The best way to ruin a good bottle of wine is to store it incorrectly. Luckily, there's been a great deal of research about the correct way to store wine and storing wine correctly is very easy.
Instructions
Storing an Unopened Bottle
1. Take the temperature, humidity and motion of your storage facility of your wine into consideration. Wine should be stored in places with consistent temperature, humidity and light. In addition, there should be little movement or vibration in the storage area.
2. Consider storing wine in a basement, if you have one. Basements are the best places since they stay cool even during the summer, are motion free (unless there's an earthquake) and are dark places. Wine does best when stored at 55 to 65 degrees F at 70 to 80 percent humidity.
3. Store your wine on a wine rack so the bottles are sideways. This keeps the cork moist, keeping air out, and keeps sediment from settling at the bottom of the bottle. Place sparkling wines at the bottom, whites in the middle and reds close to the top of the rack.
4. Turn the wine periodically to keep all sides of the cork moist. If the cork dries out, the seal will break and air will get into the bottle.
Once the Bottle's Been Opened
5. Put the cork back in as tightly as possible. Don't worry about needing to reuse a bottle opener to get the cork back out.
6. Pour the wine into a smaller bottle, with a tight top if there's less than half the bottle left. This will allow less air to touch the wine.
7. Place the wine, red or white, in the fridge to help it last longer.
8. Store the opened bottle in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.
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