Can I keep wine bottles in a cedar-lined closet with mothballs?
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Dear Dr. Vinny,
My understanding is that wine “breathes” through the cork. Is there a danger to keeping my bottles in a cedar-lined closet, or a closet with mothballs? Will those smells penetrate the cork and ruin my wine?
—Mike, San Diego
Dear Mike,
Tempting as it is for us wine lovers to anthropomorphize our prized bottles, wine doesn’t actually “breathe” the way that you or I do. When we say a wine “breathes,” we’re simply referring to it being aerated, or exposed to oxygen. This can cause various chemical reactions to take place and is one reason to decant certain wines to help them show their best.
You’re correct that traditional corks allow tiny amounts of oxygen into the wine bottle. Mostly that’s from the air in the cells of the cork itself. That air gets released when the cork is squished into the neck of the bottle during bottling.
Over time, some corks might let additional oxygen in, especially if they dry out and become brittle. But generally speaking, corks aren’t supposed to allow oxygen (or anything else, including other gasses) in or out of a wine bottle.
If you store wine in a spot that has an odor to it—whether from the materials of the cellar itself, or a new wine cooler that has that new appliance smell—there’s no reason to fear that those odors will pass through a cork and into the wine. If a smell is particularly concentrated, the wine labels themselves might absorb odors, and that might be distracting when you’re enjoying your wine.
My biggest worries about storing wine bottles in a closet would be temperature and humidity. Your closet is almost certainly warmer and dryer than ideal wine storage conditions, which means your bottles will age faster than they should, and the corks might dry out. If you’re able to invest in a dedicated wine fridge or cellar, that’d be your best bet.
—Dr. Vinny
