This episode of “Wine 101” is sponsored by Louis M. Martini Winery, where an 85-year legacy of making Cabernet Sauvignon is still going strong. Everything Cabernet Sauvignon is celebrated at Martini. The history, the winemaking, the wine. Go to the Martini tasting room and sip Cab inside, outside, in a cabana, or in an underground cellar. Or attempt a complete cooking expedition from the internal chef. The people at Louis M. Martini Winery are major about Cab. Taste it and you’ll understand why Cab is king.
On this episode of “White wine 101,” sign up with host Keith Beavers to talk about white wine storage. Whether you are saving a massive collection or a few bottles, there are some things to consider. Tune in for more.
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Keith Beavers: My name is Keith Beavers and owning a home is crazy often. Like when you desire something stupid like an umbrella stand and you go online to purchase one and five hours later you’re still learning more about umbrella stands and you’re understanding there’s a whole world out there of umbrella stands and it’s a market and they’re sort of costly and bespoke and all this. And you finally figure it out and after that you resemble, “Oh my God. Now I need to buy a toilet tissue dispenser.”
What’s going on, white wine lovers? From the VinePair Podcasting Network, this is “Wine 101.” My name is Keith Beavers. I am the tastings director of VinePair and I hope you’re succeeding. Today we’re going to have a little bit of enjoyable. We’re going to talk about how to save wine.
What does it imply to save white wine for a couple weeks, for many years, for days? What are we doing over here? Simply speaking about saving red wine. It’ll be an enjoyable little discussion.
So keeping wine, how does that make you feel? Typically it offers individuals a little bit of agita, a little stress and anxiety. It resembles, “Oh my God, I have a bottle of red wine. It’s in my closet. I hope it’s dark enough. I hope it’s cool enough. It’s a bottle of wine I wish to have for a long time. I don’t wish to hang on to it for years. Possibly a couple months, perhaps a couple weeks, but I hope it’s okay.” I’ve asked a lot of individuals; they give me all these different answers. I don’t understand what to talk about. “Oh my God, is this bottle of white wine going to be ruined? Is it going to be messed up?” It’s a question that comes up a lot at VinePair. And it’s an extremely interesting subject nowadays since we’re seeing less individuals in fact collect white wine and more people buy red wine that is consumed earlier than later on.
And that’s great. I mean, it means a great deal of people are exploring white wine, just checking out all different sort of things and going out there and drinking white wine and entering into it. But the important things is, we are still collecting white wine. And if we’re buying more to consume sooner than later, the white wines we purchase to actually age if we do, are type of unique.
And whether you remain in the “I collect as a hobby and I have countless wines” category or if you remain in the “I’m a wine consumer and ball out every once in a while, toss that wine someplace hoping it’s alright for a while up until I return to it in a couple weeks, in a couple months, possibly a year, possibly two.” Maybe you even splurged on a case and you wish to taste this case of one red wine over a couple of years and do the experiment of enjoying a red wine age.
What do you finish with it? Well, let’s get the huge cash thing out of the method. Since if you are collecting wine for a hobby and you have a couple of hundred and you’re beginning to collect increasingly more, you, if you have an area to gather, you’ve actually spoken with somebody, an architect of some sort and they have actually constructed out a cellar for you or you’ve done the work to get the temperature controls and all the things you need.
If you do not have that luxury and you do have a collection of red wine, you need it to be stored properly. There are professional services out there that will save your white wine in the proper capacity with the best humidity and the ideal consistent temperature level so that the white wines that you’re aging can age correctly. And we’ll enter that in a 2nd.
And there are a lot of– not a lot, however there is a significant quantity. There are companies out there that will do this. They have centers and they will offer you a program for storing your wine. And it’s truly kind of insane because you’re letting someone else take an inventory of something you’ve gathered and love and putting it into their hands.
So if you’re going to do that, make certain to veterinarian the business thoroughly, ask individuals about the business, see how the business’s doing. Due to the fact that if you are putting a lot of bottles that you spent a lot of money on into a third-party storage system and that business goes under, it gets a little unsightly. So that’s simply type of the disadvantage of that.
