For The Love Of Port

A friend is moving to AZ and will be building out a room as a wine cellar. All I could think of was the heat, but then gave pause to consider the lack of humidity there. So that begs the question:

How humid is your cellar or wine fridge?

Protect your corks and bottles of Port folks.

About 60% relative humidity. I'd like it a bit more, but am satisfied in bone dry Las Vegas.

Usually around 60%, but for a while last summer it drifted up to around 70%, which made the upholstery on an office chair that I keep in there become unpleasantly clammy. That doesn't happen at 60%.

I suspect there might eventually be mold/mildew problems at the higher humidity as well, since the little fountain in there (that regulates the humidity) was getting scummy a lot faster at the high humidity, which suggested a higher level of spores in the air. I can usually get away with cleaning it out every 2 or 3 weeks, but at 70% it was stretching it to let it go 2 weeks.

Wine cellars have a high potential for mold/mildew since we are continually bringing in bottles and cases which have been stored in all sorts of different conditions and locations. I can imagine a problem getting out of hand, requiring stripping out all the racks, washing down the walls and washing all the bottles with a mild acid solution, replacing the racks, and throwing away all the OWC and cardboard cases. We're talking professional work in supplied-air breathing hoods, and big bucks.

Too low humidity might be bad for the wine, but too high might be bad for a LOT of things. I sure hope 60% is the right balance!

Maybe 55% at best and fairly dry in the winter. Not ideal in that sense, but I haven't seen any cork issues and the oldest is over 10 years in there.

No clue. Seattle is typically moderate on the humidity scale (despite all of our rain), but I have no humidity control in my refrigerators so I have no idea what the result might be in them.

All I know is that they're not bone dry, but whether they're 40% or 70%...

My basement was 60-65% when I checked this summer, but with temps around 10 Farenheit this weekend it was more like 35%. Time to call the man to get construction on the cellar started.

O.k., I cranked up the whole house humidifier and things are better now, but not ideal, at about 50%.

Eric,

You might try the (bucket of water/board with a towel wrapped around it) method close to the wine, especially if the wine area can be somewhat isolated. If you don't plan to build the cellar soon (and appearance isn't an issue) you could tack up some plastic film with a minimum of framing. Places that sell construction supplies have plastic film zipper doors that can be included for access. http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/PROD/gc/ZipUp It also look like some hardware stores carry them, too.

One very cold/dry winter I had to put a humidifier in the cellar for a few weeks to assist the built-in regulator. This past (humid) summer, the humidity got a bit high (70%) for a month or so. I doubt that hurt the wine, but it was pretty unpleasant in there - clammy and the fabric arms of the office chair I use stayed unpleasantly damp.

When it gets really cold 50% in the house will cause condensation on the windows (and in places where you CAN'T see it) and maybe be a problem (mold, dry rot, etc.). Houses in cold locations do better at 35-40%. Much less and you get wood splitting and colds that last forever; much more and you get condensation. Windows are a good indicator: condensation, dial it down; no condensation, try dialing up a bit. You will eventually find the proper humidity for each range of outside temps - keep notes so you don't have to experiment the next winter. Changing humidity can take a while, as all the wood, plaster, fabric and the like take time to change their moisture content. Since it is so slow to change, you don't have to be tweaking it every day or even every week. Once a month take a guess at the likely outside temps to come and check your notes to pick a humidity setting.

Humidity hasn't been much of a problem in the UK since we were part of Pangea.

I don't plan to monitor humidity in my wine fridge for quite some time.