The two key S's in wine....Storing and Serving

Whether you worked hard in Napa Valley to find the perfect wine for your collection, or you picked up a bottle at your local store.....you want to both serve it and store it properly.  You will learn very quickly, especially if you live in a warm climate, that your wine will go bad, very bad, fast.   Just open the bottle of a red wine that has been sitting in your 75 degree house for too long and you will smell the pungent aroma. BLECK.   I would highly recommend to invest in a wine fridge.

Storing
I was lucky enough to get mine for free. I saved up some bank rewards points, redeemed them for Amazon gift cards...and bam I was on my way to my first wine fridge.   Originally, I thought I would really like one of those dual, temperature controlled fridges, but a) I didn't have room for that in my minimal counter space and minimal cabinet space....kitchen.... and  b) you want to SERVE white wines at a lower temperature, but they can actually be stored at roughly the same temperature.   55 degrees is a perfect happy medium in the world of wine fridge temperatures.

My wine fridge....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ZWR194/ref=oh_o00_s00_i00_details

 Now of course, someday, I would love to turn a closet into my own personal wine cellar. or maybe get a trap door in the floor like the below photo...but for now, my 18 bottle cooler will have to do.  A girl can dream..... http://www.houzz.com/ has a TON of really cool ideas....

thekitchn.com

Serving

When you SERVE your wine....many think room temperature works for reds, but its actually way too warm. Below is a helpful chart for how to serve your wines.