Likewise, simply make certain they’re doing all the important things correctly with temperature control and humidity, which we’ll get into. If that sounds really demanding– and it does to me– but it’s there, it’s possible. And there are fantastic business out there. I’m not stating they’re all bad. I’m simply stating just beware, you never know. Brick-and-mortar business reoccur.
Something you can also do is a temperature-controlled storage unit. You can just go to any storage system that has temperature level control, it’s at whatever degree, and you can store your wine in there. You can even put an air conditioning system in there if you want to. I have actually known individuals to do this. Living in New York, no one has any room, storage units are simply part of our lives. And I’ve seen individuals have whole red wine collections in these storage systems in Brooklyn. It’s quite incredible.
Okay. So possibly one day you’ll get there or maybe you’re someone who doesn’t want to arrive. Perhaps you’re like, “Look, Keith, I buy red wine, I consume wine, I have a few bottles I like to keep for a bit. Where do I put these bottles so that something doesn’t go wrong?” Okay, so let me generalize a little bit here, but I do not want anybody to get frightened.
Storing red wine is for … If we’re just saving white wine for a couple weeks or a month or 2, we’re going to try our best. Right? So I’m going to just tell you about the 2 things that affect red wine when you’re storing it. And we’ll go into some information about that, however then on the other side of it, we’re going to type of level it out and plateau a little bit.
So the opponents or the thing, not the enemies, the things, the aspects you need to consider when saving white wine are temperature and humidity. The temperature part is very important. The extremes of temperature will be an issue. And if you have no way of storing your red wine outside of extreme temperature levels, then I do not know, it’s going to be a little bit difficult.
However if a white wine gets too hot, too warm, it starts to develop quickly which fast quick maturation creates jammy, fruit-forward qualities that will cover up the subtle intricacies of the white wine you’re trying to delight in as soon as you open it. If a wine is stored in extreme cold, it will in fact separate, compounds will separate out of the liquid, freeze, and rise out of the bottle attempting to press the cork out.
If you’ve listened to any of the episodes we spoke about with Chardonnay and other white wines, that cold soak where they cold soak wine to extract tartrate so that the extreme substances of red wine are not in the white wine, well, doing that, if you’re saving white wine, that’s going to take place as well. Even more substances are going to come out. Okay.
Those are extreme and I would think of that you men, wherever you are, whoever, any place you’re listening from, you do not have that, those severe temperatures. But simply to state there’s a heat wave or a cold spike or a polar vortex and you’re saving wine outside in a shed or something like that, these are some things to take into account.
If you have a wine fridge, you’re great since you can simply dial it in. And typically, in between 50-59 degrees Fahrenheit is the ideal temperature level for white wine to continue to mature at a stable speed. So that’s good. You have a wine fridge, cool. You have a dual-temperature white wine refrigerator, those get a bit odd.
I would just dial it all in between 50 and 59. Simply let it all happen. And naturally, at that temperature control in that small environment, the humidity will be managed also. However not everybody have that stuff. So this is the important things– when you’re storing wine for a couple weeks, then there’s a very wide variety of temperatures, that red wine is going to be simply great.
So all the things I informed you, it is perfect, but there is no real hard scientific research study for this. This is just people’s experience. So as far as humidity is worried, it stated, the “Oxford Red Wine Buddy” does state that 75 percent humidity is typically mentioned as ideal, however not everybody has that.
The humidity side of storing white wine is so the cork does not dry out. And if you’re just saving for a couple weeks, you actually should not have a problem. Also, white wines are often saved horizontally so as to keep the cork somewhat moist. Some people do it just straight horizontal.
Some people really tip it towards the cork a bit so that the air pocket is actually on the side of the bottle and not actually near the cork. This is all a result of a study in the 1990s to try to find the very best position for a wine to age. Another thing humidity can do to a bottle of wine is jeopardize the adhesive utilized to put the label on the glass.
