Guide: Wine Transport and Storage

To transport our wine bottles from the supermarket or Enoteca to home, I recommend getting a rigid plastic carrier with a handle to avoid annoying and costly glass breakage.
Once home, wine storage depends on the type and how soon you plan to drink it.
The way to store wine varies according to the type and the time between purchase and when you plan to drink it.
For example, if you have a dinner planned for the same evening as the purchase and intend to serve your guests Prosecco, Champagne, Franciacorta or other sparkling wines with appetizers or alongside dishes, the ideal is to keep them in the refrigerator at a constant temperature of 4°C, which will allow you to pour the wine at the ideal temperature of 6-8°C.

The same applies to young, ready-to-drink white wines, while for structured whites or those that have seen wood (for example, a passage in barrique) it would be advisable to keep them in a cool place such as a cellar, or if you don't have one, you could also use a refrigerator, being careful to take the bottle out a little in advance so as to serve it at around 12-14°C – ideal for allowing the aromas and wine's flavour to fully express themselves.
If instead our dining companion is a young red wine meant to be drunk right away, simply place it in a cool area (and especially away from the stove!) and avoid temperature fluctuations.
For more demanding wines, a cellar would be ideal, but one piece of advice I feel I should give you is to store them in low light, at a constant temperature and in a horizontal position, ensuring the cork stays wet, so that the wine itself acts as a "seal" preventing (or at least limiting) air from penetrating the cork. Practically the opposite of what is done in supermarkets [as we explained in the first article: storage of wines in supermarkets], where wines are often laid on their side but in a way that the wine does not touch the cork, and of course well lit by various types of lighting to put them on display!

For those who spare no expense, there are wine-fridges available on the market that ensure controlled humidity and constant temperature for a certain number of bottles; these are not ordinary "refrigerators" but appliances that emulate the typical habitat of a traditional cellar.