Wine has been stored underground in wine caves for thousands of years. For example, archaeologists have found several thousand year old wine jugs that were stored in walls or floors. The ancient Romans were known to store their wine in catacombs, which were essentialy underground cemetaries. France’s first wine caves came from abandoned Roman mines.

Why were caves used to store wine? Why have caves worked as wine storage facilities for thousands of years? Caves and other underground facilities naturally and automatically provide the ideal conditions for wine storage and wine aging. In particular, wine caves provide consistently cool, stable temperatures, constant humidity levels, little to no direct light and little to no vibrations. These are exactly the conditions needed to preserve, store and age wine.

Don’t have the yard, extra space or investment dollars needed to construct a wine cave? No problem. A wine cooler is specifically designed to provide wine storage temperature ranges of between 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit while also protecting wine against light, vibrations and low humidity. Wine coolers can be smaller countertop models or larger built in cabinet models or free standing units. Whether using a wine cooler to store six or hundreds of wine bottles, today’s wine refrigerators provide the same wine storage and wine aging protection as the original wine caves.

Published 1/5/2010 12:00:00 AM

Tags: Wine Storage