02/09/07 Wine 101

Wine 101 Storage of bottles and containers holding liquid is very important. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you why. Ranchers and farmers know how important proper storage of bottles containing liquids can be and are constantly checking container labels for best storage practices concerning temperature, light and even humidity. We know proper storage is essential to ensure proper performance of the pesticide, fertilizer, nutrient or livestock vaccine. But depth of wine storage knowledge is definitely lacking, it could best be visualized by the amount of volume a bee would take up in a boxcar. My wife and have been given gifts of wine over the years and even a wine rack. When the wine rack was filled, I stored the extra wine just like beer, liquors and even the gift of clear white liquid in a fruit jar I received  all upright. I never had a problem until I got one of the wines out to serve at a family dinner. I even had a wine corkscrew to open it and gave the bottle to my brother-in-law to open. Well, no way would that cork come out and he told me even cowboys should know to store the bottle on its side to keep the cork moist. How was I to know? I did know my pocketknife would cut one quarter of the cork and the rest would come out  no luck. So now I'm down to cowboy logic  if the cork won't come out it has to go in. It did and we had wine with dinner, but I was humbled by my brother-in-law and I need help. Maybe Linda Moran has a Vine to Wine 101 crash course for an American Rancher. I'm Jeff Keane.