Operating since 1992
Wine TipsTips for proper wine storage:The question we hear all the time is how should I store my wine? Constant temperature is important. If you can find a cooler room in your house, a closet or a space in the basement that remains fairly constant temperature wise, you'll be off to a good start. Seasonal fluctuations in temperature are ok. These are the gradual increases or decreases that occur with the changing season. They are slow moving and allow your wine time to adjust to the temperature change. What you need to avoid are places that cause rapid and frequent temperature changes in your wine. Here are some places to avoid; a wine rack in front of a window, a kitchen cupboard near the dishwasher, a laundry room, or anywhere your teenage or twenty-something kids can get it. Your garage or crawlspace should be ok for the shoulder seasons but you really need to be mindful in the winter during cold snaps, extended periods of cold and garage temperatures less than 50F can cause the tannins in your red wine to precipitate out onto your bottle. This can leave your wine lacking structure. Temperatures of 80F and above in the summer can turn your reds bricky colour, not a characteristic that you want in a wine. Extended cold temperatures in a white wine result in an acid dropout that looks like fine sand in your bottle. Warm temperatures can turn your whites a yellowy amber colour. All wines benefit from age, the more you can give them the better they will get to a point. In a perfect world, we would encourage you to wait 9 to 12 months before starting in on your wines. Some of our reds are fantastic at 2 years but this is hard to achieve. My best advice is to leave it as long as you can. Try a bottle every month or so to see how your wine is coming along and when you are really enjoying it, go for it! Should my bottles be stored on their sides or upright? Traditionally, wines have been stored on their side to keep the cork moist and thus the bottle well sealed. The advent of the synthetic cork is changing this tradition. The corks that we are using at the Wine Works are winery grade synthetic corks with built in permeability. You may leave your bottles upright if you desire. I still like to put my wines on their side, I'm a traditionalist, and besides what would I do with my wine rack? 
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