How To Get The Best From Your Cellar

How To Get The Best From Your Cellar.

Stocking the cellar is always tricky and challenging. The desires to dip in, or to purchase more wine are common temptations that must be resisted. In order to know how much wine to purchase, many wine lovers prepare a cellaring plan. This should reflect the type of wine you and your friends prefer, capacity of your cellar and budget. It is also worth remembering that personal taste changes and that ‘variety is the spice of life’.

If you intend to cellar wine for a longer period of time, and if the label on the bottle assures you of it, there is a simple tests to prove the wine’s longevity. Firstly, it must be mentioned that it is advisable to purchase several bottles of the same wine for reasons that will be discussed later. 

To tests the wine, just open a bottle, drink a glass, seal the bottle. The wine should become slightly oxidized after you reseal the bottle. Jot down some comments in your tasting sheet and repeat the whole procedure the next day from the same bottle. If you find a noticeable difference in taste and aroma, that means that the wine changes rapidly. If the taste reflects that of acid, is flat or stale, be cautious, this wine should probably be enjoyed soon and young. If the difference is negligible, this type of wine can easily be cellared for the recommended amount of time.  When performing this test, one must remember that you cannot cellar the wine that you have sampled, that is why it is recommended to purchase several examples of the one wine or vintage.

What do you do with the opened wine?
We would not advise you to keep wine longer than two days after bottle has being opened, even if it is properly corked back. If you have some leftovers, or very expensive wine there is a way to preserve it.
Pour the wine into a smaller bottle with no ullage (the space between the cork and the wine in a bottle), and put the bottle into the fridge for a few days only. The other way, is to take a plastic water bottle, pour the leftovers into the bottle, squeeze the bottle so that the wine reaches the cork with no air inside, screw on the cap, and keep it in the fridge for a few days only. Not very pretty, but never-the-less effective. Open fortified wines could be maintained longer, sparkling wines are not recommended to be kept for even a few hours.

After filling your stock, determine when the first, relatively long cellaring group of wines are ready, writing your comments on tags and hang them on bottle necks. Recording this data in a notebook and/or computer program is also advisable. When you decide to try your cellared wine, use the WineLook tasting sheet to analyse the changes. No one can predict the exact number of years that each wine will keep as there are many variables to consider such as the condition of your cellar (temperature, humidity, vibration etc). Check it regularly. Sometimes, corks can become air penetrated, and you could find several bottles from the same box affected. Rapid changes in humidity and temperature can increases the aging of the wine.

Gathering, maintaining and eventually enjoying wine are all part of the same process of cellaring wine. Often, people are disappointed in the taste and / or the aroma of the wine, if one or more of these steps was not fulfilled properly.
Should you wish to find out more about The Tasting Stage browse through our articles page.