Storage limitations

[woodman4]

First, let me say I've learned a lot by lurking. But no

Unfortunately, I am not blessed with a very good location for a cellar at home. My wines have to reside in a closet that varies between 65-80 F during the course of the year.

Would I be wasting money to spend any significant $$ on wines to age for even the mid-term (10 years or so)? Thanks for the help.

[Jerry D Mead]

If you can keep it closer to 70F I'd feel more comfortable.

I have never had true cellar conditions...though I do keep my air conditioner going and rarely get above 70.

I have to tell you I have wines ten and 20 years old that are drinking very well. Cooler temps obviously are more desirable, but my personal experience is that wine (especially red wine) is not nearly so fragile as we all think.

[mrm27]

I live in England and this summer it was extremely warm by our standards (weeks in the high 80s and low 90s). The cupboard under the stairs, where I keep my wine, got very warm, despite being well sheltered and temperatures in there regularly reached 80-85 degrees. Some of the reds went distinctly off, but the sweet whites, notably an eleven year old Sauternes, survived well. There was considerable seepage, but one piece of advice I got about that was to stand the bottles upright, to prevent the wine expanding along the cork and hitting the air. Is this bad advice?

[Jerry D Mead]

There are those who will tell you that you MUST keep the bottles on their side to keep the wine in contact with the cork to keep it moist and swollen.

I'm not convinced this is all that necessary, especially in humid, damp climates such as yours, at least over a period of several years.

Now that I'm living in a very dry, nearly desert climate I am beginning to have some problems with corks drying out...but never did when living in the San Francisco Bay area.