These Wine Storage Temperature Enemies Are Ruining Your Wine

Ever wondered if your prized bottles are safe on that decorative wine rack? This episode of Everyday Sommelier reveals the biggest wine storage mistakes most collectors make (hint: that gorgeous spot on top of your fridge is a disaster for your wine) and gives you the wine storage strategy you need—no cellar required. Kristi Mayfield breaks down how to choose the best wine storage solutions for every type of bottle, from everyday drinkers to legacy investments, so you can stop stressing and start sipping.

Learn how to avoid the worst enemies of wine—heat, fluctuating temperatures, light, and vibration—and discover practical, step-by-step wine storage tips to keep your collection tasting its best. Whether you have a handful of special occasion bottles or dream of building a full wine cellar, you’ll walk away with the tools to confidently protect your wines at home. Plus, find out if you really need to store wine on its side, when a wine fridge is a must, and how to sort your collection for maximum flavor.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU’LL DISCOVER:

• How to triage your wine collection into “daily drinkables,” “memory makers,” and “legacy labels” for optimal storage
• The four key enemies that destroy wine flavor and value—and simple ways to defeat them
• When a wine fridge or professional storage facility is actually worth the investment
• Pro hacks for storing wine at home—even without a dedicated cellar or expensive equipment
• The truth about wine bottle orientation (sideways or upright?) for cork and screw cap closures

Timestamps:

00:00:42 – Are You Storing Wine the Wrong Way?
Find out why that beautiful wine display might be setting you up for heartbreak—and what most collectors do wrong.

00:03:26 – Stop Wasting Good Wine: The 3-Bucket Storage Strategy
Learn how to sort your collection for maximum taste and value with Kristi’s simple triage plan.

00:08:06 – The Silent Killers of Your Wine Collection
Uncover the four hidden dangers that destroy wine at home (and how to instantly protect your bottles).

00:10:43 – Wine Fridge vs. Closet: Which Wines Deserve an Upgrade?
Get the facts on when to invest in a wine refrigerator, and how to choose the right solution for your needs.

00:12:19 – Bottles on Their Side or Standing Up? The Real Science of Storage
Separate myth from reality about bottle orientation, corks, and why it matters for long-term aging.

00:13:29 – Kitchen Fridge Dangers: When Cold Storage Goes Wrong
Learn why your kitchen refrigerator is the worst place for long-term wine storage—and what to do instead.

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Transcript

Kristi Mayfield (00:00)
You did it. You bought the good stuff. Maybe it was a beautiful Barolo you splurged on for a future celebration or anniversary, or maybe it was just a case of Sauvignon Blanc that you bought on that amazing trip to New Zealand. Whatever the case, you get home and you pull it out of the box

and put it in your decorative wine rack on top of your refrigerator. Yikes! This is the number one mistake I see smart successful people like you make. We treat our hundred dollar or more bottles of wine with the same care as we do that $15 bottle

And while it should give us high anxiety that feeling like we're destroying a beautiful asset, often we don't think a thing about it. However, when we do pull that special bottle out two years down the road, we start to worry. Did we treat it the way we should have and will it taste amazing or well, like nothing special. Today we are ending that

anxiety. You're not just storing wine, you're going to walk away with your very own wine protection strategy that is simple, effective, and will give you the confidence that every single bottle you ever own is protected perfectly, whether you plan to drink it next week or next decade. Stay tuned.

I'm guilty. I destroyed what would have been an amazing bottle of wine. A fairly pricey Chardonnay from a renowned winery I was saving it for that perfect moment. Not really sure what that perfect moment was, but nevertheless it was not a daily drinkable. however, with a shortage of space in my inside wine refrigerators,

I had to resort to garage refrigeration for white wines. Those that I planned to drink within a couple of weeks. So I didn't feel like I was going to destroy them that quickly. And I was keeping the temperature of the outside refrigerator much lower than a traditional refrigerator. So I wouldn't over chill my wines. And for those daily drinkables, it was working just fine. Until I found that

bottle shoved in the back of a drawer and completely forgotten and had been there for more than two years. Of course I wasn't going to just toss it out. I was going to give it a try and that's when I discovered my error. I popped the cork and hoped for the best, but just as I expected I had committed an unforgivable criminal act against that bottle of wine.

It was okay, but it was completely out of balance. The high acidity overwhelmed the luscious fruitiness And most importantly, I learned a very sad lesson. So how can you avoid making the same mistakes in your own home? Well, let's first tackle

the elephant in the room. Not every bottle is destined for long life. Only three to five percent of wines truly get better with age. that 2015 Sauvignon Blanc that you picked up on a trip to Napa Valley a couple of years ago, a couple of decades ago, has definitely seen better days.

