How To Store Wine

Posted by Alan Boehmer Jul 23, 2006

Want to enjoy your red wines at their peak of flavor and aroma? Then don't expect to drink them soon after purchase, unless you bought pre-cellared wines at a premium price.

Most wines - virtually all dry whites and up to 90% of reds - will not benefit from very much additional aging, so enjoy them young. But few wineries can afford to give their red wines enough bottle age before release. They need to move the product. If they keep back their red wines an additional year, they must charge more for their wine and can become uncompetitive. So many red wines will "come together" after an additional year or so of cellaring. By "cellaring," we mean laying down in a cool place with relatively even temperature. You don't need strict temperature control for wines such as these. Just don't let them sit in the hot trunk of your car. (Long term storage is another matter, see our article on Enjoying Older Cabernet Sauvignon. A cool closet, cellar, or garage can be fine for short storage.

On the other hand, fine, expensive Cabernet Sauvignons almost always require at least five years of bottle age before they even begin to show their stuff. The better the wine, the longer cellaring it will require. We review a 27 year old red Bordeaux in the article mentioned above. It was revelatory.

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