THE FUTURE OF WINE CELLARING

No cobwebbed old brick cellar to fill with dusty bottles and boxes? Technology is putting a different spin on wine storage: not so much hiding it away as centrepiece of your home decor, says James Button

- James Button

Wine drinkers have long relied on the steady subterranean temperature and ideal humidity of cellars to store their wine. But modern technology has brought the joy of storing fine wine at home to those without a traditional underground space. Whether you’d prefer to put your wines on display behind a wall of glass, build a spiral cellar beneath your kitchen, or simply store prized wines in a temperature- and humidity-controlled wine fridge, there are plenty of options when it comes to looking after your favourite bottles.

The wine fridge or wine cabinet is the entry-point into professional-level wine storage. These can be small and discreet enough to tuck under a kitchen countertop, but the largest models can store more than 200 bottles and can form a focal point for the room – much like the multi-tiered wine fridges on display in many fine-dining venues.

Some wine fridges offer multi-zone temperature control as well as humidity control, allowing wines to be chilled ready to serve while other wines are maturing at ‘cellar’ temperature. These have been around for decades, but nowadays you can buy examples with various LED colour settings, charcoal filters to prevent odours entering the fridge and affecting the wine, hygrometers to measure humidity, digital temperature control to within 0.1°C and anti-UV glass to prevent the wine from spoiling due to exposure to harmful ultraviolet rays.

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