If you have even a very modest number of wines that you don't intend to drink within a month or so, you probably should think about how you are storing these wines, be it a wine rack or a wine cellar, so you are not dissapointed when it comes time to open them.

The primary threats to your wine are heat, vibration, and light. heat will tend to cook your wines and make them age much more quickly. Wide fluctuations in temperature (+ / -10 to 15 degrees) can also rapidly ravage a wine. Vibration does basically the same thing since it also introduces energy into the wine. And light, being yet another form of energy, can initiate certain breakdown reactions in the wine that lead to undesirable consequences.

The operative concept in maintaining the quality and lifespan of wine, then, is to minimize the amount of energy you introduce ito the wine. That's the concept behind wine cellars and the caves used by some wineries to age their wines. They are dark, quiet, and maintain a consistently cool climate. What this means is that you have to find a place in your house that is not subject to alot of vibration, that stays fairly cool (i.e. below 70 degrees) and the temperature does not fluctuate greatly, and that does not have alot of bright light.

The last thing you want is to discover that your precious wine collection has been ruined just because of bad storage. It is also important to keep your bottles on their side, so to keep the cork wet. These are all minor and easy precautions, but are definitley worth every effort of consideration.