Home Wine Bar: Caring for Your Wine Bottles

Most people who think of starting a wine bar are often discouraged by the thought that they don’t have a proper, climate-controlled wine cellar. But you can store your wine bottles in anything and in any place where you have the proper conditions to care for your wine.

Conditions

• A humid space is best for wine bottles – humidity helps the cork on bottles stay moist, which keeps the wine sealed. If the air is too dry, the cork could dry out, causing it to crack and crumble away inside the bottle, exposing the wine to the air and causing it to spoil. But too much humidity could cause the cork to develop mold or mildew, which could contaminate your wine. A space with about 60% to 70% humidity is best.
• Moderate and steady temperature is also best. If your wine bar is too cold, it could cause the cork to shrink, which would break the seal and expose your wine to the air, causing it to spoil. If it’s too hot, your wine could age faster than normal. Also, a steady temperature is best. A temperature change of more than ten degrees could affect the quality of your wine, and cause it to age too quickly. Ideally, the temperature in your wine bar should be somewhere between 45 and 65 degrees, and should stay fairly constant.
• Check whether your bottle has a cork, or a screw top. Corked bottles should be stored lying down on their sides, so the cork stays moist. Some wineries are now starting to use screw tops for their bottles; if your wine has a screw top, it can be stored upright or on its side.
• A dark space is also best.  Too much exposure to UV light, from sunlight or fluorescent bulbs, can cause your wine to develop an unpleasant smell. A space lit with incandescent bulbs is better – but a space that is only lit now and then is best of all.
• Too much vibration can also stir up the natural sediments in the bottom of your wine bottle, which can make your wine look cloudy and affect the taste. Avoid storing your wine in a place where it will be moved frequently, or where there is a lot of foot traffic or vibrations from other sources – on top of the refrigerator, for example.

Storage

• As long as the space you have chosen for your wine has the right humidity, temperature, and light conditions, and you can store the bottles on their sides, you can use any kind of rack or shelf system that will hold your bottles. If you only have a few bottles, a countertop rack set in a shelf in a cool dark place is ideal.
• You can also use a bookcase with shelves deep enough to hold the bottles lying down on their sides. Stack old cardboard mailing tubes on each of the shelves, reinforcing them with glue if you like.  Then simply slip each bottle into one of the tubes. 
• A wooden shoe rack is another option – look for the kind that has a cubbyhole for each pair of shoes; simply insert the bottle into each cubbyhole. Some of these shoe racks are also stackable, if you happen to have an especially big wine bar.
• If you are having trouble finding a space that is dark or cool enough, and you only have a few bottles, you can purchase a compact cube refrigerator for your wine bar. Most are deep enough to allow you to stack the bottles inside on their sides.