The more time and money you spend on wine, the more important it is to take care of it.
Whether you want to age a few carefully selected bottles , or simply like to keep an regalia of vino on handto attend at party , a dedicated wine icebox can do good all sorts of wine-coloured imbiber , not just liberal spender or farseeing - terminal figure collector . There are all variety of wine fridges out there , too , with different capacities and potentiality .
Jessica Hayden , the retail manager at Leon and Son Wine in Brooklyn and an avid collector of innate vino , recommends wine fridge for partizan ofminimal treatment wines , which have less sulfites and preservatives than traditional wine and can be vulnerable to the elements .
“ low-pitched - intervention or ‘ natural ’ wines are much more raw to storage conditions than conventional wine-colored , ” she enjoin . “ That $ 15 bottle of Cabernet you bought at the recession hard liquor store that you ’ll drink next week does n’t need to be put in a fridge unless you like your wine-colored function cellar temp [ around 55 ° F ] . However , if you ’re stocking up on [ ageworthy , cult natural producers like ] Gut Oggau and Matassa you plan to pledge a year from now , endue in a wine-colored electric refrigerator is probably a wise mind . ”
Leon & Son Wine and Spirits
Let ’s say you took the plunge and purchased one . Now what ? Should certain wines be kept at unlike temperatures ? How do you organise your bottle so you may find the ones you want without disturb those in it for the long haul ? Read on to learn how to get the most out of your wine electric refrigerator , no matter its size of it or contents .
The best temperatures to store wine
vino and temperature have an important relationship , explain James Sligh , a Brooklyn - base sommelier who teaches online wine-coloured class calledthe Children ’s Atlas of Wine .
“ When you ’re do [ wine ] , temperature is a knob you may fiddle with to interchange how the wine show up for you , ” he read . “ The colder a wine is , the more you ’ll notice and bitter . It ’ll feel swooning in body and sharper , and aromatics will be tamped down . As it warm up up , it will put on exercising weight , smooth out , and blossom aromatically . Too lovesome , and it can get a short gloopy and alcohol-dependent . ”
If your wine refrigerator has only one temperature zone , opt for a dispirited cellar temperature , around 55 ° F . Hayden and Sligh prefer to keep their wine fridges at that image because they find it works well for servingandstoring wines in one unit .
Whites and reds are easily served at different temporary . Most wine-coloured professional person evoke storing whites around 55 ° degree Fahrenheit and reds a little warmer , from 55 - 60 ° F . ( Though some light - bodied redness , like Beaujolais , can be enjoyable served with a light chill . ) sparkle wines and very light - embodied whites can be served even colder , 43 - 48 ° farad .
These are n’t hard and fast rule , keep in mind . It ’s always flexible — go with your gut about what conditions savor best for the specific wine you ’re drinking .
Consistency is key
In add-on to temperature , wine-coloured fridges keep conditions like humidness consistent , which is key for successful senescence . If your refrigerator has front and rearward shelves , keep wine-colored you contrive to drink within the next few month nigher to the threshold .
“ When you ’re store it for the long term , keeping a bottle below 65 ° or so simply avail protect it from microbial spoiling and warmth damage , ” says Sligh . “ The colder your storage temperature is after that , the more slowly the complex chemical substance reactions that take office inside a nursing bottle as it ages will take place ; a nursing bottle in a 50 ° cellar will age more easy than one at 60 ° . ”
How to organize your wine
Hayden and Sligh unionise their wines in a at large chronological order , with bottleful they plan to come out imminently close to the top , and those they ’re saving on the bottom or low shelves .
Sligh said a fast one of one of his roommates was to stick a red sticker on wine-colored he intended to save , “ so that when he was raiding his own electric refrigerator in the middle of a party he ’d at least pause . ”
Those with larger collections might want to get up wines by country or region of blood , keeping all their bottle from Burgundy together , for example . Others screen loosely by taste , group reds together , whites together , orangeness winestogether , sparkling vino together , and so on .
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In get to a purchasing determination and calculate how much distance you would call for to engineer your wines , go larger than you call back . Your wine collection just might grow quicker than planned .
Even if you ’re not quick to invest in a newfangled appliance , your wine-coloured can still gain from heedful storage , Sligh says .
“ Even if a dedicated wine electric refrigerator is not yet within your budget , there are still a circumstances of ways to stack away wine-coloured that might not be perfect , but are a lot honorable than assign the bottle on the counter with the salt and cookery oil next to the kitchen range , ” he says . Instead , weigh “ the one elbow room in your apartment that you twist on the tune conditioner for ; the crisper drawer of your icebox ; the dorm wardrobe . ”
