Wine, champagne stored upright?

Seasoned wine guru’s (and those who want to be) agree: The standing storage of wine is worse than the violation of basic principles of wine care. Wine bottles must lie in order to prevent leakage and drying out the cork.

On closer inspection is becoming apparent that the horizontal storage of the bottles in each case the best possible form of storage. Studies indicate that wines in cellars with enough humidity (over 60%), stored for long periods standing, barely develop differently than lying.


In very damp cellars of Tokaj, it has tradition, for example, that the noble sweet wines mature aszu standing. Advantages, the upright storage also simpler, with poor-quality cork sealed wines have, which are intended for rapid consumption. Because the wine in this case has little contact with the cork shrinks the risk that he will be corrupted by cork taint. Analysis show that any wine with cork taint accurate, said the connection Trichloroanisol, is loaded. Only the load is generally below the limit of detection 50-100 ppt (parts per Trilli). The less the wine with cork comes in contact, the greater the chance that it remains so. Especially cheap Agglomerated Corks are not made ​​for years of contact with wine. This is especially true for simple sparkling wines like prosecco or champagne corks glued together using this . Only the cork expensive sparkling wines are made ​​from high quality cork discs.

Is still not entirely clear whether the fortified, relatively high alcohol wines (sherry, port, Madeira, Malaga, Banyuls, Marsala, etc.) better vertical or horizontal storage.

In the literature to date, the rule is that upright with cap (plastic with cork) sealed wines, classic corked bottles lying to mature. Entirely unchallenged horizontal storage is of course in big red wines with many years of aging potential.