This is once again, mainly for longer-term storage. However gradually, if the humidity isn’t right, then these labels will come off and you’re going to have to deal with that. But in the more domestic, like we’re at home and we’re just putting a couple bottles somewhere, that’s truly not the biggest offer. Simply ensure the humidity is not insane.
So if you’re just cooling at home with a bottle of white wine, and you wish to know where to put it, my tip would be not the cooking area due to the fact that of the work that’s done in the cooking area. Although it might be cool, the majority of the time when you prepare, the cooking area heats up and even the spaces near the kitchen may be impacted by that. It’s not the most significant handle the world, however that may in time impact a bottle of red wine.
The thing about red wine is as long as you’re keeping a bottle of white wine, that is, if it’s listed below 77 degrees Fahrenheit, you’re practically in an excellent spot. Having it below 60 is ideal, however it’s not completion of the world. Wine is pretty, it can be delicate, however it’s likewise pretty, it can manage that.
I often inform individuals to keep their white wine if they have a basement, store it in the basement since that’s just the very best ever. Even if the basement gets a little bit warm, it’s always going to have some coolness to it. Or on the very first flooring. If you have radiator heating in your house or anywhere you’re living, it heats up like the top of your home or the top of your residence heats up initially, try to keep red wine on the first flooring.
You’re simply attempting to keep red wine far from heat. And preferably, simply keep it in a closet. Closets are terrific. They’re cool, they’re dry, and they are far from a lot of light direct exposure. Due to the fact that there’s temperature and humidity, but there’s all the, which can damage white wine, but there’s likewise this thing called light strike.
It’s not as frequent, it does not occur typically and it’s not going to be crazy, however there is a thing where too much light direct exposure to a bottle of wine provokes a chain reaction with 2 things: riboflavin and amino acids. And it impacts the white wine in the ultraviolet or blue end of the spectrum of light.
And what it does is the amino acids and the riboflavin reactions develop what are called mercaptans, which I have actually discussed in the past. Mercaptans are fragrances that are gross, that take away from the wine. There are mercaptans that are used, that can actually include intricacy to the red wine, however those are very rare and in extremely small amounts.
However if you have light strike where a red wine has actually been sitting in the sun, a window with sun on it for a long period of time, this could occur to a white wine and your white wine could smell like prepared cabbage, simply the nastiest stuff. And you might likewise smell sulfur.
So for instance, if you’re strolling by a white wine store and they have red wine in their window and the wines are full and light is simply blazing on those bottle, they’re not very concerned about light strike. I do not know if those wines are for sale, but that’s bad for the white wine.
But that’s really it. If you simply have some bottles you want to take into the closet because you’re going to pop them at some time and share them with pals, that’s completely fine.
You can have a red wine in there for months in a closet because it has no … due to the fact that of the dry and the no light and all that. However there’s really no, like I said, there’s no scientific, genuine, hardcore research about this. There are simply various ways to be careful. Simply prevent the extremes, humidity, and temperature, and try to keep a white wine out of too much light direct exposure.
The lights in your house are just fine. I mean, if you have fluorescent lighting, that can be a little bit strange for bottles, however just regular light bulbs will be just great. Okay. So that’s my little discussion on keeping red wine. Something you can remove from this is do not stress about it, guy. Do not tension too much.
I suggest, if you’re getting huge and going nuts, there’s some stuff to take into consideration, however extremes, keep away from them. Keep it in the dark, if you can. Enjoy yourselves. I’ll see you next week.
@VinePairKeith is my Insta. Rate and evaluation this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. It truly helps get the word out there.
And now, for some completely awesome credits. “White wine 101” was produced, tape-recorded, and modified by yours genuinely, Keith Beavers, at the VinePair headquarters in New york city City. I want to give a big ol’ shout-out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Malin for creating VinePair. Huge shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of VinePair, for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast. Also, Darbi Cicci for the signature tune. Listen to this. And I wish to thank the entire VinePair personnel for assisting me find out something brand-new every day. See you next week.
Ed. note: This episode has actually been edited for length and clarity.