Research has revealed that most American consumers drink wine very soon after buying it, so storage is not a big issue for many. Aging wine even for a few years, however, can be rewarding but requires a little care to prevent the wine from spoiling. That pretty iron wine rack on top of a fridge opposite a sunny kitchen window? No good for anything other than keeping bottles for a few weeks until you get around the drinking them.

Wine likes to be dark, still, and kept at a fairly constant temperature somewhere from 50<\#208>70°F, conditions found in most basements or even a dark interior closet in many homes. The most ideal storage conditions will also be cool (below 60°F) and damp (over 60 percent relative humidity), though these last two requirements can be tough to achieve without digging your own cave or buying some sort of specially designed storage cellar.

Although excessive heat makes wines age too fast to achieve their full potential, a constantly fluctuating temperature is your biggest enemy. As the temperature goes up and down during the day the wine will expand and contract in the bottle, causing the cork to move in the bottle neck by a fraction and potentially suck in air. That air will gradually oxidize the wine and spoil it.

If a wine is stored in very low humidity the cork might also dry out, shrink or crack, and expose the wine to air. Keeping the cork moist so it retains a good seal with the neck of the bottle is the main reason for storing wine sideways.

The whole point of aging wine for some people is to make it more valuable. For most of us, however, aging wine is all about making it taste better after a few years of “development.” Youthful wine is like a youthful person--brash, unsure of itself, and a bit awkward. Like the best of us, a wine mellows, gets more complex, and becomes a more well-rounded individual the older it gets. At least that’s the theory.

As wine ages it undergoes a complex chemical process that only scientists fully understand. For the rest of us, the aging of wine is a process full of mystery and myths. One common myth is that all wine gets better as it ages. Sadly, that’s not true, so don’t start stocking a cellar with $10 bottles of cabernet. A poorly made wine that is not in balance when young will not turn into a finely balanced masterpiece after a few years. It'll probably just taste flat.

Another myth is that age-worthy wine gets better and better as it gets older. While that’s almost true for some of the most famous Bordeaux wines, most modern wines are created to be drunk relatively young and will reach a peak after a certain number of years then go downhill fast. Wineries don’t help matters by making sweeping statements that a wine will “continue to improve for 10<\#208>15 years.” It all depends on how it’s stored. In many cases that wine will be barely drinkable after 10 years unless stored under almost perfect aging conditions.