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Some of us are lucky enough to have a cellar in our house. This is the perfect place to tuck away those special bottles of wine - it’s dark, cool and unlikely to be disturbed. If you don’t have a cellar, try to find a spot in your home such as the garage or a cool spare room that mimics the conditions of a cellar - dark, fairly cool (but not freezing) and away from strong smells such as petrol, white spirit and paint. It also needs to be somewhere your bottles can lie still and not be shaken around. If conditions are very dry, leave a bowl of water on the floor of your wine cupboard or cellar to raise the humidity level.

Wine does not like heat so keep it away from radiators, heaters or the oven. Ideally, store it at a steady temperature of around 7-10°C/45-50°F. For many people, the best spot will be under the stairs, in a larder or in an old cupboard in a cool, quiet part of the house.

If you want to organise your bottles, a wine rack’s well worth picking up. To make it easier to grab the bottle you want, why not arrange reds and whites together and split them out by country of grape variety. Or keep the wines you enjoy more regularly at the top so they’re easy to access midweek.

Wine racks are designed to store bottles on their side – the perfect angle to stop the cork from drying out, shrinking and letting in air that will spoil the wine. If oxygen gets into the bottle, you will get what’s known as a ‘corked’ wine.

Most wine nowadays is sold ready to drink. Light, easy-drinking reds, rosés, whites and sparkling wines should be enjoyed while they're young - within six months of purchase. Richer whites (like a Chardonnay) can mature for several years, and the crisp Riesling grape ages beautifully too.

Alcoholic reds such as the Italian Barolo and Bordeaux wines will sometimes benefit from some ageing allowing them to mellow, as will vintage ports and top vintage Champagnes. It's hard to know exactly how long to keep them, as it depends on each wine and your taste, but if you have several bottles of the same wine, try staggering the times you open them to find out what’s right for you.

The front label is all about selling the wine to you. We’re all guilty of being seduced by attractive design and wine labels are no exception. However, no matter how attractive it may appear, a label must legally display certain information.

Some wines even go as far as carrying comprehensive information on the reverse label including the wine's style, which food it goes with, and how it should be stored. Different countries have their own specific labelling rules, but there are standard things to look out for on all labels: see general labelling terms.