You need to know how to store wine to prevent the quality of the wine from being affected by oxidation. However, you may have noticed that while other types of wine are usually stored upright, wine is often stored horizontally.
Should you store red wine horizontally or vertically?
The question of whether to store wine horizontally or vertically is a dilemma for many people. (Photo: Spottswoode Winery)
The best way to store most wines is to store them horizontally. The reason for this is that the cork is usually made of wood, and storing the wine horizontally ensures that the wine is always in contact with the cork, preventing the cork from drying out. Dry corks tend to shrink, which can prevent the wine bottle from being completely sealed, allowing for oxidation and the entry of bacteria, resulting in a loss of flavor and quick degradation of the wine.
In addition, if the wine bottle is stored vertically, sediment will settle at the bottom of the bottle, and pouring the wine will disturb the sediment, reducing its aesthetic appeal. Storing wine bottles horizontally allows sediment to settle at the bottom of the bottle, and pouring the wine will not cause the sediment to “run” into the glass.
Currently, many types of wine on the market are sealed with a screw cap instead of a traditional cork. This ensures a particularly high level of sealing, and the wine is less affected by humidity and temperature in the air. In this case, whether the wine bottle is stored horizontally or vertically does not matter.
We all know that most red wine bottle caps are made of cork, and in order to seal the red wine bottle, the cork must be moistened. This causes the cork to expand and tightly seal the bottle, preventing air from entering.
Storing wine bottles horizontally allows the wine to come into contact with the cork, causing the cork to expand and completely seal the bottle. (Photo: Expert Wine Storage)
So, should all wine bottles be stored horizontally instead of vertically? Not necessarily. For sparkling wines, champagne, you should store them upright to preserve their excellent taste.
These types of wines always have high air pressure in the bottle to maintain carbonation and bubbles when you enjoy them. Sparkling wine bottles usually have a plastic cap that you can unscrew to release the pressure when you open the bottle. Storing them horizontally can affect the pressure in the bottle, which in turn affects the taste of the wine.
Why do wine bottle bottoms have a concave shape?
The concave design of a wine bottle bottom has the following advantages:
– Convenient for pouring wine: If you hold a wine bottle in your hand and look at the label, place your thumb on the concave part at the bottom of the bottle, and support the rest of your fingers underneath. This will make it easier to observe, like holding a baby. In the case of pouring wine for someone sitting far away from you, putting your thumb on the bottom of the wine bottle will allow you to reach further and pour more easily.
– Helps settle sediment: Aged wines are likely to have small sediments, and the concave bottom of the bottle helps settle the sediment at the bottom and keep it there.
– Creates the illusion of more wine: The concave bottom of the bottle makes the wine bottle look like it contains more wine than it actually does. This is because if you compare two 750ml wine bottles, the one with the concave bottom will appear to contain more wine, as your eyes are deceived.
– Helps chill faster: With increased contact surface at the bottom of the bottle, chilling the wine will happen more quickly, especially when submerged in an ice bucket, as the bottom of the bottle always gets cold first.
– Makes the bottle more stable: If you place a wine bottle on a tilted surface or on uneven ground, the concave bottom will make it more stable than a flat bottom, similar to how a bowl sits on a table. Usually, in addition to the concave part, wine bottles also have a small groove so that when the surface where they are placed gets wet, you can easily lift them up.
– Easy bottle cleaning: Before the wine is filled into the bottle by the manufacturer, the outer part of the bottle is rinsed with water. The concave bottom makes cleaning the bottle easier and allows the water to spread evenly inside the bottle.
– Increased durability: Creating a concave shape helps the bottom of the bottle withstand impact better than a flat-bottomed bottle, similar to folding a piece of paper. For sparkling wines, the concave bottom helps prevent the bottle from exploding in the cellar during the secondary fermentation process.
– Easy stacking: In fact, if you stack wine bottles vertically, the concave bottom will make the bottles on top more stable.
Source: VTC news
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