How to Properly Store Alcohol at Home

If you have a growing wine collection or just like to keep a few bottles on hand at home, knowing how to store your wine properly is essential. Imagine saving a special bottle from your last winery visit (or even your latest Costco run) only to open it and find it tastes like vinegar—or worse. Fortified wines, such as port, sherry and vermouth, should be stored in the fridge after they’ve been opened. The colder temperature slows down the oxidation process and keeps the bottles fresher longer. White wine and rosé should also be recorked and stored in the fridge after opening. Reds will begin to darken to brown and brick tones, while white wines will often deepen and become more yellow.

Protect Wine from UV Light

Even if you’re not an avid wine drinker or collector, it’s wise to have a few unopened bottles on hand for guests or a last-minute gift. Whether you have dozens of bottles or just a handful, finding a functional storage system makes them easy to access and guarantees optimal taste. Take note of the following tips and use the storage ideas list of foods that contain alcohol as inspiration for your next home organization project. Wine should be kept in a dark place to avoid exposure to UV rays, which can damage its flavors and aromas—direct sunlight and fluorescent bulbs are particularly harmful. These harmful rays react with the compounds in wine and can create sulfuric aromas like cabbage and rotten eggs.

1. Plus, improperly stored vodka can evaporate or take on an unpleasant note.
2. These harmful rays react with the compounds in wine and can create sulfuric aromas like cabbage and rotten eggs.
3. Take note of the following tips and use the storage ideas as inspiration for your next home organization project.
4. Depending on your level of experience, pull-outs can be installed professionally or be deemed a weekend DIY project.

Pantry Shelf Wine Rack

In this case, clear out the buffet cabinet of clutter and organize wine bottles into it instead. If you’ve recently acquired a family heirloom, consider giving it the job to contain your wine collection and place it in a hallway as a statement piece. If you’re already short on counter space, there’s no need to clutter it further with bulky wine bottles.

Store Wine at a Steady Temperature

Keep in mind that cold temperatures will mute a spirit’s flavors and texture when you go to drink it, though. Whether you’re crafty or about to embark on a home renovation project, built-ins are a simple addition that pulls double duty, infusing character to a room while serving as extra storage. You can build individual vertical cubbies onto the end of a kitchen cabinet or a horizontal shelf with diamond dividers to keep bottles secured. If you’re dealing with tight or odd-shaped spaces, including wine storage in the design can provide a solution. You may recognize these horizontal organizers from photos or videos of water bottle storage ideas flooding your social media feeds.

For red wines that have gone “off,” you’ll find that the flavors and aromas will flatten, replacing fresh flavors with nutty, sherry-like notes. Oxidation will begin to change a wine’s color and taste, but that doesn’t always mean your wine has gone bad. “In fact, this process is the reason we decant wines before drinking, as the flavors are often enhanced by oxygen,” says Hoel. Using a decanter not only aerates the wine but also helps separate out sediment from older vintages. “However, there is a point that it stops enhancing the wine, and starts turning it into vinegar.” If all this talk of optimal storage conditions has you wondering about that bottle of vodka living rent-free in your freezer, rest assured, you’re not permanently damaging it.

For long-term storage, vodka can be stored in the freezer or in a dark, cool place away from direct light. “Unlike wine, whisky does not change in the bottle, so as long as it’s stored correctly, there is no expiration data,” says Raquel Raies, national brand ambassador for The Macallan. And that a decanter is a beautiful way to showcase whisky, but not a suitable way to store whisky for longer periods of time as it will expose it to air and light. Most liquor has a high-enough alcohol content to be kept at room temperature, either in a cabinet or on a bar cart. Warm temperatures can speed up oxidation, negatively affecting the quality and flavor. Deciding how to store wine can feel puzzling, especially if you have limited space.

Again, this kind of deterioration won’t make you sick (well, unless you drink to excess, obviously), but it’s also not the kind of “aging” that distillers and vintners work so carefully to create. Reiner recommends storing wine-based aperitifs—sherry, vermouth, port, Lillet—in the fridge to extend their life. “Last week’s Bank of England base rate cut, which follows how to get someone fired at work recent reductions in mortgage rates, is encouraging for those looking to remortgage, purchase a first home or move along the housing ladder,” said Ms Bryden. The ultimate way to increase accessibility in your space is to add pull-out drawers to lower shelves. This, along with adding sliding trays to your existing shelves, is a smart idea if it’s within your budget.

While UV rays won’t spoil liquor, extended exposure to the sun has a similar effect to storing at high temperatures (speeding up the oxidation process). In fact, researchers from Bacardi showed that sun can be even worse for liquor than warmth. When researchers left bottles exposed to sun for 15 days, bourbon lost 10 percent of its color, and a bottle of scotch lost 40 percent of its color in that time.

Only a room temperature vodka will be able to create the correct water content in the cocktail, and “water content is the hidden ingredient in every cocktail” that makes it balanced, he explained. Best practices for storing wine don’t necessarily apply to that premium bottle of tequila. Stored in the right conditions—cool, dark, tightly closed—an opened, 80-proof-or-higher spirit bottle can be preserved for years, even decades.

This is because extremely dry air can cause the corks to dry out, allowing excess oxygen into the bottle, speeding up the aging process, and impacting the wine’s freshness. Conversely, too much humidity can cause the corks to grow mold or damage the label of the wine. If you’ve stored your wine correctly—in a sealed bottle in the refrigerator—but the taste or color is just a little off, a slightly oxidized wine can still be used in the kitchen.

“The refrigerator is often the best place and can go a long way to keeping your wine fresh. This slows down the process of wine oxidizing since the molecules are now moving very slowly.” Just avoid storing bottles in pockets of high heat or in locations where temperatures fluctuate drastically, such as next to the dishwasher or stove. Above all, don’t stash a collection on top of the refrigerator, says Robinson.

Another reason not to ice out those liquors is that spirits that have been frozen do not create balanced cocktails. Storing foods in the fridge or freezer makes them stay fresher for longer, but there may just be fun substance abuse group activities something taking up real estate in the freezer right now that actually doesn’t belong there. However, rising mercury can cause the contents of a bottle to expand, potentially causing the stopper or cork to pop.