How to store your Barossa Valley Chardonnay

So, you bought a bottle of chardonnay from your Barossa wine tour. Not ready to drink it yet? No worries – you can store your chardonnay for a few years.  

There are two different growing regions in the Barossa which both produce significantly different taste. Warmer areas of the Barossa may produce a chardonnay that is full-bodied, has plenty of stone fruit notes, citrussy flavour, and lots of texture. This ‘high personality’ wine comes from rich, warm soils.

Oppositely, Eden Valley Chardonnays are a little more acidic, offering crisp, citrussy notes.

Chardonnay, like most other white wines, can last for a few years unopened. You can store it, unopened, for about 2-5 years. Some of the higher-quality wines may last longer, but there are a few different factors that will affect just how fresh your wine stays in storage.

If you store your white wine correctly, it can stay fresh for up to 5 years!

Factors affecting the wine’s quality:

• Bottle quality and cork quality
• Temperature
• Vintage
• Exposure to light

Generally, the more expensive your bottle of white wine, the longer it will keep in storage. The longer you leave the wine, the more it will ‘age’, which affects the taste and can improve the quality of the wine.

Storing your white wine

One of the most important factors that affects the quality of the wine is the temperature at which you keep it stored in the cellar. Keep the wine cool – but don’t keep it too cold!

Keep the wine in a dark cellar or a wine fridge to ensure optimum freshness.

Mostly, Chardonnays and Fiano, which have full body, tend to stay fresh for up to three days. whereas lighter-bodied white wines and blends, such as Riesling, might only last for two days.

The best way to store your white wine is in a wine fridge. This is the optimum way to retain the wine’s quality. Keeping your wine cold will keep it from spoiling!

How long does white wine last when it’s open?

Full-bodied whites generally go by a three-day rule after they’ve been open.

Once you’ve opened a wine, and it’s exposed to air, the oxidation process can kick in, and your wine can begin spoiling. The best way to enjoy a wine is to finish it at a single event or finish it off the next day. Keeping the wine in a fridge does slow down this process of oxidation, but it might lose some of its quality the next day!