Storing wine

Q:

Q: I HAVE had a good sparkling wine in the fridge for three years. Will that length of time ruin it? And can I remove it from the fridge for six months or any amount of time, then put it back in the fridge when I am finally ready to drink it?

Our expert is Caroline from Wine Box Warehouse.

A: Let me start by saying that I believe wine to be a lot hardier than a lot of people, including many other experts, would suggest. While I would not recommend storing sparkling wine in the fridge, you will certainly not have done the wine any damage. By all means remove the wine from the fridge for rechilling at a later date.

As a general rule, non-vintage (NV) or, to be more specific, multi-vintage wines are bottled and available to purchase when the producer feels they are ready to be consumed. Certainly they will keep for up to five years but there is little point as ageing will do little to improve the wine. Some vintage (wine made entirely from fruit grown in a particular year) sparkling wine and champagne can benefit from an additional two to five years but it certainly isn’t necessary.

So unless you would like to celebrate a particular vintage on a 10-year wedding anniversary, my advice would be to purchase sparkling wine and champagne when you are ready to drink it.

Tips for storing wine in your home cellar

The ability of a wine to improve with age is influenced by many factors, including grape variety, vintage, viticultural practices, wine region and winemaking style. The storage conditions can also influence how well a wine ages.

Temperature and light are the main considerations if you want to store or age some wine over a long time.

Storing at a consistent temperature is more important than the number of degrees as it is the wide temperature swings in a short period that can make a wine mature and oxidise before its time. Cold does retard the ageing so pick a cooler part of the house to store the wine.

Direct sunlight is to be avoided as well; don’t worry too much about artificial light as the light from a light globe is hardly going to damage your wine.

If the wine is under cork it is probably a good idea to store horizontally so the cork is in direct contact with the wine and therefore has less chance of drying out. (Interestingly, this is not applicable to champagnes or sparkling wine as the carbon dioxide in the bottle keeps the cork sufficiently moist.) Don’t be concerned if your local bottleshop displays its entire wine upright as this is not an issue in the short term.

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