Are you someone who has spent money buying some nice wines but you don’t have a cellar to put them in?
Whether you live in Cape York, Cairns or Canberra, there are some easy hacks to keep your wine stash safe.
Let’s first talk about why you even need to keep your wine protected. The first thing to understand is that wine is a living creature, it’s a bit like having a low maintenance pet in your house – they don’t bark when they are in distress but they are changing day by day in and if you are not looking after them, the demise is setting in.
Wine is a precious little pooch, it doesn’t like light, it doesn’t like heat and it doesn’t like fluctuations in temperature. This is why we never send out wines from our cellar door on really hot days.
You might be asking yourself what do I do to make sure I take care of my wine?
Consistency Is Key!
Well anyone who lives in Cooper Pedy knows, going underground has a lot of advantages for temperature control. Being close to the earth, flattens out the intense heat and the intense cold and keeps temperatures consistent. It also limits light. But who has a cellar? Very few of us live in houses with built in cellars and just about no one can afford to dig one out; anyway many of us live in rentals or apartments. So what can you do?
The next best thing after a cellar is to get yourself a wine fridge for your best drops that you plan to hang on to. If you live in the warm tropics or even a climate with hot summers and cold winters, a wine fridge is a good investment, as it keeps your wine at a consistent temperature in a dark space. Not all of us have the room or money for a wine fridge yet, so here are some of my best hacks if that’s you.
Think like a dog! Yes really, check out where your dog plonks itself in your house on a hot day – they have an uncanny knack of finding the coolest place in the house. It’s often on cool tiles in a cool room.
The coolest spots in your place are most likely to be away from windows where the sun is shining and therefore in the middle of the house. This is also good for keeping light out and is where the best insulation is. Don’t stash your wine in the garden shed, as they usually have terrible insulation.
Heat rises, so keep your wine down low. Under built in robes or beds is better than up high and steer clear of heat spots like the shelves above your oven.
Wine doesn’t like being shaken up while it’s resting, so avoid places where there is a lot of movement, like the top of a tumble drier.
Low dark & cool – these are the best tips for the places in your house to store your wine and if you are not sure, then follow your pooch around on a hot day and see where they go.