Self Storage Sommelier: 2 Reasons Why You Should Never Store Wine in Your Kitchen

When it comes to collecting wine, one bottle quickly turns into two. Before you know it, two has become twenty, and suddenly you find yourself struggling to store the collection you've amassed.

If building a wine cellar in your house is still a dream on the horizon, it's a good idea to move your collection to a self storage unit. If you take a look at self storage prices, you'll see that these facilities are an affordable alternative for storing your wine until you can build your own purpose-made wine room at home. 

But why use self-storage when you could just store your wine in your kitchen? Well, while your kitchen may be free to use, it's actually a terrible place to keep your bottles. Here are the two main reasons why you should always avoid storing your wine collection in your kitchen.

1. Strong Odours

When you open your kitchen cabinets, what do you smell? The delicious aroma of dried herbs and spices? Perhaps you smell tea and coffee, or fruit and vegetables? You may even smell cleaning products and household chemicals. While these smells are usually welcomed in a kitchen, there's one thing you need to remember if you collect wine: if you can smell it, your wine can smell it too! Cork is used as a wine stopper because it's permeable. It allows oxygen to pass through it so the wine can mature over the years. And, of course, if oxygen can pass through it, then so can the scents from your kitchen. If you store your wine around foods and household products, you could find yourself drinking something that tastes more like garlic juice or bleach when you finally come to taste it.

2. High Temperatures

You may love the Australian heat, but your wine won't. Wine should not be stored at temperatures above 13ºC. This is well below room temperature, even on a cool day. On a hot day, your wine will fare even worse. Every day you store your wine above 13ºC, you are damaging the contents of the bottle. You may already be aware of this, as many new wine collectors are. If you are aware, you may also be storing your wine in your fridge to avoid heat damage. This is another big 'no' — storing wine below 10ºC can also be damaging. Aside from the temperature being too low, fridges also present additional dangers for wines. They allow food aromas to seep into the bottle, as mentioned above, and the constant vibration of the appliance disturbs the chemical balance of the wine, as well as the sediment that helps it age.