Over the years, wine consumption has become steadily more popular.

With more money going into wine both as an investment and for later consumption, the history of wine will always be in question. With this in mind, many people often wonder how they can properly store their wine and maintain it at the same time.

How you store your wine is extremely important.

If you store it right it tastes really good, and will make you very drunk. Store it wrong it, it turns to vinegar. When you pop open a bottle of wine that has been stored right, drinking it can be likened to an orgasm, while tearing into bottle of poorly stored wine can be quite the anticlimax.

Drinking a bottle of wine that was poorly stored is essentially the same as drinking vinegar.

To properly store wine, you must meet several key conditions, such as humidity, temperature, lighting, and the cleanliness of your storage area, the angle of the bottle while it is stored, and the vibration or movement of the bottle in the rack.

The temperature is most important, as you should keep it around 50 degrees at all times.

This way, the lower temperature helps to age the wine.

If there are any fluctuations in the temperature, you should make sure that it happens slowly. As long as the temperature doesn’t go to high and as long as it fluctuates slowly, your wine will be just lovely.

The proper level of humidity for storing wine should be around 70%, although it is perfectly accepted to keep it 10% above or below the 70% level.

Too humid, and the labels will rot, which can affect the wine’s value.

On the other hand, if the humidity gets too low, around 50%, the cork could shrink and bring air into the wine, which would ruin it in little or no time at all.

The angle that wine is stored on is important too.

If the wine stays in contact with the cork during storage, the cork won’t dry out. If the wine doesn’t stay in contact with the cork, the cork may dry out and allow air into the wine.

Strive to keep the wine out of direct light, as light ruins any type of wine.

Light causes the wine to age prematurely, making it in crucial to store wine in a dark location.

To prevent damage to the wine from sediment, you should also store wine in a location that is free of vibration.

If you store wine in places that are still, it gives the sediment in the bottle ample time to settle. Vibrations are never good for wine, as the sediment becomes unsettled and can mix into the wine, ruining the wine or shaking it to the point where it becomes undrinkable.

To protect the quality and investment of your wine, storage and care is crucial.

Storing it in a proper location will also bring the best taste.

For a wine lover, nothing is more disappointing than waiting several years to open a bottle of fine wine, only to find that it is nothing but vinegar. Prevent this from happening by taking care of your wine.

Wine isn’t hard to look after or store, it just takes the right conditions and location. Everyone loves some fine wine every now and then, so storage and care are so very important these days.

Darren Williger is a tea drinking, guitar playing, meditating, wine making sales maker who writes for WineSatori.com, HomemadeWine.com, and WineCreator.com.