The wine cellar is just one piece of the equation in terms of creating a high quality wine experience for your home and your wine tastes. The cellar is a place in which to store your wine at optimum temperatures without being disturbed, moved, or altered in any way.

The room should keep the temperature consistent and ensure that it does not fluctuate in any way or to any degree. A wine cellar, however, is just one part of a wine collector’s dream in terms of taking care of and maintaining good quality wine.

Heat is wine’s worst enemy, so in the summer months it is important to ensure that your wine is experiencing a steady temperature at or around 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit. This ensures that you wine maintains all of its flavor and texture, as well as odor, and ensures a magical wine experience when wine is uncorked. A wine cellar should function as a holding cell to keep the wine in that temperature zone without fluctuation or difference in temperature.

Other Tricks of the Trade

Many collectors install cooling systems that are created especially for their wine cellar. These devices function like an air conditioner except for specific wine designated temperatures and other functions that serve to maintain the quality of wine.

Proper cooling of wine with the right maintained temperature from a cooling system designed for your cellar will help protect your wine while it matures gracefully. This system, however, is generally only used by serious wine enthusiasts.

Some people use a wine steward when they are serving wine to help it maintain an undisturbed temperature. The steward functions to hold your wine bottle, after it is opened, in an airtight chamber for a week or more.

This is accomplished through the use of Argon gas which is flooded into the chamber to ensure proper and thorough cooling. This chamber prevents oxidation and maintains overall freshness at the push of a button, ensuring a quality glass of wine from the same bottle.

Some people prefer miniature models called “wine keepers” as opposed to the traditional full room style of a wine cellar. These wine keepers are significantly less expensive than installing an entire cellar and take up, obviously, less space. A wine keeper is a device, often portable, used for holding several bottles of wine at the proper temperature. Some even come with a pressurized mechanism that releases inert gas to help maintain the freshness of your wine bottles and the flavor of your wine.