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Effective wine storage is key to ensuring your wines age gracefully, and taste as fresh as possible. It's also key to ensuring that your wine doesn't lose it's natural flavours.
Storage temperatures are not to be confused with serving temperatures, particularly with red wines, as their optimum serving temperatures are above what we would recommend for long term ageing of wines.
What Temperature Should You Store Wine At?
The optimum storage temperature for all wines, including champagne and white wines, is between 10 and 14°C.
An efficient wine cabinet or a wine cooler will maintain the internal temperature of +/-2°C so we recommend setting the cabinet at 12°C for optimum storage conditions.
You can find freestanding wine coolers that you can place anywhere in your home, as well as built-in or integrated wine coolers that are designed to be installed into cabinet space.
Some wine coolers also offer dual temperature zones or multiple temperature zones, which means that you can store your reds, whites, and sparkling wines at separate temperatures.
This also means that you can store bottles of wine in the long term while also having wine stored for serving in the short term, all in the same unit.
If you have a wine cooler and plan on storing it outside or in a garage, then it's best to purchase a cooler with a winter system. This is so that the internal temperature doesn't get too affected by the ambient temperature.
By holding the wine at this temperature, with a low temperature fluctuation, the temperature of the liquid will be maintained at 12°C.
It would take a sustained period of time at a different temperature to change the temperature of the liquid due to the way heat disperses through it.
Allowing wines to age at this temperature means you allow the wine to slowly develop, releasing fruity odours and varying tastes.
If wines are stored at cooler temperatures, this isn’t damaging to wines but will hinder the ageing process as it will slow down the development of the wine.
Storing wines for a long period at warmer temperatures, for example, 18-20°C will increase the rate of the ageing process and in most cases will not allow the wine to fully develop as the process has been rushed, if you will.
Serving Temperatures to Take Note Of:
There are many different variations in wine due to the sheer number of varieties of grapes available to mix together. The variations can be categorised into a few categories: whites, sparkling, rose, red.
These categories utilise a wide range of serving temperatures, which is why wine coolers generally have an operating temperature of 5-20°C, in order to cater for the vast range of wines available and to enjoy them properly.
As a rough guide, here are some of the best storage temperatures:
- Sparkling wines, prosecco and champagne: 5-10°C
- Sherry: 5-7°C
- Light whites: 6-11°C
- Dry aromatic whites, Sauvignon blanc: 7-11°C
- Full bodied sweet wines, Sautemes or new world wines: 8-12C
- Medium bodied reds, Merlot, Rioja: 9-12°C
- Light Reds, Pinot Noir, Gamay: 10-15°C
- Heavy Tannic Reds: 16-19°C
With red wines, it’s advised to store them a couple of degrees below the actual serving temperature, as once the bottle is opened and served, the actual temperature of the liquid will of risen slightly.
Making sure you have a reliable unit to store your wine collection in at the right temperature is essential.
Shop Elite Wine Refrigeration Today
The experts at Elite Wine Refrigeration understand the importance of temperature control, which is why we stock a range of top-quality wine storage brands for our customers to purchase.
Our range of Climadiff wine coolers is some of the best on the market, offering a stable temperature even when stored in the garage. Ensuring your wine cooler maintains a specific temperature is key, and that’s exactly what Climadiff storage units do. To find out more about our Climadiff products, check out our recent collection today.
