Very few Americans worried about wine storage 25 years ago. If fine wine was consumed at all, it was for special occasions. Restaurants sold the lion’s share of all categories of wine except for “jug wine”. “Hearty Burgundy” could always be bought weekly at the grocery store. Things have certainly changed. Consumption of wine has soared. More importantly, the market in the U.S. has shifted, putting emphasis on premium wine. Much of the dollar growth in wine sales has come in the luxury sector, and a growing number of consumers choose even everyday bottles with great care. As folks become more inquisitive and acquisitive of fine wine they need to think about how to store it. This phenomenon might even be considered a measure of societal progress, a modern extension of leaving behind the status of “hunter gather” and forming more complex lifestyles. In any case, more and more people design a space to store wine in their homes.

In planning wine storage, the first thing to consider is what wine one intends to store and how much. For people who just want to be assured of having a few good bottles around to avoid panic buying when guests are on their way, a simple rack of a dozen or so will do. Since you are not planning long term storage there is no need to fret much about conditions. However, put your rack in as cool and constant a space as possible. Avoid direct light and vibration. In the window or above the fridge are not good spots. If you don’t care about displaying your collection, a cool interior closet will do fine. Conditions are not critical if you replenish your supply frequently and use the older bottles first. This is quite practical if you confine your wine buying to wines for current drinking. If you do acquire a few prize bottles that you would like to age for years, the same cool interior closet can do the job. Seal the wines you don’t intend to drink for years in well-insulated cardboard boxes and leave them unmolested and they will do just fine.

Many of us go well beyond this. Some just can’t resist collecting things, and wines are eminently collectable. There are thousands of kinds of wine in the world and we want to try them all. This can lead to vast cellars with hundreds of different wines represented. On the other hand, some folks become so fascinated with one special kind of wine that they collect thousands of bottles of a given type. One might have a collection of red wines from one or two little towns in Tuscany. Another might collect Oregon Pinot Noir. It is hard to resist acquiring a favorite wine type each time it is released. Anyone who has wine collecting as a hobby, or obsession, should think about proper storage.

The ideal for wine storage is a limestone cave. Well beneath the ground, the temperature stays in the 50’s, hardly varying a degree over the course of the year. Caves are notably free of light and vibration and generally quite humid (high humidity helps to keep corks in good shape). And the beauty of the cave is that all of this is passive, no cooling equipment or elaborate monitoring necessary. The trouble is, caves are rarely available. Basements are frequently the best we can do. A basement totally below ground can provide very good wine storage with little trouble. Temperature and humidity are likely to be rather constant, especially if a room can be apportioned for wine storage. Just be sure to stay away from equipment that vibrates and gives off heat.

For the majority of us, who do not have a cave or even a basement, there are plenty of storage options. The simplest to acquire and install are self-contained “wine cellar” units. These are specially designed refrigerators really. Unlike a regular refrigerator, they function efficiently at about 55 degrees and don’t allow broad swings in temperature between cycles. The best units are engineered to minimize vibration. Most are also designed to maintain moderately high humidity. Like your kitchen refrigerator they can evaporate excess moisture. These are a great solution for the collector who wants his wine at hand. Capacity is the only problem. Units begin at about 50 bottles. Larger unites can hold 250-500 bottles. This may seem to be a lot of wine, but collectors can easily outgrow these numbers, especially if some of the wine is to be kept 10-15 years.

Special cooling units for wine rooms are also readily available. These are air conditioning units designed to operate at wine cellar temperature and humidity ranges. They work well if the room they are cooling has good insulation and vapor barriers. Additional concerns (especially in South Carolina) are the heat and moisture expelled by the condensing unit. If the room to be cooled is next to the garage this may be no problem, but if it is next to the dining room it can be a very big problem. In any case, although the cooling unit is self-contained and easy to install (often like an oversized air-conditioning window unit), the room to be cooled will need a bit of preparation. Several manufacturers now sell packaged deals with cooler walls and cooling unit to match. This is something like the walk-in coolers used by restaurants and retailers. This option is efficient and likely to cost less than modifying existing walls.

The collector with thousands of bottles (and no limestone cave) may want to opt for a specially constructed room with a two-stage cooling unit (much like most modern central air conditioning systems). This option is a major construction project, but affords near ideal conditions and lots of space. The wine room can be decked out with fancy shelves at the front and open space for storing stacks of cases in the back. The allure of collecting is so great that no space is ever likely to be too big.

Almost anyone can keep a bit of wine around the house. Even when stored in less than ideal conditions, wine can hold up amazingly well. However, having special wine and a proper place to keep it can add to the fun!

Richard deBondt has been President of Northampton Wines, a Greenville retail store, since its founding in 1975. He conducts weekly wine tastings and related presentations. He is also a long time performer with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.

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