Easy Guide to Food And Drinks

August 3, 2011

Requirements For A Wine Cellar

Filed under: Wine Spirits — Tags: , , — CakeAuthor @ 5:19 pm

Wine cellars fall into two primary styles. You have the industrial sized wine cellar used by restaurants and wine dealers, then there is the home wine cellar usually constructed by a wine lover or wine buff in order to store their personal collection of wine. Let’s look at wine cellars for use at home. Some people mistakenly think of wine cellars and wine coolers in the same manner. The fact is that, usually, a wine cellar is substantially bigger than a wine refrigerator and also of significantly broader storage capacity and can generally incorporate a cooling unit in addition to storage spaces designed for keeping and serving wine. Both styles of wine cellar are handled quite as.

Best Temperature To Store Wine

Wine cellar management ought to first consider the temperature range required for storing and aging wines. With regard to long-term wine storage it has been commonly recognized that a temperature of 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit is essential to produce ideal aging.

Humidity

Humidity plays an important role in wine storage. A dry atmosphere will quickly shrink a cork seal. A natural cork is compressed before being forced into the wine bottle producing a one hundred percent natural closure.

In a low humidity environment the cork will shrink, thereby allowing oxygen in to the bottle leading to oxidation. Low humidity and a defective cork may also lead to wine leaking out from the bottle creating ullage. Screw capped bottles will not require humidity when being stored.

Extreme humidity won’t cause harm to the wine but can certainly cause the labels to go moldy. An ideal humidity level for any wine storage is 70%, having said that somewhere between 50-80% is usually reasonable. In a few geographic regions these environments can be found in natural cellars and caves. If you don’t live in one of these areas and have an underground cellar available to you then you will want to buy some kind of cooling unit to maintain a constant temperature.

Proper storage of your wine translates to an enhanced taste in the wine glass, and it is thus very important that you don’t use anything but the very best and most beneficial techniques of storage with regards to storing your collection of wine. Should a dedicated wine cellar is impractical for a wine lover the most effective wine storage option would be a refrigerated wine cabinet, and there are plenty of brands to select from, making sure that no matter the specific type of wines that you’ve got or even the number of wine bottles you need to store you will be able to discover an ideal wine cellar answer.

October 31, 2010

The Wine Cellar

Filed under: Wine Spirits — Tags: , , , — CakeAuthor @ 8:46 pm

For many, a relationship with wine can often be short lived while others have the patience, the space and inclination to explore cellaring wine.

A wine cellar does not have to be a complicated process, a closet that meets the recommended conditions described below will do. Here’s a brief guideline in the physical elements to consider if building a cellar.

Temperature and humidity: Between 10 C and 14 C a wine evolves at an ideal rhythm. If it it too cold, a wine will ages slowly, any warmer than this and the maturity can come too quickly. However, consistency is more important than a particular temperature. Consider first the north side or the side of the basement that is entirely underground. Ideally, the humidity should be between 60 and 70 per cent. A humidity control feature is most important with a that refrigerated wine cabinets.

Light: White wines in particular can be very sensitive in direct light. The best cellar should be contained in complete darkness or even shadow. Turning on the light to find a bottle isn’t a problem, but you shouldn’t leave it on for several days. In no situation should neon lights be used in your wine cellar. If you are using a cabinet with glass doors, you need to ensure they are UV resistant.

Air quality: Storing wine in areas which are exposed to strong odours is to be avoided e.g. root cellar, heating oil etc. These odours will quickly transfer to the wine. {In general, the area where you store your wine should be well ventilated proposed area for your cellar really needs to have good ventilation}.

Vibration: On the chemical level, wine ages by the creation of long chains of molecules. This process is disrupted by any sudden movement, so avoid handling your bottles roughly or unnecessarily and don’t put your cellar under the stairs or near the compressor, furnace or washer. Make sure that refrigerated wine cabinets have a mechanism to isolate the wine from the compressor vibrations.

Bottle position: Most wines should be lying down to ensure permanent contact of the liquid with the cork, keeping the seal completely tight. Certain types of wine can be stored standing up: ports and sherries (where a composite closure of plastic-natural cork is used); wines with screw cap closures.

