We've all been doing it wrong for decades. Storing wine on its side won’t prevent corks drying out, and may even accelerate their degeneration, cork producer Amorim’s director of research and development says.
The Drinks Business reports that Dr. Miguel Cabral has said that the head space of a sealed bottle of wine was so moist that there was no need to place bottles on their side to keep the cork damp.
“The cork will never dry out with almost 100% humidity in the head space, so it is a myth that you need to store a bottle on its side,” he said.
He said that such humidity would ensure that the cork “won’t dry out if you store the bottle upright”.
He also said that creating moist ambient conditions during wine storage was unnecessary for bottled wine (although for barrel cellars it is important to reduce evaporation).
“The humidity of the environment around the bottle won’t have any influence, because the cork is influenced by the humidity inside the bottle,” he said. “So the idea that you need to store wine in a damp cellar is another myth.”
He then stated: “The myths are falling down one by one now the cork industry has started doing studies.”
Now if only the cork industry could resolve the unreliability of its product.