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Wine Accessories and Equipment

If you love a good glass of wine with your meals or at any time, you will probably want the right wine equipment and wine accessories so that you can keep a few of your favorite bottles of wines on hand. Although most of us know that you can't enjoy wine without wine glasses, fewer of us are familiar with the more involved equipment needed for proper wine storage.

So, what should you look for to enhance your wine drinking experiences? Keep reading to learn what wine accessories you will need and why each is important!

Wine Storage Tips

If you want to keep nice bottles of wine on hand at home, learning how to store it is essential. Temperature, lighting and bottle orientation are all factors that affect whether or not wine will mature or spoil over time. Wine should be stored in a dark, cool place between the temperatures of 55°F and 60°F. Storing at temperatures either above or below this range upset the aging process and could spoil your wine.

Bottles should be kept on their sides and rotated every couple of months. A good way to gauge rotation is to turn either clockwise or counterclockwise from the front label. Every three months rotate the bottle 90°. This ensures that sediment doesn't begin to settle in your wine.

While a wine cellar is the ideal spot to store wine, unfortunately, many of us do not have the space in our homes to dedicate an entire room to being a wine cellar. However, there are alternatives.

How much closet space do you have? If you can devote part or all of a closet to wine storage, you can have a smaller alternative to a traditional wine cellar. To convert a closet into a wine cellar (given that it is the proper temperature and adequately dark), simply install a wine storage rack or two and you are good to go!

If you do not have enough room to create a wine cellar in your closet, don't despair. You can get other wine equipment and accessories that still help store your wine properly.

Accessories for Wine Storage

Here are some storage alternatives to a wine cellar:

Wine rack: The simplest, cheapest way to store wine is on a wine rack. Depending on your needs and available space, you can get a smaller wine storage rack that sits on your kitchen countertop, a medium-sized one that can be the size of a small cabinet or a larger one that is the size of a tall bookcase. While simple countertop wine storage racks start as low as $10, the larger ones can be upwards of $1000.
Wine refrigerator: If you have the space and the extra money, a wine refrigerator, devoted solely to your favorite white wines, is the way to go because it will keep your wine at the proper temperature before serving. Not only will a wine refrigerator take the guesswork out of how much to chill your wine in your regular refrigerator, but most also come with separate compartments each with their own thermostats so you can store both reds and whites at their distinct ideal temperatures.

Like wine storage racks, wine refrigerators can come in a variety of sizes. While smaller units start at around $400, a larger, more state-of-the-art wine refrigerator can cost upwards of $1500. Luckily, a wine refrigerator will pull double duty as a cooler and a wine storage rack.

Wine Bottles: Establishing a System

Your life will be easier if you create a system for storing and monitoring your wine bottles. For example, you will want to know which bottles are older and should be consumed first versus which are younger and need to be aged for a bit longer. One way of tracking this is to store wine that should be enjoyed first in the front or on a particular side while you place the wines that need more aging in the back or on the opposite side.

Another reason you will need a system for storing wine is that you need to know when to rotate which bottles. Keeping bottles on a similar rotation schedule in the same column or row of your storage unit is likely the easiest way to keep track of this.

Keep in mind that as you add more wines, you will have to rotate your wine bottles to ensure that each wine is properly aged.

Wine Glasses

Different types of wine require unique glassware to enhance the properties of the particular wine. As a result, having the proper wine glasses for the type of wine that you are planning on drinking is an important part of fully enjoying that specific wine. Here is an outline of the glassware specific to each type of wine:

Champagnes: served in flutes (or in traditional champagne wine glasses if you have antique wine glasses) so that you can enjoy watching the bubbles.
Dessert wines: served in short, small wine glasses so that too much isn't poured. Because dessert wines tend to be more intense than other types of wines, they need to be sipped and savored in smaller amounts.
Red wine: served in bigger, rounder wine glasses with wider mouths so that the wine can aerate more easily and the drinker can enjoy the aroma.
White wine: served in a narrower, taller glass with a smaller mouth to help keep it chilled.

Wine Accessories: Corkscrews and More

Most wine accessories are fun but not necessary to the true enjoyment of wine. With so many options out there, you can bury yourself in wine accessories. Take, for example, wine buckets. Wine buckets are available in sleeves or coolers. You can buy wine buckets for one bottle of wine or for multiple wine bottles. Materials used to make wine buckets include silver, marble, aluminum or stainless steel. Wine buckets are also available in different colors and finishes.

Other available wine accessories include:

corkscrews
decanters
decorative bottle doily (usually beaded, these sit over the neck of the bottle)
glassware shelving or units
stoppers
wine glass charms or trinkets (to differentiate which glass belongs to each person)
wine luggage (to transport bottles and glassware)

Wine Corkscrews and Wine Stoppers

Wine corkscrews and stoppers are two of the most important wine accessories that all wine enthusiasts should own. Wine corkscrews range from the small, cheaper hand-held models ($2 to $10) to larger, "professional" mounted corkscrews that tend to a bit pricier (ranging from $25 to $150).

Wine stoppers are also a necessity because they help keep your leftover wine from aerating quickly (oxidizing), allowing you to continue enjoying the opened bottle for a few days after it has been uncorked.

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