Wine Storage

Why you should use a Wine Rack in your Home

Wine is the crème de la crème of the party beverage. Going to a party? Buy a bottle of wine. Fancy a night in and a microwave meal? Bottle of wine, please. Meeting your partner’s family for dinner around their house? You got it, wine me up. But if a wine bottle is not stored properly, it can lose a lot of its colour and taste. This is why you need a wine rack to store all of your bottles and make sure that you do not dish out dodgy wine when you start hitting those summer garden parties, whether it be a solid pine wine rack or a gleaming metal wine rack. Not convinced about whether you should use a wine rack or not? Here is why you definitely should use a wine rack and what is the best type wine rack to get.

There are, of course, many ways that you can store wine, but the general consensus is that the best and easiest way to store your wine is through a wine rack. Wine racks make sure that your wine is safe when stored, even if that is only for a short amount of time. You must also worry about the condition that wine is stored in to make sure it matures properly such as temperature, light condition, humidity and movement. So make sure you keep these conditions in mind when picking out the size and shape of your wine rack too!

The most important factor when choosing a wine rack is, of course, finding one that will store your wine properly. The style of wine racks available to the casual wine drinker is increasing dramatically. There are now styles such as wall mounts, side mounts and stack systems, all coming in various different shapes and sizes and holding as little as three bottles or as many as a hundred.

The reason you should be investing in a horizontal wine rack in order to store your wine properly is that a horizontal wine rack will prevent the cork from drying out and start to shrink which brings air into the bottle of wine and will ruin it. Vertical racks are fine for storing wines for short periods of time., but if you are looking to lay down a bottle of wine for a month or more then you will be in danger of ruining that bottle. It is, therefore, commonly argued that horizontal racks are the best racks for storing wine as it is better to be safe than sorry if you don’t know when you are going to be cracking open the next bottle, it is better to leave it in a horizontal position. Horizontal racks are also easily added to if you feel you need more bottle spaces.

Not only do you have to pick the shape of your wine rack, but it is also important to think about what materials you would like your wine rack to be made out of. Wine racks can be finished in a range of materials. You can normally select the materials, style, design and colour of your rack when going to the right supplier. This can include a large variety of woods and stains, recyclable materials or metal. If you want to hang racks on the walls, especially smaller ones as decoration, you should consider racks made of lighter materials to avoid causing to damage the walls.

No matter what size your wine collection is, you can find the right rack for your lovely home. A little bit of time and effort into making sure you know what you want can go a long way to give you the collection of your dreams.

Posted in Wine Storage

Five Facts You Never Knew About Wine

  1. The Romans came up with the notion of toasting wine

That’s right, not only did the Romans invent concrete, sewers, roads, the calendar, the newspaper and underfloor heating, but they even invented the toast! And who would have guessed that it actually involved real toasted bread! It apparently originated when the Senate made it a requirement that emperor Augusts be honoured with a toast at every meal. They would drop a piece of burnt toast (known as the tostus) into a glass of wine to disguise the wine’s disagreeable flavours and then raise a glass to the guest of honour.

  1. The world’s oldest bottle is… really old

The Speyer wine bottle was uncovered in Germany in 1867 and is believed to be from 325 AD! If this is correct, it is the oldest known unopened bottle of wine in the world. The bottle was discovered during an excavation within a 4th-century AD Roman nobleman’s tomb. One source says the man was a Roman legionary and the wine was a provision for his celestial journey. We know wine is meant to improve with age but we think you might be better off missing this one out if someone starts handing out glasses of this wine!

  1. But it’s not as old as the world’s oldest wine…

The world’s oldest bottle of wine might be almost 1,700 years old, but scientists have recently revealed that they have found pottery fragments which show the earliest evidence of grape wine-making. The fragments are believed to be 8,000 years old and were discovered in two Neolithic villages, called Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora. The world’s earliest non-grape based wine is understood to be a fermented alcoholic mixture of rice, honey and fruit dating back to 7,000 BC in China.