So instead of trying to lump all the wines you own or plan to purchase into a single bucket, let's start by mapping out a strategy that addresses your storage needs for each of these three distinctive styles of bottles you might already own or be intending to buy. The first, one of my favorites, the daily drinkables. these are wines

you plan to consume within six months. These are wines for everyday enjoyment, casual dinners, and sips out on the patio. The strategy for storing them is simple and effective. You find a cool, dark place where the temperature is consistent, month in and month out. It stays at the same temperature, plus or minus a few degrees,

all year round. think of the bottom shelf of a closet or a pantry that's far away from the oven and avoid any storage locations on your outside walls if like mine your home does not have good exterior insulation. And that's it. No special equipment is needed and if it's a white wine and you need to chill it quickly plop it in a bucket of ice water

or in your refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour and you're golden. The second bucket. This is what I'm going to call the memory makers. These are wines that can age six months up to maybe five years. The wines you buy and save for special occasions. They're your special occasion bottles. They're meant to be splurges or if you're really generous, a gift for a friend. This

is where you need to upgrade your storage strategy. This tier of wine deserves and requires a dedicated wine refrigerator or wine cooler.

let's discuss why that investment will protect your the key enemies. Wine refrigerators and wine coolers come in all shapes and sizes. They can be freestanding. They can even sit on your counter and hold just a few bottles, like six to 12.

or they can be built in to rooms, to closets, or if you're building a new home into an entire wine room. But the simple version keeps your memory maker bottles of wines at the right temperature and most importantly the right humidity so that cork stays nice and tight and doesn't let any damaging air

through it. You don't have to spend a lot of money on them. Decide how many bottles you need to store in a wine refrigerator Now lastly the third bucket

is what I'm going to call the legacy labels. These are the bottles that you want to lay down and age for five, 10, 25 years. They are your investment grade wines or rare bottles or wines that you're laying down for that major milestone and they are intended to age. This requires potentially some professional intervention. exterior

professional wine storage facilities and most large cities have them available to you. Now they do cost money, you do need to pay a subscription, but overall when you consider that you're protecting your investment, protecting that wine for the long term, they do make financial sense.

especially if you have a few bottles that potentially will appreciate and value the longer you hold on to them. They deserve to be perfectly preserved.

you might be wondering, OK, I've talked about closets. I've talked about wine refrigerators and I've talked about wine storage facilities. So what am I actually protecting my wine against? Well, here are the true enemies of wine and how you can defeat them. The first enemy, number one, heat. Yes, heat. This will kill any bottle of wine.

fast and swift. It cooks the wine. The higher the temperature, those aromas, all of those fruity notes are going to start tasting dull. They're going to start tasting cooked instead of that fresh and fruity sensation you get when that bottle of wine has been protected. Now household hot zones like the top of that refrigerator I mentioned in the introduction next to your oven

on an exterior wall that in the summertime if you're like me and in Texas can be 90 degrees or more or even in your car for a couple of hours can destroy your wine. These are the worst places in your home to store wine.

Temperature fluctuations. instead of being fast and swift, these are the slow torturous demise of wine.

Temperature swings cause the wine to expand and contract in the bottle. When wine heats up and expands, it can start to nudge that cork out of the neck of the bottle. When it contracts, it can contract to the point where it actually lets oxygen, which damages your wine, into the bottle. So you're moving back and forth from heat expansion

cold retraction neither one of those is good for that bottle. Temperature stability a few degrees here or there is fine but temperature stability is your second goal. Number one avoiding heat, number two avoiding high temperature fluctuations. Light is the third enemy this is the silent killer of wines. UV rays

from the sun are constant sunburn. Just like on your own skin, they can burn your wine and prematurely age it. in addition to temperature control or constant temperatures, You need your storage space to be dark

so that it eliminates any potential damaging light from hitting your bottle of wine. For your luxury labels, this is absolutely non-negotiable. The longer exposure to light, the more damage to that wine.

Now the fourth enemy is one you might not have even thought of. I myself didn't think about it when I was putting that beautiful Chardonnay in my outside refrigerator. It wasn't just about the cold temperature. It was vibration, that constant agitation. When we have wines on top of a refrigerator, we have not only the heat from the motor, we have the constant vibration.

