What I never knew about wine storage – WSET level 2

What I never knew about wine storage – WSET level 2

Link: Find more WSET stories – This article is written by a news journalist on a journey of discovery – and on a mission to learn about wine.

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It’s one thing selecting a quality wine, but do you know what to do with it before you take the plunge and drink it? Until the WSET, no-one had ever told me how I should be correctly storing my wine. I just put them in a rack.

*Use the where to study map on the WSET website to see which courses are available near you.

If you thought your problems end with storage, then I’m afraid I’m the bearer of bad tidings. Serving wine also poses challenges, and we so often get that wrong too. Mercifully, the faults we make are universal, so don’t think you’re in a boat of one.

With storage, unless you have the space and resources for a wine cellar kept at a cool and constant temperature, you may have some issues. Wines damage if exposed to extremes of cold and hot temperatures. Thus, a glaring mistake many make is storing wine in kitchens where temperature fluctuations are commonplace.

Want to use a professional cellar service? See recommended US and UK companies here

Similarly, assuming refrigerating wine for long periods – and I’m talking mainly white and sparkling wines here – will preserves its freshness indefinitely, is a commonplace blunder. This is because the cork hardens and loses it elasticity, compromising the seal it has with the bottle. Consequently, air attacks the wine causing staleness. For sparklers, you’ll find they’ve lost their fizz.

How to store Champagne

Another storage issue where the cork is pivotal is standing bottle upright. The cork, no longer in contact with the wine, dries out making it more porous. Once again, air interacts with the wine, oxidises it and alters the flavour, eventually warping the taste.

Light also has an adverse effect. Natural or artificial light can heat the wine in the bottle, hastening staleness and making it old before its time. Artificial light can also give wine some rather unpleasant flavours. So keep it in a darkened room if possible.

Read more at http://www.decanter.com/learn/wset/what-i-never-knew-about-wine-storage-wset-level-2-290506/?utm_source=Eloqua&utm_medium=email&utm_content=news+alert+link+20160208&utm_campaign=Newsletter-20160208

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