With an abundance of delicious wines at our door step, every South Aussie home deserves a special place for a wine collection. This blog covers the best places to store wine at home...
Choosing a wine cabinet is pretty much down to two things:
1. Personal preference: style, design, how it fits with the rest of the room's decor.
2. Space: how much wine you want to store. Depending on how much wine you drink (or like to collect) you might opt for a simple 12 bottle rack.
Choosing the right place for your wine cabinet or cooler requires a little more consideration.
Bad Locations to Store Wine at Home
Avoid locations that:
- Have too much light
- Insufficient ventilation
- Fluctuations in temperature
Wine deteriorates under light. It could be natural light or electric lights. Either way - avoid placing your wine cooler in an area that receives a lot of light. Avoid placing your cooler by a window for instance. If you're running out of dark spaces in the house, somewhere with minimal light is okay, as long as the light isn't on for long periods of time.
Keep the surrounding temperature as constant as you can. You might find an office at the back of your house tends to stay cooler than other areas of the house or is more constant in its temperature.
Make sure the area around your wine stock is well ventilated.
Best Locations to Store Wine at Home
A Cellar
Not everyone has the space to build or accommodation their own wine cellar. But if you do, there are 4 tips to remember when building your wine cellar:
1. Remember to check the temperature of the cellar all year round. People often assume an underground cellar is cool all year round, but this isn't always the case.
2. Install climate control equipment to manage the temperature of the cellar. Using a traditional aircon will use up a lot of electricity and will only keep temperatures low, rather than adjusting to outside temperatures.
3. Install adequate installation to reduce the amount of energy the climate controller uses.
4. Carefully select a door that assists in keeping the room at the right temperature.
The Kitchen
The kitchen is the most convenient place to store your wine. It's easily accessible when serving guests and kitchens typically have enough space to accommodate a wine rack or cabinet. There are some real nifty ways to store wine in your kitchen which we'll share in next week's blog!
The Dining Room
Another convenient location, especially if you host a lot of dinner parties and/or frequently use your dining area. Dining room cabinets are a great place for storing wine. Just remember to keep it away from a window or any direct electric light.
Under the Stairs
The next best thing if you don't have a cellar but have a two-storey home. It's usually junk that takes up space in the cupboard below the stairs - ditch the junk and install a wine cellar under your stairs.
The Living Room
If you tend to consume your bottles of red in front of the telly, the living room may be the right place for your wine cooler. Like the kitchen and dining room, the living room is also a convenient place to store your wine. It can also be a cool feature for the room.
