Best way to store wine on a budget?

[Capocheny]

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