Wine Storage

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A friend of mine used to own an off license, and has since sold it to someone else. He used to keep several of the wines laid flat, as I've always heard is a good idea, to keep the cork moist and prevent the wine from corking. The new chap is keeping all the wines upright. How bad is this? I don't drink wine and know nothing about it, but any information I can tell this chap to prevent him losing money by corking all of his expensive wines would help.

Ruckus

Natural Cork corks need to remain moist to keep oxygen out of the bottle. Storing them horizontally, upside-down, or horizontally at a slight downward angle (top down) keeps the corks from drying out too much.

The newer synthetic corks don't generally need to be stored this way, but people still do it out of habit or for styalistic purposes.

Uncle Long

An older friend of mine runs a convenience store that specializes in wines and imported foods. Anyway, basically all of his selection is upright, save for the expensive (over $100) bottles. The theory being that he can store more that way and that the product should move fast enough to negate the issue of corking.

If you're laying down bottles in a cellar then you should definitely put them down with horizontal inclination; but if you're talking about the rot-gut, then it isn't going to matter too much.

meeker

The cork needs to stay moist. Hence the reason every wine rack has the bottle horizontal or inclined downward.

rot-gut

I assume you are talking about the French wine, pronounced Ro-Gue. ;-)

matt has a problem

For long-term storage, lay them down. If you're buying a bottle to drink that weekend, it doesn't matter. Since it's just stock in a store, it should move quickly enough to negate any negative effects from standing up.

pacbowl

The best way to keep wine is to lay the bottles flat, not incline them or keep them upside down. The reason for this is the sediment can become lodged by the cork and will ruin the wine when it comes time to pour.

I agree, if it's gut-rot it's not going to matter much.

Informational Link

EggyToast

Is he drinking it, or just keeping it around? if he's going to go through it pretty quickly, it's not really an issue. However, there's a reason that all wine racks store wine at least horizontally.

My bigger problem with dry corks is that they can crumble when you open the bottle, leaving a broken cork and bits of cork in the wine. Eugh.

MichaelLC

If it's old wine, they may need to strain/decant it when opened.

Any wine store, and even Target, sells wine strainers. Ideally should be strained into another vessel, then server from that. You can get fancy and use different decanters for differnt wines (low and wide for red, for example), but that's genneraly overkill.

Thanatos

EggyToast wrote: »

Is he drinking it, or just keeping it around? if he's going to go through it pretty quickly, it's not really an issue. However, there's a reason that all wine racks store wine at least horizontally.

This. If he's keeping it around for awhile, he definitely wants to store it horizontally. If he's going to be drinking/selling it pretty soon, it isn't going to make much of a difference.

Specularity

If I remember correctly, different decanters are mostly for different environments, rather than different wines. The one you're (Edit: you=MichaelLC) describing is a "Captain's Decanter," and is built that way so that the wine wouldn't slosh out of the bottle on a ship. However, some people may prefer to use different containers for different wines, so that could definitely be true as well.

Also, just reiterating that it's natural cork that needs to be stored horizontally -- the synthetic ones, seen a lot more often these days, don't need to be laid flat, and you'll often find screw-caps as well, which can be stored safely any way as well (except upside-down, of course). If you're terribly concerned about sediment, then decanting or straining will take care of anywhere it gathers.