How To Store Natural Wine?

Organic wine doesn’t age, right? WRONG! Myth busted, check out our guide to storing your precious collection.

White in the fridge and red in the cupboard, right? Kinda, it’s not super complicated but here we’ll look at some foolproof methods for proper wine storage at home. If you’re going to be drinking it soon then you can just stick to the mantra of white, orange and rose in the fridge, red can stay out unless you want to drink it chilled.

If you’ve stocked up and won’t get through your stash in the immediate future then there are a few things to consider but this simple guide will answer your questions and hopefully prevent the mid-kitchen existential crisis.

‘Keep in a cool dry place’

You read it everywhere and there is good reason for that. Wine should never be kept over, or anywhere near 26.7˚c. In fact, the general rule is cooler the better. When you come to drink that bottle of Natural Wine you have been saving you can leave it to sit, warm slightly, and release all of its lovely complex flavours. 

In the meantime, keep it somewhere cool like the back of a cupboard or under the stairs. The aim of the game is a consistent temperature rather than a low one. Think about being in a cool basement, then think about where in your house is most similar to those conditions. That’s where you want to be storing your precious bottles. If you’re a stickler for the numbers then between 12˚c - 16˚c is ideal for long term storage. 

Keep your bottles of natural and organic wine dry because you want to be able to read the label when you come back to drink it but also excess moisture doesn’t always play well with cork closures and can degrade them over time.

Good vibes only

We get it, most modern houses don’t just have space for a dedicated wine cellar so you might be tempted to stash you wine along side the washing machine just be wary not to store bottle on your shaking and wobbling washing machine. Natural Wines are still “alive” so very much react to their environments and as such they can come undone if exposed to needless shaking. Pro tip: your fridge door might not be as much of an ally as you thought with all that opening and closing. 

Hello darkness my old friend

Cool but not damp, what next? Darkness is a friend indeed when storing natural wine for one important reason. Darkness is a fantastic way to maintain a constant atmosphere for your favourite bottles of natural wine, if you do have a bottle you have been saving that’s been sitting by a window, you might want to ask yourself how warm that bottle has been getting whilst sat in the sun. It is one of the reasons that wine bottles are traditionally a dark green or brown. Dark is perfect but ALWAYS keep wine out of direct sunlight, no matter how pretty it looks when the sun shines through it.

Wines of a sedimentary nature

It is natural, it is organic, it is bloody lovely… but it’s full of floaty bits? Don’t worry it’s supposed to be like that, some but not all Natural Wines have sediment left over in them from because they haven’t been fined or filtered It’s part of what makes natural wines natural, so don’t panic, just allow the sediment to settle and pour carefully to avoid it going into your glass. Oftentimes sediment will increase if you’ve been storing your wines for a while, it’s perfectly normal and all part of a wines development. 

Just Drink it!

A simple command perhaps but contrary to popular opinion Natural Wine certainly does age. Due to the low sulphate levels in natural wines, there is an old wife’s tale that organic wines can’t sit for years and still taste delicious. Which is simply untrue, there are many Natural Wines that benefit from some ageing. That said a lot of them are ready to go from the moment you buy them

Our advice is therefore, is ‘just drink it’, whether it’s today, tomorrow or in 10 years. That's what it was made for so don’t stress it!

Or was it don’t ‘drink it’?

We’ve all been there, returning from the pub after a great night, is now really the time you want to be digging into your  expertly curated wine cellar? Probably… It’s so easy to invite everyone back to yours to carry on the party but just make sure you’ve got some party bottles always ready to go. Wines you don’t mind not remembering drinking and keep the expensive stuff tucked safely at the back. In short, drink responsibly!