Should wine bottles be stored vertically or horizontally?

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Restaurants often place wine bottles horizontally on low shelves just for beauty. Should wine be placed vertically or horizontally… is a question many people wonder.

You need to know how to preserve wine so that its quality does not lose flavor due to oxidation. However, you probably realize that while other types of wine are always placed vertically, wine is often placed horizontally.

Should red wine be placed horizontally or ‘vertical’?

Whether to place wine horizontally or vertically is a concern for many people. (Photo: Spottswoode Winery)

The best way to store most wine bottles is to place them horizontally. The reason is that corks are usually made from wood, placing the bottle horizontally will help the wine always be in contact with the cork, preventing the cork from drying out. Dry corks tend to shrink, causing the wine bottle to not be completely sealed, the wine inside can oxidize, and bacteria can invade, resulting in the wine losing its flavor and spoiling quickly.

In addition, if the wine bottle is placed vertically, sediment will settle at the bottom of the bottle, and the pouring action will stir up the sediment, reducing the aesthetics. Placing the wine bottle horizontally will help sediment settle on the bottle’s belly and when pouring will not “run” into the glass.

Currently, many wines on the market are closed with screw caps instead of traditional buttons. Thanks to that, the sealing level is especially high, the wine is less affected by humidity and temperature in the air. In this case, it doesn’t matter whether the wine bottle is horizontal or vertical.

We all know that most red wine bottle caps are made of wooden corks. If you want to seal the bottle cap to preserve red wine, you must wet the cork, because this will cause the cork to expand and completely seal the bottle mouth. secure and prevent air from entering.

Placing the wine bottle horizontally helps the wine come into contact with the cork, helping the cork expand and completely seal the bottle mouth. (Photo: Expert Wine Storage)

So should all wine bottles be stored horizontally instead of standing? Not so. With sparkling wine and sparkling wine, you should preserve the bottle upright to retain the best flavor.

This type of wine always has high air pressure in the bottle to always be carbonated and bubbly when you enjoy it. Sparkling wine bottles often have a plastic cap that you twist off and release that pressure when opening. Horizontal storage can affect the pressure in the bottle, affecting the flavor of the wine.

Why is the bottom of a wine bottle concave?

The concave bottom design of wine bottles has the following benefits:

– Convenient when pouring wine : If you hold a bottle of wine in your hand and look at the label, place your thumb in the concave part at the bottom of the bottle, with the remaining fingers below, it will be easier to observe. , like holding a baby. In the case of pouring wine for someone sitting far away from you, placing your thumb at the bottom of the wine bottle will help you reach farther and pour more easily.

– Helps sediment settle : Old wines will certainly have small sediment, the concave bottom of the bottle will help the sediment in the bottle settle and stay there.

– Creates the feeling of more wine : The concave bottom of the bottle makes the wine bottle look like it has more wine than usual. Because it is a fact that if you compare two 750 ml bottles of wine, the bottle with the concave bottom looks like it contains more alcohol because your eyes are deceived.

– Helps cool faster : By increasing the contact area at the bottom of the bottle, chilling wine will happen more quickly, especially when soaking in an ice bucket, the bottom of the bottle always cools first.

– Helps the wine bottle stand more firmly: If the wine bottle is placed on a bumpy surface or rocky ground, a concave bottom bottle will stand more firmly than a flat bottom bottle, similar to the bottom of a rice bowl. Usually, in addition to the concave bottom, wine bottles also have a small slot so that when the table surface where it is placed gets wet, you will not have difficulty lifting it.

– Easy bottle cleaning: Before the wine is poured into the bottle by the manufacturer, the shell will be cleaned with water. The concave bottom of the bottle will make washing the bottle easier and spread the water evenly inside the bottle.

– Increase hardness: Creating a concavity will help the bottom of the bottle withstand impacts better than a bottle with a flat bottom, like a folded sheet of paper. With sparkling wines, the concave bottom will make it difficult for the wine bottle to explode in the cellar during secondary fermentation.

– Easy to overlap when stacking: In fact, if you stack wine bottles vertically, the concave bottom of the bottle will help the wine bottles above stabilize better.