Here\'s a nice ice-breaker to try out at your next party. Tell the person you are talking to that more wine is produced in the United States than beer.

Then watch the surprised looks on their faces. Now try telling them that we import more wine than beer, and you\'ll really get some skeptical looks.

Places like Australia\'s Gold Coast etched out places on the wine-production map based on the quantity and quality that their product has brought to the international in the past decade or so. Any top sommelier will mention the Land Down Under in the same breath as Italy, France, Argentina, Chile, and California.

Why is this? Well indirectly it is because there is an expanded interested in wine across the board.

No longer is it considered something the nectar of the Gods or exclusive to the bourgeoisie. Nowadays, it\'s an all-inclusive culture.

It has spread to the masses making as an old beverage reinvented itself yet once again. Everyone from the connoisseur to the Natural Light drinker caught on to wine\'s appeal, thus its popularity in recent years in America.

On-The-Go Wine Storage

Long gone are the days of clinging and clanging of wine bottles in the back seat or trunk en route to a get-together. The ability to keep individual bottles of wine safe as they are transported from one place to the other is one of the most groundbreaking concepts in the wine industry in recent years.

Many fans of wine have long-term storage, but to have a unit where a bottle of Pinot Grigio or Shiraz can go anywhere adds to the overall experience. People now can take them in the car to a party or even on a bicycle for a picnic without having to hold it like a running back.

It is also simply more practical. Wine brokers, for example, find larger units more feasible to carry their sample cases around.

These units have the capacity of holding anywhere between 10-12 bottles of wine at a time. Most of these larger units are made out of carton with individual compartments that allow for safe transport.

Home Wine Storage

We\'re all familiar with the traditional wine cellar be it through personal experience or television. To many that is the sign of a true aficionado.

It is the ultimate status symbol, historic relic, and ideal storage place for a product that needs cool, dry, and dark places to be able to achieve its best possible taste.
Reality check: Very few of us have the resources to convert our basements into them. Where would the tools, the washer/dryer, and other items go?

This is why wine racks have become so popular. These home units are designed so you do not have to store them in your refrigerator, where the odds of them coming into contact with each other possibly breaking are high.

Though impractical for transport, racks add a safe storage for wines as well as certain air of sophistication to a home.

Wine storage has always been synonymous with social status. Their ability to have access to an ever-growing collection of wine and the knowledge that comes with their ownership makes them best used in the most accessible of places in the house; such as the kitchen, dining room, living room, or den.

If there is one negative feature associated with wine racks, it\'s that they allow for only short-term storage. But as long as you understand that in advance, there shouldn\'t be a problem.