Solutions for Storing Wine in Your Restaurant

Why Proper Wine Storage Matters

Proper wine storagewine storage will provide your customers with the most pleasant drinking and dining experience possible. Serving wine has the potential to elevate a restaurant experience from a casual to a fine dining event.

There are many different wine storage solutions available for restaurant owners to choose from depending on their budget and the amount of wine storage space available. Popular wine storage types include-

• Wine lockers
• Wine racks
• Wine cellars
• Wine cabinets
• Wine display

Not only will proper wine storage that provides great quality wine boost your customer's experience, but it also has the potential to bring in a lot of profit for your business. Customers are likely to spend more money when they are provided with a list of wines that are complimentary with the food they are ordering.

For the very serious wine connoisseur who is more dedicated than the majority of commercial wine vendors, a wine cellar may be a worthwhile investment. Wine cellars come with a high price point however with an average cost of $40,000 for a residential wine cellar.

There is a lot of room for creativity in a wine cellar design from the cellar door to the wine cellar cooling system you choose. These customizations can become very costly and it is important for business owners to consider and factor in the cost of cooling systems and equipment maintenance over time beyond the initial upfront investment cost.

Some businesses prefer to invest in a custom wine cabinet or wine locker set up. A wine cabinet or wine locker can be set up in a designated wine room or can be added wherever space permits.

Wine storage can also contribute to the aesthetic and atmosphere of a restaurant. For instance, wine racks come in a variety of different materials including metal wine racks or wooden wall mounted wine displays.

Depending on the number of wine bottles you are storing and how creatively you want to display them, there are many different storage solutions available. Some businesses even build wine displays that are customized to fit with the rest of their restaurant design!

Your wine display is an important consideration for the selling potential of wine at your restaurant. Make sure wine displays position wine bottles with the label clearly legible and diversify the regions that wines originate from to increase consumer choices.

Most importantly, wine storage solutions should focus on the quality and safety of wine. No matter how asesthetically pleasing your wine display is if your wine is not safe and high quality, your customers will not be happy with their purchase.

The Basics of Wine Storage

Contrary to popular belief, only a small percentage of fine wines on the market should be aged long term. For the small percentage of fine wines that do benefit from long term aging, professional-grade wine storage solutions should be researched and invested in as necessary.

The large majority of wines are best consumed within a few years from their release date.
The below tips are sufficient for storing most commercial wine-

1. Temperature- Whether you use wine cellar cooling systems or wall mounted cooling units near your wine bottles it is essential to keep temperatures under control. The ideal temperature range for wine is between 45 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit, with 55 degrees Fahrenheit considered the most ideal.

Temperatures that breach 70 degrees Fahrenheit can degrade the quality of wine aromatically and flavor-wise. Likewise, it is also crucial to avoid wine being exposed to cold temperatures.

If a wine bottle freezes, the liquid will expand inside the bottle which could result in the cork popping out. Alternatively, if kept too long in the refrigerator, residential wine will become dried out. Dried out bottles can damage a cork and contaminate the wine over time.

2. Sunlight- Sunlight can prematurely age wine and degrade its quality over time. This is actually the reason why many wine bottles are created with colored glass bottles to act as a filter against the sun's harmful rays.

Wine cellar design should always focus on minimizing sunlight exposure. For a restaurant wine display or wall mounted metal wine racks it is better to use incandescent bulbs rather than fluorescent lights.

3. Placement- Wine bottles are traditionally stored on their side. The good news is that there are no consequences to storing wines horizontally long term and it also can be a great way to save space.

Metal wine racks and wine displays are usually crafted to keep bottles sideways in order to save space and preserve their quality. However, there is generally not an issue with storing wine vertically if it will be used quickly.