DIY Custom Wine Cellar

Maintaining A Low Temperature In Your Wine Cellar

It is a common misconception that low temperature is the most important characteristic of a good cellar. It is not. It must take second place to a stable temperature. Nonethe- less, it is an important second place.

The chemical reactions that occur in a wine as it ages are incredibly complex, and in fact not fully understood. However, as with most chemical reactions, their rate is dependent upon the ambient (surround-ing) temperature. At high temperatures, say 25oC, these reactions will progress at such a rate as to develop the wine very quickly, effectively ‘cooking’ it. At low temperatures, below 10oC, the wine will develop very slowly indeed, virtually freezing into immobility. Somewhere between these extremes lies an ideal compromise, a temperature at which the wine ages slowly and elegantly, but still quickly enough that it does not need to be set aside for one’s grandchildren. This temperature is commonly accepted to be 15oC. In reality, any constant temperature between about 12oC and 17oC is satisfactory.

White wines tend to prefer a slightly lower temperature and sparkling wines even more so. In the ancient old chalk caverns under Champagne, temperatures are usually between 10oC and 14oC. As one descends to eighteen metres below the surface, the thermometer drops to 8oC. Here the greatest of all sparkling wines mature very slowly indeed.