Is It Best To Store Wine Upright Or Horizontal?

When considering whether to store wine bottles lying down or standing up, look at the closure of the bottle.

Traditional Corks

We recommend storing wines with natural corks flat if they're being kept for a long period of time. If bottles are left upright, not enough moisture will get into the cork, and if the cork dries out it becomes porous and therefore permeable. This could oxidise the wine and make it undrinkable. Horizontal storage ensures that the cork is always in contact with the wine (and the moisture on the cork renders it impermeable to air). However, with humidity of approx. 70 percent, the chance that the cork will shrink or become porous due to drying out is significantly lower. It can then be stored standing up. The risk of cork taint is also minimised when bottles are stored upright.

Wines with natural corks: As a rule, it's advisable to store them horizontally, but the wine can be stored standing up if the humidity is optimal.

If the bottle is already open, you can find details on how long the wine will last and how best to store it in this blog post:

• How long does open wine last?

Screw Caps, Synthetic Corks & Glass Corks

The situation is different for wines that are closed with a synthetic cork, screw cap or glass cork. Due to the scarcity of cork and the desirability of ruling out wine faults, these alternatives to natural cork are becoming more and more widespread. Wine bottles with these closures can be stored either lying down or standing up without any problems. However, it must be borne in mind that these wines often do not have much ageing potential and are generally not intended to be stored for more than five years.

Sparkling Wine

Proper storage depends both on the wine stopper and the type of wine. Sparkling wine is the exception. It should always be stored upright to keep surface contact as low as possible. This stops carbon dioxide from escaping. The small amount of carbon dioxide that rises to the top keeps the cork sufficiently moist.

Protect from light & pay attention to humidity

Protect wine from light and store it in as dark an area as possible. Protecting wine from light is also why it's usually bottled in stained glass that's less permeable to UV rays. Optimal places for storage are, for example, a cellar, a pantry or a special wine refrigerator. The minimum humidity level to store wine is 30 percent. However, between 50 and 80 percent is better.

Other criteria for correct storage can be found in this blog post:

• How to store wine