If you have washing machines or even speaker systems are causing vibrations wherever wine is stored this constant shaking can one speed up the aging and two if you have any sediment in that bottle it can keep that disturbed and over time can ruin a beautiful bottle of wine.

So now that we know the three types of wines and the buckets they should fall in, the four key enemies of wines,

time to uncork the truth and bust all those myths about whether you should keep your wines standing or laying them down on the side. the intention of storing your bottles on their side is derived from the need to keep a natural cork. If it's closed with a natural cork, keep

wine in constant contact with a cork to keep it wet and keep that bottle of wine sealed. So if you're planning on storing that wine for a few months or more, recommendation is to lay it down on its side. However, I have seen some recent studies that do say the humidity level inside that bottle, even if that bottle is standing,

is enough to keep the cork moist to prevent oxygen from going through. However, what I will tell you is if you intend to keep that wine for more than a few months, play it on the safe side and lay that bottle sideways. If you're talking about wines with screw caps, synthetic corks,

Standing that bottle up vertically is perfectly fine, especially if you plan to drink that wine within a few weeks.

And if you have a favorite one and you're like me and purchase an entire case of it at a time, simply lay that bottle on its side, heck, even turn it upside down to keep that cork in constant contact with the liquid.

Another question I frequently get asked is, can I simply just store my wine in the refrigerator in my kitchen? Well, here's the cold hard truth. Long term storage? Absolutely not. Just as with that Chardonnay, I ruined your kitchen refrigerator is too cold. It's too dry.

and the vibrations, all three of those elements will diminish the overall quality and the overall flavor of your wine within months, not years. So for short term chilling, absolutely. If you are going to be drinking that bottle within a few hours or even a few days, plop it in your refrigerator. It is the perfect tool.

to chill that bottle of white, rosé or sparkling wine until you're ready to serve it. Just don't put it in a drawer and forget about it like I did. now you are armed. You are ready to take action and build your very own wine asset strategy

And here are the four empowering steps you can take to start to transition from storing the wrong way to creating a magical environment for your bottles, whether they're daily drinkables or luxury labels that you intend to hold on to for a decade or more for that very special occasion. Number one.

We are going to start with a triage plan for your current bottles. Pull all your bottles out right now and sort them. Are they daily drinkables? Are they memory makers or are they luxury labels? Separate them into those three buckets. And for your ready to drink daily drinkables, find that cool dark temperature stable spot in your home and move your tier one bottles. Move those daily drinkables.

right there today. Now, if you have wines that fall into that luxury label collection or memory makers and you say you have six or more of these find a wine refrigerator that meets your space needs and meets your bottle storage needs.

Many of these have two zones so you can store your whites and your reds in them at the same time and they can easily be put on your counter in a closet or if you happen to have a kitchen design that allows you to have them built in they're perfect for that. So that is your next step and third start inventorying your memory maker and luxury label bottles. Manage these assets

just as you would jewelry or your investments. You can start with a simple spreadsheet or there's apps that you can download on your phone or computer like cellar tracker so that you constantly know what you have, where you have it, and when you're supposed to drink it. Protect your investment. If you have multiple cases that you've got stored in random places all over your house,

It's probably time to become a member of an off-site wine storage facility. Many cities already have them, so just get online, find one that's near you, and consider renting a locker. Do this just as you might consider renting a lock box at your bank for those seldom used valuables. And those wines will stay protected until you are ready.

to pop the cork on them. Your wine collection, no matter how many bottles you have, no matter how big the size, no matter how much money you've invested in it, is a reflection of your taste. It can be memories from your travels or for aspirations of future celebrations. And it deserves to be protected. So with this tiered strategy, you're now ready to move from worrying about your wines to mastering how.

to store them. My challenge to you this week is start with step one and do the bottle triage. It will just take you a few minutes to sort them out and then you can begin to store them in the best place for their intended purpose, whether that's next week or in the next decade. your first step towards peace of mind.

Let me know how it goes. Let me know what treasures you might have uncovered in your bottle collection And send me a message on Instagram or post on Instagram and tag me at Kristi EverydaySommelier. And if you're ready to take the next step, head on over to my website and join my Insiders List.

So you can receive weekly emails where I share wine tips, event updates, and new releases of all things from WineWise. And that website is www.wine-wize.com And for just signing up, you're going to immediately receive a WineWise tool direct into your inbox. So make sure to check that it doesn't go into your

junk mail.

And you're not going to want to miss next week's episode where we are going to explore aging and wines, which may help you figure out exactly which type of storage bucket you need to put your current collection bottles into. So stay tuned.

And until then, continue to learn wine your way.