Sailboat Wine Storage Ideas

[adlib2]

My Wife is a seamstress and made a heavy fabric Wine Caddy that fits around the keel stepped Mast in the Salon. Has four (4) Rows of Pockets around the Perimeter for the wine bottles or anything else you wish to store.
Holds 24 bottles in a convenient location as well as covering the unsightly bare mast.
Fabric is forest green to match the salon upholstery that Jeanette also fabricated.
Large, really large hose clamps fit inside horizontal pockets to secure the caddy to the mast and prevent the weight sliding the caddy down the mast.
Jeanette operates a business in St. Augustine, Florida for furniture upholstery and boat canvas.

[dkroar]

The Boat Galley has this solution posted:
Getting Rid of Cardboard Wine Boxes

Black Box wine is quite good, and you can use a plastic container for pouring. No cardboard onboard, more wine onboard, what could be better?

[Runninjill]

We, too, have migrated over to boxed wine on board.

Mind you, the hubs is a bit of a wine snob. But our wine club did a blind testing of bottle vs boxed wine, and Black Box and Bota Box overwhelming beat out many of our go-to bottled favorites.

For the price, ease of storage for large quantities (we remove the bags from the cardboard box as well), no need to recork, and don't have to worry about glass breakage, it really is a great way to bring your daily wine.

A proper glass is also a factor on taste, and shape of glass, type of material used, etc are all components to a good wine glass.

Anyone have an absolute favorite non-glass wine glass to recommend?

[Toys_with_time]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

I store wine in two of our under settee lockers (closest spot on board to the bilge). Each bottle is wrapped in bubblewrap (good protection, lightweight, cheap, readily available, reusable, no absorption of moisture or deterioration).

Even temperature and darkness are simply not enough for good long term storage though. Lack of movement is critical and this is impossible on a boat. I would count on a max storage of a year if the wine is kept low and dark .

SWL

Agree about the bubble wrap, not sure about the movement part. Have heard unsubstantiated reports that keeping wine in the bilge accelerates the ageing process. We have kept some wines for a few years like that and have all been very drinkable. Could be down to the wonderful stability of cats though

If we cross paths SWL you're welcome to sample a wine or two and pass judgement (sorry they are all European, no Australian wines on board)

TWT

[JAYEN1]

Yes,
bubble wrap secured with masking tape and in the bilge. Infinitely recyclable.
Stows into small space when not in use.

[tholepin]

We buy draft (box) Merlot and imbibe from "10 foot" wine glass. At a 10 foot distance, they look like a classical stemmed wine glass. Up close, it's an acrylic wine glass enclosed in a large acrylic tumbler with a travel mug top to prevent spills when it tips over. Description may be found at The Boat Galley.com, by Carolyn Shearlock. Vino2Go may be bought at Amazon.com

Hint: they're spill proof, not leak proof.

[Sommarlov]

My Gulfstar 50 came with a wine cabinet and a pull out drawer just for storing wine. We never had to drink boxed wine.

[Johnno]

From time i spent in the wine industry and sailing experience, I know that red wines in particular don't like movement. For example when sailing with the Tall Ships, we took some good Western Australian reds aboard in Freemantle and by the time we reached Melbourne, they had deteriorated badly. However fortified wines (ports, sherries, tokays, etc.) and champagnes are not greatly effected by movement so stock up on these for long term storage! What? any Port in a storm?

[Sailor Doug]

In the southern latitudes of Canada we drink much faster. Summer is short so double handling is not the best.


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[MarkJ]

I store mine down the hatch.

[Moonos]

How about a custom wine rack built into the bilge?

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Toys_with_time

If we cross paths SWL you're welcome to sample a wine or two and pass judgement (sorry they are all European, no Australian wines on board)

TWT

Thank you .
Thanks to Dockhead I now make a mean G&T I can share.

I grew up on Aussie reds and now have a taste for full bodied wines with tannins that Europeans would probably liken to paint stripper. It completely ruined me from really enjoying sophisticated French reds. If I don't consume any Aussie wines for a year or two my palate starts to appreciate the European stuff and even Greek wine starts tasting good. Hence, abstaining from Aussie wines is a really good thing .

We had a lovely bottle of Greek wine that new friends bought over last night - wine experts fail to point out how much good company improves the taste of wine .

Back on the topic of wine storage and taking bladders out of casks. In our early days cruising in a tiny boat, unprotected bladders rubbed through twice creating pinhole leaks and flooding the plastic bin they were in - my tip is if you are doing this don't store wine with books, and particularly don't do it twice .

SWL

[NornaBiron]

Originally Posted by tholepin

We buy draft (box) Merlot and imbibe from "10 foot" wine glass. At a 10 foot distance, they look like a classical stemmed wine glass. Up close, it's an acrylic wine glass enclosed in a large acrylic tumbler with a travel mug top to prevent spills when it tips over. Description may be found at The Boat Galley.com, by Carolyn Shearlock. Vino2Go may be bought at Amazon.com

Hint: they're spill proof, not leak proof.

Vino2Go Double Wall Insulated Portable Wine Cup - Party Pink: Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

I can see the benefits but, oooh, nasty! ;-)

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Runninjill

We, too, have migrated over to boxed wine on board.

Mind you, the hubs is a bit of a wine snob. But our wine club did a blind testing of bottle vs boxed wine, and Black Box and Bota Box overwhelming beat out many of our go-to bottled favorites.

...

Although our boat includes two stock wine racks (don't all French Yachts?), and we do carry a small stock of "fine wines", we routinely carry half liter Bota Boxes of Chardonnay and Merlot and, so long as those drinking the wine don't see that its come from a "box", the wine has been praised. (My much better half sometimes "cheats" by decanting the wine into "Reserve Bottles" for chilling and serving.)

Not having been there recently, I don't know how things are today, but when we traveled the French Islands (our favorite was Martinique) in the late '70's- early '80's, it was not uncommon to find good "vin ordinaire" wine in "bulk" that one purchased by bringing one's own jug's to the market into which one's purchase was decanted, often from large jugs in wicker baskets, suspended from the ceiling rafters. For that we carried several plastic gallon jugs (although, with that, liter purchases always left us with a quarter liter of "excess" once a gallon bottle was filled so we had no choice but to drink it on the spot!).

We have glass wine glasses aboard but not stemware. They have lasted a very long time stored, and even used some times with cold wine, in foam mesh "wrappers".

FWIW...

[jkindredpdx]

Originally Posted by drpaoletta

Folks, this may not be the most pressing issue in these forums, but I'm interested in how other cruisers stow their "sea stores" of wine and bottled spirits? ...

LOL. IMO, the only threads that rival wine storage in length and adamency concern coffee or other adult beverages ... certainly not sail shape or engine repair.