Wine experts have been telling us for years that proper storage of wine is essential and now scientists have back them up with research that shows wine stored in a typical home can age four times as fast as wine kept under ideal conditions.

Italian researchers divided up 400 bottles of Sangiovese wine between a professional wine cellar – with a strictly regulated temperature of 15C-16C – and conditions more typically found to an unrefrigerated home environment.

The "at home" room was generally warmer, with the temperature varying between 20C and 26C.

Lead researcher Fulvio Mattivi, of the Fondazione Edmund Mach institute in San Michele all'Adige, Italy, said: "We discovered that a relatively small difference in the temperature speeds up several chemical reactions associated with wine aging and even promotes new reactions that are not observed at lower temperatures.

"After six months under domestic conditions, the wine in the bottle was approximately as old as a bottle from the same producer and lot stored for two years under cellar conditions. The house-stored wine was aging approximately four times faster."

Wine stored under "at home" conditions also had fewer antioxidants, less red pigmentation and an inferior flavor.

The research formed part of a symposium on wine at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Another study released at the conference confirmed that origin is all-important when it comes to the taste and aroma of wine.

Malbec wines grown in Argentina were found to have more ripe fruit character and sweetness, with higher alcohol levels, than those from California.

The U.S. wines were more bitter and had more artificial fruit and citrus aromas. The study tested Californian and Argentinian Malbecs from 41 different sites. Trained "tasters" were employed to sample the wines, which were also analysed using gas chromatography.