So, you have decided to build a wine room in the house. Maybe climate controlled, maybe not, but definitely with enough wood racks to hold a few hundred bottles.

So, you couldn’t resist and bought more wine than you have space to properly store? You have three options: drink it all before it goes bad, acquire a wine refrigerator for the house, or find an off-site wine storage facility.

One of the biggest areas of confusion among wine collectors and enthusiasts are wine refrigerators and wine cabinets. Many novice wine lovers think that wine fridges are quite sufficient for storing and aging wines. Wine refrigerators, however, have a totally different purpose. Wine Fridges Wine fridges, sometimes called wine coolers or wine caves, are intended to chill your wine to the perfect serving temperature.

With the popularity of new laws that allow restaurant patrons to take home unfinished bottles of wine, the question among wine enthusiasts now is whether the wine will be drinkable the next day or even several days later. For many, the choice has always been: finish the bottle or pour it down the drain. For others, it means saving the bottle for cooking, but not drinking. There are others, however, who have found ways to save wine from opened bottles.

Wine enthusiasts and serious collectors have valuable allies in their wine appraisers. These experts help wine lovers protect their wine collections by inventorying them and giving them value. Obviously, a good wine appraisal and inventory are essential when wine collections are insured. An appraisal is often necessary for divorce settlements, estate planning, charity donations, tax purposes, and personal investment.

When you have put valuable time and financial investment into a wine collection, you need to make provisions to have it protected. The best way is through adequate wine insurance. Unfortunately, collectors often overlook even basic protection of their valued wines.

Disturbing bottles of fine wine has always been a concern for collectors. They are often told by experts to give each bottle a quarter turn on a prescribed schedule. This process is called remuage. The purpose of this is to keep the cork wet so that the bottle remains sealed and no oxygen creeps into the wine. Though oxygen is a good thing when decanting, too much oxygen can age a wine quickly. Harmful bacteria that can spoil the wine can also slip into the bottle along with the oxygen. Careful turning of each bottle, it has been noted, will keep the corks wet and the wine protected. However, if your cellar conditions have adequate humidity, keeping the cork moist and plumped across the bottle will not require frequent turning.

Your wine collection is valuable to you personally and perhaps even financially or historically. If you are contemplating moving your wine, there are several things you should consider before you do so.

When you decide to move your precious wine collection, there are several steps you will need to do to insure a safe move. The first thing you should do is have your collection appraised by a qualified appraiser. This will help set the value of the collection for insurance purposes, either for a personal property rider on your homeowner’s insurance or for the moving company’s insurance policy.

First-time wine cellar owners often dream of being able to select wines from their collections for decades to come. Unfortunately, unless you are buying delicate, heavy bodied wines from Old World vintners, you may find that your favorite wine may only be drinkable for a very short time.