So here's my situation, I don't drink wine all that often. In fact, I almost never do unless I have friends coming over for a dinner party or something. I've always just gone out the day of, and grabbed a quick bottle of something at the grocery store, and that was that.
However, I've decided what I'd like to do instead is just keep a few decent bottles on hand. When I say "decent" we're talking 12-15 dollar bottles, so maybe even that's a stretch, but it's not 2 Buck Chuck either. That way for an impromptu get together or whatever, wine's just available.
Because dinner parties here can be unpredictable, let's say I need to store a couple of bottles anywhere from 1 month to 1 year at most. Now because I am NOT a wine guy I don't want to go spending even 100 bucks on a wine fridge to store it. I know very little about storing wine other than to keep it on its side. Short of purpose-built rooms, there's apparently two options, both of which have problems for me.
Option A) Keep it in the regular fridge. Apparently this is bad because it's not humid enough, it's too cold, and the opening and closing of the door and the compressor running wll vibrate the wine enough to ruin it (Incidentally, how the hell does vibrating a wine wreck it? Are there any scientific explanations for this?)
Option B) Keep it in a closet/cabinet. This what I'm currently doing, but apparently storing wine at temperatures above like 70 degrees will wreck it quickly, turning it into Sherry. I live in Tucson and the temperature fluctuates pretty wildly outside, and therefore inside my house. During the day I leave the a/c off so the temperature inside the house (and therefore the closet or whatever) gets up to about 85 degrees F.
So my questions are
#1. For lower-middling quality wine like this, am I overthinking things? Can I just throw it somewhere and assume it'll still be fairly drinkable up to a year later pretty much no matter what?
#2. Any options I've missed?
These are all 05/06 vintage wines I'm talking about here so I'm assuming that if stored "properly" the year or so I'd like them to stick around for isn't out of the question. Also the types I'd like to keep on hand are Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc, if that matters. Thanks!
However, I've decided what I'd like to do instead is just keep a few decent bottles on hand. When I say "decent" we're talking 12-15 dollar bottles, so maybe even that's a stretch, but it's not 2 Buck Chuck either. That way for an impromptu get together or whatever, wine's just available.
Because dinner parties here can be unpredictable, let's say I need to store a couple of bottles anywhere from 1 month to 1 year at most. Now because I am NOT a wine guy I don't want to go spending even 100 bucks on a wine fridge to store it. I know very little about storing wine other than to keep it on its side. Short of purpose-built rooms, there's apparently two options, both of which have problems for me.
Option A) Keep it in the regular fridge. Apparently this is bad because it's not humid enough, it's too cold, and the opening and closing of the door and the compressor running wll vibrate the wine enough to ruin it (Incidentally, how the hell does vibrating a wine wreck it? Are there any scientific explanations for this?)
Option B) Keep it in a closet/cabinet. This what I'm currently doing, but apparently storing wine at temperatures above like 70 degrees will wreck it quickly, turning it into Sherry. I live in Tucson and the temperature fluctuates pretty wildly outside, and therefore inside my house. During the day I leave the a/c off so the temperature inside the house (and therefore the closet or whatever) gets up to about 85 degrees F.
So my questions are
#1. For lower-middling quality wine like this, am I overthinking things? Can I just throw it somewhere and assume it'll still be fairly drinkable up to a year later pretty much no matter what?
#2. Any options I've missed?
These are all 05/06 vintage wines I'm talking about here so I'm assuming that if stored "properly" the year or so I'd like them to stick around for isn't out of the question. Also the types I'd like to keep on hand are Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc, if that matters. Thanks!
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