Many residents in our area enjoy the finer things in life, including good food and delicious wine. However, you can be limited in your ability to maintain the quality of your investment in our harsh and extreme climate. The team at Ambient Edge is here to offer you 6 tips for storing your wine. Contact our Las Vegas heating and cooling repair services and see how we can help.
Location, Location, Location: When You Don’t Have a Wine Cellar
Where you store your wine is crucial to protecting its drinkability and value. Unfortunately, very few of us have basements in the Las Vegas area due to a substance known as caliche, also called hardpan or calcrete. It can cost more to dig out a basement than to build a swimming pool, so your dreams of having a French chateau-like wine cellar can be dashed pretty quickly.
Instead, you can contact a technician at Ambient Edge to assess your home and determine the best place to set up a home for your treasured bottles. We can advise on ways to address any concerns and recommend updating or installing equipment to make it easier to pamper your collection without worry. Your options will vary depending on whether you’re keeping wines in a home, restaurant, or other place of business.
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Top Tips for Storing Wine
The attraction of keeping wine for most people is its ability to age and become more enjoyable over time. Many invest in a special bottle for their quality or to celebrate a future event, and they want it to be ready instead of ruined. The most common advice is to store wine in a cool, dark place on its side, but there is so much more to it than that. Maintaining a collection starts with ensuring your air quality is ideal.
1 – Get the Temperature Right
Cool can be relative, but for wine, the ideal temperature is 55 degrees. Unfortunately, we specialize in warmer temperatures in Las Vegas, making it challenging to provide the right environment. Without a cellar, most wine owners will turn to a specially constructed wine fridge to maintain their investment between 55 and 57 degrees.
While you may not think twice about putting a bottle of white into your regular refrigerator for later that evening, any wine you want to store for a long time will be affected since most fridges are set to 42 degrees or less. In addition, even if you invest in a wine cooler, there’s a risk of damage during the hottest parts of summer or if your home loses power.
When it comes to red wines, they should be kept at 55 degrees for long-term storage. However, they will not be hurt if they are stored at room temperature for several days before consuming them.
2 – Maintain Humidity Levels
Just like the temp, the humidity level plays a vital part in keeping your wine’s quality safe. The humidity can vary widely throughout your home or retail space, and it even differs in different compartments of a standard refrigerator. Again, using a specially designed fridge or building a temperature- and humidity-controlled area dedicated to wine storage can ensure your bottles age properly.
3 – Control Light Exposure
The reason so many people install a wine cellar when they can is because cellars are cool, humid, and dark. Your wine will need protection from excessive natural light, especially that of the sun. Ultraviolet light can degrade the color, taste, and quality of every variety, so you must ensure your storage space is only exposed to controlled light sources.
With nearly 300 sunny days a year in Las Vegas, it can be tricky keeping the light out of the space where you’re storing your wine. Ideally, you’ll keep the area completely dark when you are not tending to the bottles or enjoying a glass. Ambient Edge technicians can recommend a light sensor that will notify you of any changes.
4 – Make Sure Bottles Are Stored Correctly
The common advice is to put bottles on their sides, but this is only for those that have natural corks. The reason is to limit the amount of oxygen that enters the bottle. Although some exposure to oxygen is needed for a bottle to age properly, over time, the cork can dry out and crack.
This means your wine gets more air exposure than is good for it, potentially destroying its quality. The exception to storing on the side is if your wine has a crown or screw cap or if the cork is synthetic. In these instances, you can store them upright.
5 – Keep Vibrations to a Minimum
Another reason cellars are so popular for storing wine in other locations is the lack of foot traffic. In an above-ground area, you’ll need to consider how busy your home or retail building is when deciding where to put your bottles. For example, setting up a space at the back or side of the main living area may be the best choice for a residence.
As wines age, the sediment that naturally gathers after about ten years can be dispersed in the liquid and affect the flavor. The more vibration or handling a bottle gets, the greater the chance its quality will diminish. At home, you may want to put extra padding on the floor and walls to help limit vibrations. This action can also contribute to controlling the temperature and light.
6 – Have a Back-Up Plan
After all the time and investment you’ve put into building the perfect above-ground wine cellar, the last thing you want is a power outage that shuts it all down. Your Ambient Edge technician can discuss the benefits of installing a backup generator such as a Liebert UPS. This is an uninterruptible power source that prevents you from suffering a loss of heating or cooling in the event your home loses electricity.
Let Ambient Edge Help You Care for Your Wine Collection
At Ambient Edge, our highly trained technicians are dedicated to keeping your home or business at the right temperature for you, your family, and your customers. Along with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, we also help you understand your options for keeping your wine collection safe in a climate that is far from the French countryside. Instead of taking risks, contact us today to arrange for an estimate.
