Ask Jim - storing wine at room temperature
Jim Chatto
Leading young winemaker, Jim Chatto
Dear Jim,
How long can I store red wine at room temperature?
BJWine
The key factors in successfully storing wine are controlled temperature, humidity and light. If you have ever visited an underground cellar in one of the wine producing regions in Europe you would have noticed they are cool, damp and dark. In a good cellar these conditions remain constant regardless of conditions above ground.
How long you can store red wine at room temperature depends entirely on where you live and the temperature you like to live at. The ideal temperature range to store wine is 12 to 16 degrees celcius, probably not a comfortable room temperature for anyone. If you are anything like me a comfortable room temperature might be 20 degrees in the summer and up to 24 degrees in winter. From my university chemistry days, room temperature was always defined as 20 to 23.5 degrees. At these elevated temperatures your wine will develop much faster in the bottle. The old chemistry adage of ‘for every 10 degree increase in temperature there is a doubling of the rate of reaction’ holds pretty true.
A stable temperature is very important, the fluctuating temperature of our living environments can do tremendous damage to your wine. A daily fluctuation from 15 to 25 Degrees will do more damage than a constant 20 degrees.
Humidity is also important and wine sealed with a cork is best stored at a relative humidity (RH) of 70%. Most domestic air conditioning systems maintain a RH of around 20%, which can lead to drying out of the cork, resulting in wine loss and spoilage. Excessive exposure to light can also influence the taste of wine and should be minimised.
Therefore it is fine to store red wine at room temperature for short periods only (read weeks). Any longer and I would consider a wine storage cabinet, which provides a constant temperature and humidity. That said I am as guilty as anyone for keeping my drinking wines in the kitchen - lucky they don’t last too long in my house.
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