5 Wine Hacks Pros Have Been Keeping a Secret Until Now

After painstakingly researching vintages—or interrogating your local wine shop on the very best varietal—you finally found it: The perfect bottle of wine for your upcoming dinner party. Or a host gift that’ll make you a shoo-in for another invite. Or honestly, chill night in with someone you love. Either way, you found a great bottle and want to make the most of your purchase. But how? 

Sure, pairing a wine with a complementary meal or giving your vino enough time to “breathe” are two ways to start; however, some of the industry’s finest talent and tastemakers have been hiding a few tricks up their sleeves… well, until now. If you want to elevate your next at-home tasting—and make uncorking a bottle a truly toast-worthy event—three wine insiders share their top-secret hacks that will make a big statement. Cheers! 

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1. Craving a Chilled Bottle of Wine? Just Add Salt

A delicious glass of vino is best served cold—yes, even your favorite red varietal. “Nestle those brawny cabernets right alongside the sauvignon blanc and the canned cocktails in the cooler,” says Andrea Card, senior winemaker at Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville. “Giving reds a quick chill perks up their fruit flavors, tamps down their boozy aromas, and lets them refresh your palate between every bite of that juicy cheeseburger.”

The lighter the red is, the colder it should be served—but how can you get it to the perfect temperature? While 20 minutes is sufficient for most varietals, Card says you can speed up the chilling process with a bucket of ice, enough water to cover the ice, and three fistfuls of salt. (Yes, salt.) “The salt lowers the temperature at which ice melts and cuts the chilling time of wine by one-third,” she says. “Rotate the bottle every few minutes.”

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2. Go to the Dark Side for Wine Storage

Unless your apartment is decked out with a wine cellar—a lovely idea, but an unlikely one—there’s a good chance you’re storing spare bottles wherever you have space. (Your bar cart? Above your refrigerator? Anywhere.) But believe it or not, where you place your wine will have a major impact on how it ages. “Find a cool spot that’s not too damp or dry, and keep it out of direct sunlight,” says Maggie Kruse, winemaker at Jordan Vineyard & Winery. “Wine needs a calm, cool environment to age properly.” 

A kitchen, boiler room, or laundry room might have ample space for a growing collection, but these rooms’ higher levels of heat, humidity, and vibrations are doing zero favors for your wine. Instead, keep them somewhere dark and cool like a coat closet or that area underneath your bed. (Just make sure to pick up a small wine rack so your bottles don’t roll everywhere.)

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3. Or Store Your Bottle Upside-Down (Really!)

Any wine lover will tell you that “how” you store your wine is just as important as “where.” “It’s best to store the bottles on their sides so the wine stays in contact with the cork,” Kruse adds. “This keeps the cork from drying out, which is important for preserving the wine.” But, if you’re short on storage, Card recommends storing your wine vertically—only upside-down so they take up less space. (Really.) “You can easily grab a bottle, and the corks stay wet, which keeps them from drying out,” she explains. “I like to keep the price tags on wines bought at retail so that I remember how much I paid.” That way, you won’t accidentally break out an expensive vino for a chill movie night at home.

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4. Working Your Way Through a Bottle? The Fridge Is Your Friend

You might know how to store an unopened vino, but what about partially consumed bottles? According to Philippe Thibault, director of hospitality at Stone Edge Farm, the fridge is just fine. “Few people know that it’s okay to chill unfinished red wine in the refrigerator in addition to white wine after opening,” he explains. “When you have a special bottle you want to savor, storing it in the refrigerator after opening slows down the chemical process of oxidation and preserves its freshness.” As long as it’s sealed tight, Thibault says an open bottle of bottle red or white in the fridge can stay relatively fresh for up to five days.

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5. Don’t Overthink Decanting

It doesn’t matter if you’re working with a red, a white, or a rosé, one thing’s for sure: Decanting is the viticultural gift that keeps on giving. “Every wine can benefit from decanting,” says Hélène Seillan, assistant winemaker at Vérité in Sonoma County, California. “At Vérité, we like to decant our younger wines to allow them to breathe and older wines to remove the sediment.” But before you spring to pick up a fancy decanter, don’t. In fact, Card says decanting wine doesn’t have to be too complex of a process.

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