WineLovers Discussion Group

Out of habit, and nothing else, I find that I lay down screwcap-sealed bottles, right next to their corked (no pun intended) cousins.

So, do you stand yours up or lay yours down? Seems to me that, purely from a safety point of view, it makes more sense to have them all horizontal. I can just see me knocking over some floor standing bottles on my way to fetch something else.

In cases they are upright. On shelves/in racking obviously on their sides. I don't worry about it.

Mostly on their sides, simply because that's the way I'm set up to store. Once I realized I was doing that, I also realized that I have some room in the door to stand them up, and I've started doing that.

stand it up......
what`s the point of laying it down

I lay mine down out of necessity rather than habit. My wine "cellar" is actually a 24-bottle wine fridge in which I've managed to find space for 30 bottles and 4 half-bottles. I don't have room to stand some bottles up and lay others down.

Most of us have our storage arranged for flat storage, so until we re-arrange, laid flat will remain a pragmatic option.

There is however one reason for laying flat - if you've got a damaged seal it leaks - but if stood upright it just oxidises without obvious sign of problem. The benefit of laying down is you see the problem sooner (and may be more likely to be able to arrange a refund). The downside is wine puddles in the cellar

regards

Ian

Ian Sutton wrote:There is however one reason for laying flat - if you've got a damaged seal it leaks - but if stood upright it just oxidises without obvious sign of problem. The benefit of laying down is you see the problem sooner (and may be more likely to be able to arrange a refund). The downside is wine puddles in the cellar

One should add that this scenario is extremely rare, in any case much, much rarer than a cork tainted bottle.

The only downside of screwcapped wine -- I can store it upright -- lots of boxes -- leaving horizonal racks for wines under cork.

Some of each, depending on open spaces in my somewhat limited cellar. But what is the BEST way to store them? Or does it matter?

The answer I've seen over and over again, OW, is that it doesn't matter insofar as the wine is concerned. Up, down, on their sides.

Other considerations come into play -- for example, some people like storing them up so they can show the labels in a glass fronted refrigerator.

Or, on their sides, because that's the way most racking is now set up.

Thanks, Bob, I hoped that was the case.

Bob Ross wrote:The answer I've seen over and over again, OW, is that it doesn't matter insofar as the wine is concerned. Up, down, on their sides.

Other considerations come into play -- for example, some people like storing them up so they can show the labels in a glass fronted refrigerator.

Or, on their sides, because that's the way most racking is now set up.

I think the answer depends on where you want your sediment (if any) to accumulate. I prefer it on the bottom, so I prefer to store the screwcap wines standing up, although a 45° angle would probably be even better.

Andrew Shults wrote:I lay mine down out of necessity

Andrew, your …can’t think of the word for picture that you use (‘handle’, for lack of the correct word that I will think of the minute I push the send button) to represent yourself is a mandala. That means to me that you resonate with your unconscious psyche.

People who have that connection will consciously or unconsciously resonate laid-down bottles with the idea of ancestors and heritage – why wine cellars are sometimes called a sarcophagus. Laid down bottles are an archetype. When the modern technocratic world robs us of mythology (such as laid-down bottles of wine), we become a little barren, bereft of “religion” in its purest sense – from Latin, meaning a linking back to distant ancestry.

Covert wrote:Andrew, your …can’t think of the word for picture that you use (‘handle’, for lack of the correct word that I will think of the minute I push the send button) to represent yourself is a mandala. That means to me that you resonate with your unconscious psyche.

Covert,

Actually, the avatar has a different cultural origin from mandalas. Though I currently live in Chicago, I'm Pennsylvania Dutch, which is actually German (Dutch/Deutsch). Hex signs, or more accurately barn signs since they hang on the outside of a barn, are a cultural tradition from the earliest German settler/farmers of Pennsylvania. I found this one that replaces traditional motifs with wine bottles, glasses, and grapes.

So, it does represent ancestry to me, just not exactly in the way you thought.

Right-side-up, invariably.

I don't know what the lining of the cap is made from, or whether it's truly inert ... so I just stack 'em right side up and that's it.

In the refrigerator for immediate drinking.
Walt

Andrew Shults wrote: Actually, the avatar has a different cultural origin from mandalas.

If someone were to sit down and say, "Now I am going to draw a mandala," it would not look like your avatar (thanks for the mot juste). From a psychic perspective, though, any circular design containing geometric forms is a mandala, even a sectioned apple pie qualifies.

I am nearly alone in my thesis about such things. But that's okay.
My wife gets it; that's all that counts.

I'm kinda surprised that nobody mentioned doing something different with the various synthetic corks. Think of the possibilities; wine bottles in twelve different positions!

Sort of related to this thread, newbie question: I store my stelvins in the fridge because I have so little room in my wine cabinet. I assume that the very slight tremors that modern fridges cause are of no concern for mid-term max. Is this true?

Otto Nieminen wrote:Sort of related to this thread, newbie question: I store my stelvins in the fridge because I have so little room in my wine cabinet. I assume that the very slight tremors that modern fridges cause are of no concern for mid-term max. Is this true?

I have never understood why slight vibration is supposed to be bad for while although I have read this many, many times over the years.

The only problem I could see would be if you had red wine you were keeping for a very long time, then slight, regular vibrations or tremors would, I suspect, keep the sediment agitated in the bottle.