Arranging and organising beautiful articles that an individual collects out of passion is an art. A lot of thinking and planning goes into meticulous arrangement of your collection, and a beautiful arrangement of your wine collection at home is no exception. A thoughtful arrangement of wine bottles in a wine preservation system sends a message to the world that you possess excellent knowledge on the subject. Plus, it’s easily accessible, and looks good too.
All wine cabinets run on different temperature levels, and hence, allows the wine collector to store the wine as per the preferred chillness. The lowest of the shelves in a wine cabinet are typically the coldest and the temperature reduces as one moves to the higher shelves, with room temperature on the topmost shelf. Generally, between 11-15 degrees Celsius or 52-59 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for the lower shelves.
A professional wine cabinet to invest in would be the EuroCave, which has a range of units and cabinets to suit one’s needs and temperatures can be set as per one’s preferences.
Now let’s understand the kind of wine bottles that should be stored in these shelves.
Sparkling wines like Champagnes as well as those wines that need to be served immediately and need quicker frosting can be stored in the lower chilled shelves. Your lower shelves can also be used to hold those wines that you want to hold for a longer period of time or the premium ones, which you would want to serve on special occasions.
Next come the white wines, sakes, the reds and rosés.
You can dedicate a couple of rows above the sparkling wines or the premium ones for the Japanese sakes. Then go to the white wines that require temperatures in the range of 7-12 or 13 degrees Celsius or 44-55 degrees Fahrenheit, depending on the type of wine such as light or heavier ones that are being stored.
Next up are the reds. Keep away the expensive ones in the lower shelf and store the everyday drinking liquids on the top few shelves, so that it has the right temperature for a quick drink when a guest drops in or to relax on any evening. So, an everyday drink like a Bordeaux or a Barolo can be stored in the cabinet at room temperature too.
Having said all of the above, there is no wrong or right way to store wines. Each wine collector would have his or her own way of arranging the bottles depending on the likes and preferences.
Some examples of wine arrangement in a wine cabinet are that they could be stored according to the country the wine is made or bought, as well as the region or state that they come from.
Another way to shelf them is on the grape varieties that are harvested. So, there are ample ways to store your wines in a cabinet, but of course what is most important is to have a solid wine cabinet if you are a wine collector and boast of a range of wines at home instead of storing them with your juices or liquids in a refrigerator.
Originally published April 19, 2022