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There are techniques for storing quality wine that can help make sure the expensive bottle you're saving for a special occasion doesn't turn into prime vinegar before you drink it.

ou don't need a special room or a dark, musty cellar to preserve your fine wines. Tilting the bottle to keep the cork moist, controlling temperature and light and knowing which wines age better are just a few tips to get you started on your very own cellar.

Racks, cabinets and cellars come in all sizes -- you'll even find some to fit in a tiny city studio or you can always trust your prized wines to a professional wine storage warehouse....

The Virtual Wine Cellar - Before you begin assembling your cellar and investing in racks, coolers and other equipment, think about what wines you'll want to add to it. Tony Aspler "The Wine Guy" has a list of what the well stocked cellar should contain, some buying tips and a list of bottles better opened quickly. Good advice and an excellent resource.

Wine Cellars at BizRate - BizRate's database has 621 wine cellars from a 24 wine bottle under the counter model at under US$100 to units costing several thousand that will store hundreds of bottles. Sort by brand, price, store or capacity. Hint for using BizRate: find a cooler you like and then search for that model number in Google or another major search engine to see what others have to say about how happy they are with it. BizRate rates the stores, not the products. This database seem to be only for US stores, but your search by model will turn up local vendors if you are not in the US.

Wine Cellars at NexTag - Another good comparison shopping service with a smaller, but still very extensive selection, and some of these come with user reviews. There is also a wine storage section where you can find racks without cooling systems.

Wine Storage Facilities - Nice explanation of why you'd want to use a professional wine storage company from Wine-Searcher, followed by a good selection of warehouses in several countries.

Wine Aging, Wine Racks and Wine Storage - Here's a tour operator with a great section on wines. Easy to understand discussion of why wine ages and how to store it to get the optimum benefits of the process. Leads to two USA warehouse storage facilities and a wide selection of in-house coolers and storage solutions.

Le Cache Wine Storage Guide - Le Cache makes wine racks and storage cabinets. Their site has some good information on storing wine and storage systems as well as providing a nice comparison chart showing pricing and features for the top brands.

also see -> Wine Collecting