« These wines are living wines; they must be listened to, respected, handled and enjoyed with care. » 

Helpful tips for wine storage

The ideal cellar, cool, humid and dark, is a rare find in the city. You can always air-condition a wine storage room in your home, or even age your wines in an apartment storage space if your stock doesn't exceed a few hundred bottles. Here are some simple guidelines for the proper storage of your wine:

• The optimal storage conditions for wine require : A temperature of 10-15 degrees Celsius, minimizing seasonal shifts 
• 75% Hygrometry (humidity) 
• As dark as possible

If your cellar is too warm, it can accelerate the aging of your wine. 

If it is too humid, mold can form on the cases and labels which can affect the taste of the wine.

Ideally, remove the bottles from their cases and store them on bottle racks, on their sides to keep the corks moist.

Wine from really good vintages should be left to mature a few years, or up to one or more decades. 

Some advice for wine tasting

The enhancement of the wine after its ageing also requires some attention in the service.

After all these years spent improving in wooden barrels and then in the bottle, the wine will undergo a period of airing which should allow it to express all its complexity (colour, aromas and texture).

It is useful to decant a wine to improve the perception of it; the airing out of the wine oxygenates it, develops the aroma and softens the tannins.

Decanting removes excess carbon dioxide, any reduction and reveals the colour nuance.

In some cases, the decanter is used to decant (remove suspended matter) from the bottle to serve a wine without deposits.

All these efforts require, finally, a beautiful glass, either multi-purpose with a swallow between two wines or one type of glass per wine.