Having recently been to a wine tasting party hosted by a colleague, I had the chance to mingle and chat with other "amateur" wine enthusiasts about wines, the industry and other related topics. While chatting within a group I was completely shocked to hear someone say "yeah - these wines are great but I'd hate to buy them and have them spoil at home..." he later went on to clarify that he felt he didn't have the appropriate storage space to keep a collection of good-to-decent wines in fear that the conditions would eventually spoil them over time.
The shocking part was that within the group of 6-7 people I was speaking with, 4-5 of them nodded and agreed with the comments! Right away, I thought to myself, if 4 out of 7 people think they are unable to purchase good wines due to storage, the wine industry is doing a poor job marketing their products.
Being in the industry, I thought I would do my duty ;) and try to improve on that statistic by shedding some light on how practically EVERY home owner can have adequate wine storage facilities at an affordable cost.
First the basics. In order to store wine, here are the IDEAL conditions:
- Keep your wine bottles away from direct sunlight
- Avoid large fluctuations in temperature and keep within 50ºF and 60ºF (10ºC - 15ºC).
- Avoid extremely dry conditions and aim for a humidity level of 50% (Not too dry, not too humid)
- Keep the area well ventilated.
All the above factors basically aid in allowing the wine bottle to age without any external factors like sunlight or odors hampering the aging process.
Lucky for us, these conditions can simply be duplicated in any type of home whether it be a condo, a home with or without a basement.
If you live in a house with a basement:You've got it made! About 90% of homes with a basement usually come with a little cold room or storage build in to the foundation as displayed by the following video submitted by one of our customer. These types of room are ideal as they almost perfectly meet the requirements for an ideal wine storage setting.
If you live in a condo or home without a basement:
Pantries, closets, kitchen cabinets are all adequate places for wine storage. Ideally, you want to find a south-facing wall that doesn't get sun exposure and doesn't heat up throughout the day. Most homes are always somewhat humid (ranging between 30-40% depending where in the country you live) so you never have to worry about having the cork dry up on you. Here are some pictures of wines being stored in this fashion.
Usually when we mention the word "custom" to our customers, the next question that follows is "how much will that cost me?". Sure there is a certain nuance with the word custom that is often associated with expensive or costly. But at Wine-Wall.com, our manufacturing process is set up in a way that each wine rack is "custom" made. We simply offer wine racks in the 3 bottle configuration (The Exibit-3) and a 6 bottle configuration (The Exibit-6) simply because these have been the most demanded wine rack size and these 2 configurations can be set up to fit any space from a small space under a cabinet to a complete wine cellar or wine closet.
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