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Has anyone ever called you an oenophile? If someone did, did you know what they meant? An oenophile is someone who loves wine. Wine has been a revered beverage used in religious ceremonies since ancient times. It may have come into being accidentally. Since yeast is everywhere in the world, at some point some of it was bound to end up in some grape juice or other sweet liquid causing fermentation, and wine was born!

Ancient people found that instead of ruining the grape juice, the yeast changed it into an entirely different drink, and one with a kick, because fermentation also changes any sugar present into alcohol. Ancient peoples also decided that this, too, was not such a bad thing, and began to deliberately make juices, mostly grape juices, into wines.

In that time period wine storage solutions were not so much of a problem. Crocks and ewers were the choices that you had and there was hardly a way of controlling temperature or humidity. This made it uncertain that when you opened the crock if you would find vinegar or wine. The first wine cellars came to be after caves and cellars were found to be good conditions for wine to reach it's peak.

Wine storage solutions need to provide a variety of features in order to meet the various needs of different wine lovers and homes. For people who store modest wines and whose homes have moderate temperatures, open wine racks provide a good solution. The environment in these homes is friendly to the typical wine and these wine racks will provide the storage necessary for most tastes.

Wine storage coolers work to protect wine and keep it at its best possible quality. If you are a serious wine lover you may want to purchase one in order to maintain more precise conditions for your wine. The sizes of wine storage coolers vary and can be as large as a room sized refrigerator chamber, or small enough to hold only one bottle. Choosing the best wine storage solutions for your household will depend on what is being stored, the budget, and preferred taste.

Wine is fussy if it is to stay at its peak, or to reach it by careful aging. The temperature range is pretty narrow, needing to be no lower than 40 degrees and no higher than 65 degrees Fahrenheit with as little variation as possible, and no more than about five degrees. The less frequent temperature variations occur, the better. Less than one time each year is recommended and the humidity should also be kept at more than fifty per cent. The cooler should be light tight or out of direct sun, which can also harm wines.

Wine storage solutions must also store wine bottles at the proper angle, and it is preferred that they be completely horizontal, lying on their sides. An angle of up to a maximum of 45 degrees is tolerable, but less than 25 degrees is much better. Coolers can just be units to stack loose bottles, but these are hard to use and racks are better. There should be spaces for unusual shapes and sizes of wine bottles if possible. If the unit will be visible, the display should also be attractive.