Storing and Serving Wine

Storing Wine
You don’t need a fancy wine cellar to store wine. The basic requirements are a cool, dry, dark space (closet, crawl space, compartment under a stairway, or portion of a garage or basement) that’s shielded from direct sunlight and vibration and maintains a steady temperature (55 to 65 degrees Farenheit is ideal).

Serving Temperatures for Wine
As a rule, white and sparkling wines are best served well-chilled (40 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit), with sparkling wines and lighter whites at the lower range of the scale and fuller-bodied, richer whites, such as Chardonnay, at the upper range.

Red wines should be served at cool room temperature (55 to 65 F.), with lighter, fruitier reds (e.g., Beaujolais and Pinot Noir), at the lower range and fuller-bodied varieties ( e.g., Cabernet, Zinfandel and Syrah, at the upper range.

Glassware
Most good wine glasses are tulip-shaped (they narrow toward the rim of the glass) to channel the aroma and flavor essences of the wine into the nerve receptors at the rear of your nasal cavity when you sniff the wine. As a rule, the bowls of red wine glasses are larger and wider than those for whites.

Preserving Wine
Exposure to air causes wine to age. If you don’t finish a bottle of wine, cork it up tightly to preserve what’s left. The less wine left in the bottle, the more air, and the faster the wine will oxidize and lose its freshness.

Unfinished white wines, tightly corked and refrigerated, should maintain their character for up to four days, while reds will begin to degrade after 48 hours. (You can extend this slightly by refrigerating reds too, but then you have to warm them to room temperature before serving.)