  1. Tutankhamun loved his wine

Egypt dominated the wine trade between 1550 and 1070 BC, and the Egyptians went about improving it as much as they could. They first created amphorae to make the transportation of wine easier and then they created the wine label. It seems that the 19-year-old King Tut was a fan of the alcoholic grape-based beverage as there were 26 amphorae found in his tomb alongside a wide array of other artefacts. The amphorae were all labelled with extremely specific details regarding the year the wine was made, where it was made, who made it and even the style of wine. They had a rating system of good, great or excellent wine (does this mean they never made a bad bottle?). We wonder if they could have done with some wooden oak wine racks, as the amphorae don’t seem to be very neatly placed!

  1. Some people have a wine phobia

This uncommon fear is called Oenophobia and is the irrational fear of wine. People with Oenophobia have a paralysing fear of seeing the consumption of wine, wine bottles and spilt wine. The disease is related with methyphobia (fear of alcoholic beverages). In both of these cases, the person with the phobia often dislikes these alcoholic drinks as they are afraid that they may suffer severe poisoning when consuming them. Even the idea of this can cause extreme anxiety, tremors, respiratory problems, abdominal pain and nausea.

Posted in Wine Facts, Wine Storage

Constantine Bay Stores Wine Racking By A & W MOORE WINERACKS

A & W MOORE are proud to reveal the New Retail Wine Racking for the Constantine Bay Stores (Padstow, Cornwall. PL28 8JJ). Which displays over a hundred different varieties of wine.

The friendly and helpful staff would be pleased to see you to discuss your wine requirements or visit their website www.constantinebaystores.com to find out more.

If you are interested in having your shop fitted out with Wine Storage display racking  check out our  full details of A & W Moore’s Retail Wine Racking at  www.wineracks.co.uk/wine-racks-range/shop-restaurant-bar-racks/

or simply give us a Call  or Email and see how we can help you. Tel: 01159441434  Email: information@wineracks.co.uk

Posted in Wine News, Wine StorageTagged in

A Guide to Wine Storage, From A&W Moore

One of the most important ways to keep your wine in optimum condition is to store it correctly. It’s not as simple as throwing a few bottles on to a wine rack. No, there are a few more things to consider. Use our handy guide, to make sure that your fine wines are being stored correctly.

The first thing that you should think about is the ‘climate’ of your wine cellar. Climate is made up of the temperature and the humidity. They work closely together, to ensure that your wine ages well.

Temperature

This is the most critical element of your wine cellar. Try to keep the temperature of your wine cellar as constant as possible. Ideally, aim for between 10 and 14 degrees centigrade. The cellar should absolutely never reach higher than 25 degrees centigrade. If wines are exposed to temperatures that are too high, this will age them prematurely.

Humidity

The next vital factor for creating and ideal climate in your wine cellar is to control the humidity.

Why is humidity important?

Humidity is the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere.

If humidity is too low…

If the humidity of the cellar is too low, organic corks may begin to dry out. If this happens, oxygen may get into the wine.

If humidity is too high…

There is also a risk to the quality of your wine, if the humidity in your cellar is too high. Firstly, the moisture will spoil the labels on the bottles. Secondly and more importantly, there is a possibility that you are creating the optimum conditions for fungus to grow on your wine bottles.

Controlling humidity can be tricky. However, a simple solution from A&W Moore is a cellar conditioner, which has amazing dual functionality – controlling both temperature and humidity. It can be tempting to buy a regular air conditioner but unfortunately, they can make the atmosphere too dry, as they are not designed for your wine cellar specific needs.

Lighting

The darkness of your cellar is a huge factor in ensuring that your wine is stored correctly. Ultraviolet light can be detrimental to the quality of your wine. It’s important to note than some wines are more susceptible to degradation than others but they all need to be protected. There is science behind ultraviolet light’s effect on wine but it’s quite easy to understand. First of all, the excessive exposure is called ‘lightstrike’. The UV light reacts with the wine, creating compounds which destroy the taste. Along with ensuring a dark environment, wines in coloured glass stand a much better chance of avoiding lightstrike.

Successful wine storage takes some practice and planning, but when it’s done correctly, it is a satisfying and rewarding activity. You’ll enjoy the maximum benefit from the wines you invest in, when it has the best conditions to mature in.

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Posted in Wine Storage