Grape open space

How to store those screwcapped bottles 14 August 2006

From Mike Rautenbach:
With the new enclosures - screwcaps and crowns, how should we store the bottles? Should the wine stand upright or lie on its side?

Angela Lloyd replies:
The purpose of laying on its side a bottle with a cork closure is to ensure the cork doesn't dry out, shrink and let the wine seep out (although this does occasionally happen with corks/irregular bottle neck dimensions where no impermeable seal is forged). There is no similar danger with wine closed with screwcaps or crown corks, therefore it is safe to store them upright,

Having said that, we have screwcapped bottles in our cellar that have been kept in the horizontal for years without any problems. Your final decision might well be a practical one: can you more easily reach the bottles when they are stored vertically or horizontally, or even, can you store more in one method more than another?

Incidentally, one of the important pioneers of screwcaps, Jeffrey Grosset of Clare Valley Riesling fame, is cited by Jancis Robinson on her website as suggesting a valid reason for storing a screwcapped bottle on its side: ‘If the screwcap happens to be one of the very, very few to suffer some physical damage in transit and is therefore unable to do its job as a stopper properly, then the closure will start ‘weeping’ wine (like a faulty cork) and you can then return it to whomever sold it to you and ask for a replacement. If the bottles are stood upright, you have no way of knowing the screwcap is faulty until you come to open the bottle and find the wine is stale or oxidised.’

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