Proper storage of wine to keep it at its peak drinkable stage requires effort that is well rewarded when you finally pop the cork, finds Kathrin Puff

Drinking good wine is the easy part. Going a step further to learn about what you’re drinking and why it’s fantastic requires more effort. But surprisingly, many connoisseurs who keep fine wine on hand as part of their lifestyle or hobby fail to fulfill the last and most crucial task in being a serious wine drinker: proper storage. Either through carelessness or well-intended but inadequate practices they let their investments waste away.

Wine is a delicate commodity so the stakes are high for the ill-kept bottle. If mishandled the prized liquid quickly loses its subtle flavours and coveted character and in the worst-case scenario morphs into premium vinegar. Every beverage passes through a series of physical and chemical processes commonly called ageing, but perhaps more precisely, shelf-life stages. For wine lovers, mentioning the term shelf life and wine in the same breath might seem blasphemous, but peel away the romanticism that surrounds wine and that is exactly what we’re talking about: shelf life and how to make sure wines have a long and healthy one. Indeed, a wine’s drinkable life span does not only depend on the fragility or volatility of the liquid, but also on the user taking good care of it. Bad storage is like forcing someone to smoke cigarettes and eat lots of fatty, salty food. He will be dead long before the person who eats vegan and does a daily yoga workout.

Because of its chemical construction – a hydro-alcoholic solution with a pH range from 3 to 3.8 – wine is quite susceptible to microbiological contamination and enzymatic processes catalysed by surrounding atmospheric conditions. In layman’s terms, a lot of chemical invaders are constantly attacking it. Some of them are welcome if controlled, refining the wine’s flavours and character. But most of the time, these agents are left unsupervised and go too far, spoiling the wine. Producers know the ageing potential of a wine under normal conditions, but being a natural product, its stability is at extreme risk when not handled properly. In Thailand and other countries with hot and humid climates, storing a bottle at room temperature is a death sentence. At the other extreme, putting a bottle in the freezer kills a wine’s character. Temperature fluctuations also destroy wine as do too much or too little humidity. Light is another assassin along with storing the bottle in the wrong position.

Heat generally accelerates the ageing process whilst causing unpleasant flavours that can vary from stewed to boiled and cooked jam. An overheated wine will appear flat and in advanced stages, oxidised. Coldness, on the other hand, stops a positive ageing process. The colder the wine is kept the less improvement one will find after a long time of storing. What should be absolutely avoided is a temperature fluctuation more than between 1.5 and 2 Celsius (C). Every liquid expands and contracts according to the surrounding temperature. Still wine is usually bottled at 18 C. Exposing the same bottle of wine to 30 C means an expansion with a potential for a cork-pushing effect. A bottle of wine with a natural cork subjected to higher temperatures might start to leak through the cork, whilst compression at a lower temperature might cause more air being sucked through the cork than desired. As a result the wine breathes too much with temperature fluctuations. Oxidation, wine loss, cork mould and dried-out cork are some of the consequences of such an ordeal.

Sunlight devastates wine with the worst damage to those stored in transparent bottles. Darkly tinted bottles protect the contents from light somewhat, but over time, they can only do so much. Lighter-bodied wines are more susceptible to light than full-bodied wines. The taste of light-damaged wine is often described as garlic, onion, straw and reductive. Humidity is another major stumbling block in storing wine. Excessively low humidity dries out the cork causing leakage whilst excessively high humidity increases the risk of mould. An optimum level of humidity should be maintained in the storage area, especially for bottles with natural cork. The right position of the wine bottle is crucial for its ageing, but only if it’s closed with a natural cork. For shorter periods standing bottles do not cause any problems whilst for long storage periods a horizontal positioning of the corked bottle is recommended. Doing so bathes the cork, avoiding the risk of it drying out.

The best conditions for storing good-quality wines are in a dark, temperature and humiditycontrolled room that has a continuous soft air flow, ideally at 12 to 14 C with a relative humidity of 75 percent. Lighter and younger wines that will be consumed soon after purchase can be kept in the fridge. A lot of complicated things to consider? Well, wine is a fragile and complicated drink. That is why it’s so sublime and needs to be handled with dedication and devotion. Who says you are what you eat? You are what and how you store.