a few months of 75* storage. As long as the fluctuations are minor it wont limit the wines ageability. WW
- Zinner - 05-07-2005
Wine is, I suspect, mostly studier than a lot of people give it credit. Otherwise more would be ruined in transport and in stores that don't give it ideal circumstances.
At the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen one year, someone asked a New York wine writer about how he stored wine in his cellar. "What!" he replied. "My apartment IS my cellar." I've had wine in the homes of many people who didn't have proper "cellars" and it was all right.
It seems likely that your wine will survive fine if you keep it away from sunlight, vibration and seek out the cooler part of your apartment. Wine will age a bit faster at higher temperatures, but it shouldn't hurt it as long as the temperatures don't soar too high.
- Capocheny - 05-10-2005
AV,
Of course, the ideal thing to do is to store it wines in a cellar at the appropriate temperature and humidity. That said, you need to understand that wine is very much a living and evolving thing.
The yeast in wines tends to have "optimal" temperatures under which they thrive. If the temperature is to high... the metabolic processes can cause the wines to age prematurely or, for that matter, cook. On the other hand, a really cold temperature will tend to inhibit the metabolic processes and, therefore, not evolve as quickly as it could. Therefore, the ideal temperature is 55 degrees.
Some people, however, say that it's not so much the temp as opposed to a "fluctuation" that will do a wine harm (given that the temperature isn't hot, hot, hot!) I'm not so sure on this though...
All of the above notwithstanding... when I was much younger I collected some good Burgundies and a few great Bordeauxs. As I moved from place to place... these wines always came along with me. The temperature in the apartment never reached excessively high levels though. When we finally consumed them after many years of travel... they were quite delicious and none of them were cooked or damaged in any way. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
So... that's been my experience!
Nowadays, I have a proper cellar... [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
Cheers
- AuroraViva - 05-22-2005
Well . . . just an update . . . I went to Home Depot yesterday to buy some wood to build a wine rack, and while I was there, I bought a 52 bottle wine cooler! So, I officially have a good way to store wine now. [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]
Also, I was able to turn the temp in my apartment back up to 80*, where I am personally most comfy. (I'd been keeping it at 70 for the wine.)
- AuroraViva - 05-22-2005
P.S. -- I'm going to go buy a thermometer and hygrometer to put inside, what's the ideal conditions? Everywhere I look says differently. In general, I'm thinking 55*-60* and 60%-70% humidity, right?
- hotwine - 05-22-2005
Those are good numbers, AV.
Check with your local Radio Shack and see if they have a widget in stock called their Thermometer and Humidity Gauge Cat. no. 63-1013. They're battery-powered, operating on a pair of AAA batteries. I've had three of them for a few years now, and they work great. Should run $22-$25 per. (You'll only need one; I've got three storage units.)
[This message has been edited by hotwine (edited 05-22-2005).]