CDA Buying Advice – Wine Cooling Tips

New to wine coolers? Here’s some great tips to get you started:

• Maintain a humidity of between 50 and 80%, as this keeps the corks from getting too moist or dry.
• Protect your wine from sunlight. UV rays can cause otherwise stable compounds in wine to degrade, potentially ruining your wine.
• Keep bottles secure and avoid unstable racking. Unnecessary movement could compromise the storage of your collection as the vibration disturbs sediment.
• Dramatic changes in temperature may spoil taste. Maintaining a constant temperature will preserve the quality of your wines.
• Strong odours could permeate the corks, tainting the flavours and notes in the bottle. Limit the risk of smells reaching your collection by keeping them in a secure environment.
• Once opened, wine should always be stored with the screw top lid, cork or a wine stopper in the neck to prevent further oxidisation of the wine, which causes it to spoil. White wine will keep, in the cooler, for up to a week while red wine will spoil after just a couple of days. Bear in mind that the wine could spill in the wine cooler if it has already been opened and the stopper is not inserted to create a seal.
• Not all wines improve with age. Some wines are designed and fermented to be enjoyed soon after purchase. It is worth looking up your wine online, inputting the year and reading advice on whether this is an ‘enjoy now’ or ‘save for later’ bottle.
• If you take a bottle out of the cooler and never end up serving it then it will be absolutely fine to return to the cooler for another day. You should not find that there are any detrimental effects to your wine after such a short amount of time.
• You should sporadically clean your wine cooler to keep it smelling fresh and working efficiently. A mild solution of detergent and water should be just fine. You will surprised at how much dust and dirt you are adding to your appliance every time you put in new bottles.
• There are also two different sizes of glass shelf that have been specifically designed to fit inside your wine cooler. These slide in and replace one of the wooden shelves to provide an ideal storage location for cans of drink mixer or bottles of tonic water for example. This provides an extra, flexible dimension to your wine cooler to make it suitable for your party style.