What Storage in England

[SPR]

Wine storage in England

Hi guys

I live in the UK and this is my first year of wine making and coming up to the first winter
I am wondering if it is ok to store wine in 5 gallon carbouys in my garage. It's currently unheated and won't get near freezing although it could get to low 'C
I'm trying to start bulk aging some and am getting quiet a stock which is the only reason I'm looking for more space
I would really appreciate your thoughts and experiences on this?

 

[ibglowin]

Can you try and keep it no lower than 10C somehow? It won't hurt it to go lower but you may drop more acid than what you want at lower temps than that. Your wine will be cold stabilized to whatever low temp you can keep it at. A small electric space heater turned on just enough to keep it from going to low would help a lot.

 

[SPR]

The heater was another option but I was just wondering will the wine get damaged around say 4-5'C or would it survive. We have a door on the garage so the temperature would drop every time we one the door but...
The temperature would maybe only low for a few more now months over winter and then back to normal

 

[ibglowin]

Cold will not damage wine. Heat will. Temperature swings will also cause problems. As the wine warms and cools in will basically "breath" as it expands and contracts in volume. Try and mitigate the temp swings with some heavy blankets that will also add breakage protection. If you can, a small heater to even out the drops in temp will also help. But again cold will not harm. Cold stabilization is used all the time by winemakers to drop out excess tartaric before bottling which thus stabilizes the wine down the road.

 

[SPR]

Thanks for your help Mike greatly appreciated