If you are a resident of Saint Clair who loves wine, you will agree that one of the greatest pleasures is curating a personal wine collection as per your taste and preferences. However, you should know that choosing and buying wine is just a part of the process; you will also have to store them. Remember, if you correctly preserve your wine, it may last even for decades and centuries while improving in value and quality. But, inappropriate storage can spoil even the finest wines of the world. Therefore, you should know how to store wines.
Below, we have listed the top five tips for storing opened wines!
1. Store in dim light: Your wine’s exposure to light should be the bare minimum. Ideally, you should store the wine in a dark place where there is minimum contact with natural light, as it can result in heat build-up inside the bottle, quickening the oxidation process. Keeping it away from natural light will ensure cooler and more humid conditions. Plus, it will also prevent that unpleasant aroma. Therefore, red wines come in darker-coloured bottles to protect them from the sun.
2. Recork it right: One of the most crucial factors in storing and preserving fine wine is to correctly place the cork. You may be tempted to fit the clean side inside the bottle, but do not do it. You must understand that the clean side may not be so clean and deteriorate the wine. Instead, you should prefer the stained side as it is already exposed to the wine.
3. Use half-bottles: You must know that air flattens your wine, resulting in it losing flavours and aromas. Therefore, you should minimize the air exposure by using a funnel to pour the remaining wine into a screw-cap half bottle. Please note that even if there is some air at the top, it would be far less than in a regular bottle.
4. Refrigerate it: Most people mistake keeping leftover fine wine on the counter after they recork it. The question is would you do this the same with food? No, right? So, stop doing this with your wine. The cool temperature might not stop wine from breaking down, but it will significantly slow down the process.
5. Do not ‘open’ it: If you like popping high-end bottles, you should use a Coravin. It is a device that looks like a Rabbit opener, pierces the cork with a needle, and tops the bottle with argon gas.
Pour whatever you want, remove the needle, and the cork will be naturally sealed. You will be surprised to know that several high-end restaurants use this method to sell their top-shelf wines by the glass.