The most common question I am asked by people is: “When do I need a wine cellar?”

There are several different thoughts on this. If you are the type of person that buys wines on a bottle per bottle basis, a wine cellar is not an investment for you. But if you buy wines and expect those great bottles of wine to be drinkable, while storing them around your home for longer periods of time, you might be a candidate for at least a wine chiller.

A lot of people think that a bottle of wine can be kept in kitchen cabinets and wouldn’t think anything of it. The temperature in a home tends to be around 70 degrees, give or take a degree or two. Temperatures that fluctuate more than 6-7 degrees could affect that great bottle of wine. For instance, the cork could expand and contract, letting air in and oxidizing the wine. Leave a bottle of wine in a room with a temperature of over 72 degrees and you could certainly, over the long run, have a bottle of vinegar. So if you intend to keep wines for more than six months, you should look into some kind of long-term storage.