April 12, 2010

Choosing A Wine Cellar Kit

Filed under: Wine Spirits — Tags: , , , — CakeAuthor @ 4:23 pm

Many people like the idea of building a wine cellar most of us fear that the entire task would be too difficult, costly and not worth the effort. If you, too, thought this then banish these thoughts from your mind because it is in fact quite easy to build a wine cellar and you can do so on a limited budget in the available free space in your home. In fact, if you go looking for options that will help you in building a wine cellar you will be pleased to learn that there are also many different kinds of kits that don’t cost much and which will help you in building a wine cellar for a very affordable cost.

Reasonable Price

Most kits that you find on the market today can be bought for an affordable price and which can be of different sizes and types to ensure that when it comes to building a wine cellar you will find your task a lot simpler than you ever expected. You can in fact choose to go about building a wine cellar in the form of rectangle shaped bins, or choose places for storing entire cases of wines and even use available space to create triangular wine storage shelves.

The best part about storing wine and building a wine cellar with the help of these kits is that the kits will not prove to be at all difficult to assemble and there is also no need to have any prior experience in construction to complete your wine cellar. And, of course each kit has its accompanying manuals and these will provide step-by-step wine cellar instructions that will guide you in building a wine cellar without facing any hassles along the way.

The price of a kit will vary depending on the type of materials included, the size of the kit and the quality of materials used. The bottom line when building a wine cellar from this type of kit is that you will get a most cost effective solution that is far cheaper than constructing a custom built cellar and certainly far cheaper than most other options.

When you have finished building your wine cellar you can turn your attention to how best you can manage your wine cellar. One option open to you in this regard is to make use of wine cellar software. It doesn’t matter if you only store a few bottles of your favorite wine to have with dinner or you have thousands of bottles stored in your wine cellar; proper cellar management will ensure you get the greatest benefit out of your wine and your cellar.

April 13, 2009

DIY Wine Racks

Filed under: Wine Spirits — Tags: , , , — CakeAuthor @ 6:40 am

It’s very important that your collection is stored properly so it will last for years. As your wine ages it will develop a fuller, more complex flavor. To save money though, some have chosen not to buy their wine rack. This is especially the case if you are trying to build a cheap wine cellar and are trying to save money. With the advent of the internet, there are so many options out there to choose from when it comes to wine racks. Don’t just do a “good enough” job, do a “great job” that you can be proud of for years.

If you measure your room first, you will save yourself a lot of headaches when buying the wine racks. Wine favors specific kinds of environments when aging. You want a consistent temperature with a little moisture to store your wine. Wine is tempermental and does not respond well to high heat or sunlight. Heat will cause the wine to age too fast and become ruined. The best wine storage temperature is in the mid fiftys, keep it from changing too much. New style glass corks save you from worrying about the cork drying out. If you already have your wine cellar storage made, you’ve got the hardest part over with.

A Wine club allows you to collect more wines little by little. As your collection grows, you will need more wine rack storage space. A nice wine rack is the kind that is mounted on the walls. You can generally store many bottles per shelf with this. They also allow for easy identification and retrieval of wine bottles. Simple wine racks are very cheap usually, the more expensive the higher the quality. Bulk wine purchases often are offered at a steep discount. Wine rack plans are a dime a dozen, if you go that route then you can save a lot of money.

A DIY wine rack is probably the cheapest option out there. Many people enjoy making their own wine glass rack, and it can be rewarding as well. Free plans are on the Internet, and you’ll probably need at least a table saw or jigsaw, a sander, and drill press. You can seriously go cheap and with a little wood and PVC make a wine rack for under $10.

Perhaps your budget won’t allow for that, if so we would suggest going with the brick and wood method. Just put the bricks inbetween the planks, and you’ve got shelves, smaller pieces can be used as dividers. You make the call how expensive your wine racks will be. It’s easy to construct a inexpensive and high quality wine rack by yourself. We’ve got plenty more advice on our website, come check it out.

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