Anyone who’s ever been inside wine cellars in Houston, TX, or anywhere else on the planet, knows that wine bottles are always stored on their sides. It just looks right. Can you imagine walking into a wine cellar somewhere in Europe and finding all the bottles standing upright? Of course you can’t because it’s just not done. But like a lot of things we get used to seeing a certain way, the reason for storing wine on its side is something many of us don’t understand.
The Simple Answer
Wine is stored on its side to keep the cork moist. Why? Because wine is a fragile beverage that can be spoiled by too much or too little oxygen and the only thing that stands in the way of excess oxygen reaching the wine after it’s bottled is the cork. Corks are made from the bark of the Cork Oak and are impermeable and elastic, making them the perfect material to seal wine bottles. Unfortunately, they have the nasty habit of drying out if they’re not kept moist over long periods of time. When they dry out in wine bottles, they shrink and allow oxygen into the bottle. Therefore, wine has to be stored on its side to allow the wine inside the bottle to constantly moisten the cork.
The Other Factors
High humidity can help to keep the end of the cork that is exposed to the air moist. Wine cellars in Houston, TX are equipped with humidity-controlling equipment that keep the air wet enough to keep corks from drying but dry enough to keep mold and mildew from developing on any surfaces. Wine cellars and wine rooms are also temperature-controlled which means that the wines stored inside them won’t suffer from any wild fluctuations in temperature that can accelerate the speed at which the chemical compounds in the wine interact with the minute amounts of oxygen allowed to enter through the corks. This acceleration can make for a wine that ages past its prime before it can be consumed.
No Cork? No Problem
There is a growing trend toward the use of artificial corks and screw caps on wine bottles. While these aren’t always popular aesthetically, they are just as efficient, if not more so, at keeping wine as fresh as corks do. Purists may balk at their favorite French Burgundy having the same screw cap as a bottle of Ripple but it gives the wine collector the option of storing bottles upright, making labels easier to see. The other advantage to upright storage is that sediment settles on the bottom of the bottle, which means less grit will be consumed, at least with the first few glasses.
To keep your wine at its best, you need the kind of optimal storage conditions that you can only get in the best wine cellars in Houston, TX. To get your own wine cellar, call us at Vineyard Wine Cellars at (866) 615-4008 or visit us online at www.vineyardwinecellars.com.
WINE CELLARS IN HOUSTON TX
Vineyard Wine Cellars
15020 Beltway Dr.
Addison, Texas 75001
866-973-1100 972-712-9600
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