You've Been Storing Your Wine Wrong The Entire Time

For many wine drinkers, the most beloved room of the house is the wine cellar — a shrine to the gods of the grape. Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to have the square footage necessary for a wine cellar, but that shouldn't stop you from trying to build a collection of wines and keep them in optimal conditions.

Everyone can take the lessons and the concepts applied to a wine cellar and apply them to whichever room in the house or apartment they're storing their wine. Possibly the most important thing to take into account when storing wine is the temperature, which means that as cute as that wine rack over your stove is, it's definitely not the place to keep your bottles. Temperature is why wine has been traditionally stored in a cellar — it's cool without being freezing cold. Warm temperatures can cause wine to spoil, but you don't want it to freeze, either. Around 55 degrees Fahrenheit is the optimal temperature for both long- or short-term storage (via Masterclass). 

Another reason wine has traditionally been kept in the cellar — and another reason your decorative wine rack in the window is a bad idea — is because it's important to keep bottles away from light, especially from sunlight, as UV rays can damage the taste and smell of the wine (via Vinfolio). One investment you can make as a wine lover is to buy a wine fridge. A wine refrigerator will keep your wine at the proper humidity (also an important factor when it comes to storing wine) as well as the right temperature. Using your regular refrigerator to store wine will keep your wine too cold and will potentially dry out the cork (via Wine Spectator). As a result, the cork, which Wine Spectator explains are often made of natural material from the cork oak tree, can dry out and allow air to enter the bottle causing the wine itself to go bad. Most wine fridges keep the humidity somewhere between 50 and 70 percent, because too high a humidity can cause the label to peel off the bottle. 

Following some or all of these steps will ensure your wines will stay good for as long as you are planning to keep them before drinking.