Wine racks

Start with the number of bottles you need to house and add a quarter on top. A rack that is exactly full is a rack in which you can no longer rearrange anything. The freestanding models in dark oak run from 6, 12, 16, 24, 30 and 42 up to 72 and 90 bottles; the metal wall racks take 9, 18 or 27 bottles and use no floor space.

Then look at the location. A wall rack works behind a bar or in a kitchen where the floor is already full, but it asks for a wall that carries the weight: twenty-seven full bottles weigh well over thirty-five kilos. A freestanding rack can be moved and linked to a second rack with the stainless steel connecting clip, so you can expand later without hunting for a different model. The pupitre for eighty bottles is a sloping rack from the champagne tradition, meant for storing bottles neck down.

Lay the bottles label up. That way you can see what is there without pulling a bottle out, and any sediment stays settled on the underside when you do take it out. Wine you are going to work with rather than pour neat, such as the red for a sangria or the sparkling bottle for a kir royal, goes at the front: it gets used quickly and does not need the coolest spot.

Do not put a rack next to an oven, a radiator or a south-facing window, because swings in temperature do more harm than a couple of degrees too warm. For bottles you have opened, the wine stoppers work better than the original cork, which rarely goes back in smoothly. If you decant straight away, the models are with the decanters.

Wood and metal ask for little, but not for nothing. Wipe a wooden rack down a few times a year with a lightly damp cloth and dry it straight away, because moisture that sits between the slats marks the wood. Do not stand a rack directly on a concrete floor that draws damp either.

With wall racks, check the fixings once a year. A fully loaded rack is under constant pull, and plugs in aerated concrete give way over time. Metal racks can develop rust spots in a damp place; polish those away before they eat through.

If the bottles are sorted but the glassware is not, have a look at the wine glasses for bowls by grape and by size. For opening and closing a bottle again you will find everything with the corkscrews. And if you serve from a carafe rather than from the bottle, the wider models are with the carafes.