How do you store wine in the almost entirely basement-free state of Texas? Data loggers to the rescue!
Shockingly, Americans aren’t #1 when it comes to wine consumption per capita. Any ideas on who might be number one? It’s sort of a trick question – the answer is at the bottom of this article.
In the United States, you’d expect California to be the top producer of wine, and you’d be right. But actually Texas has a long history of wine production, with some of the earliest recorded Texas wines produced by Spanish missionaries in the 1650s.
And the Lone Star State is home to more than 36 grapevine family types, fifteen being native to the state; that's more than any other region on Earth. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) So take that, California!
Now, that’s growing the wine grapes. But what about after the harvest and wine production; what about storage?
Well that’s where things get a bit tricky for Texas. What do you picture when you think of a winery? Bottles of wine in a cellar, right?
And the reason for the cellar is that the temperature and relative humidity remain stable. Wine is a bit finicky about temperature – it doesn’t like to get too hot or humid.
Optimal wine storage temperatures are between 55°F to 56°F, with 65% relative humidity (RH). Higher temperatures for extended periods of time do not bode well for wine.
[Onset has a wide selection of temperature and RH data loggers, check them out here.]
So what do you do for wine storage in a state that is generally basement-less?
The owner of Classic Wine Storage & Services, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, turned to our HOBO data loggers to help monitor his warehouses and ensure his wine is kept at the optimal temperature and relative humidity. Check out the full story here.
And in case you were wondering, according to Forbes, the biggest wine-drinking country per capita annually is Vatican City!