Most of us never give much thought to what happens to a bottle of wine as it rides in a truck rolling on down the road. And most of the time, using modern packaging techniques, those bottles arrive just fine, relieving us from worry. But what about the shake, rattle and roll? Does all that jostling change the wine’s flavor?
Naturally there is cause for concern, especially when waiting for pricey wines to arrive from far-away places. So the big question always remains, “Would the stuff have tasted even better if I had just babied the bottles in the car myself?” Most of the time it is impossible to know, because very little controlled scientific testing is available on this subject.
As far as winemaker advice goes, many North American wineries recommend leaving shipped bottles in the rack for at least 2 weeks before consuming them and European wineries recommend letting them sit for at least a month. So if you want to be conservative, let the shipped bottles cellar for a month before drinking.
In truth, those of us who live in warm climates really do have something to worry about when shipping wine. It’s the heat. Wineries generally warn against sending wine when the daily highs start hitting 85 or 90 degrees because it gets “cooked”. And this happens quite easily when using an unrefrigerated shipping company in Arizona.
This is the issue with both UPS and FedEx, because even air shipments normally sit in their warehouse overnight before going out for delivery the next day, sitting in unrefrigerated trucks while on the route. Some wineries will put together ice packs and ship them 1-day air, but when it’s in the 100’s outside, even these melt and the wine arrives warm.
An effective way around the heat problem is to have the winery hold shipments until the daytime highs drop back down again or use a special refrigerated shipping service. It’s practical to hold the shipments, because once you’ve paid for the vino, most wineries have no problem storing the boxes in their cellar until later.
Here in the valley the “safe ship” unrefrigerated period is generally means timing your orders to arrive before April 1st,resuming again on November 15th. That way, even if the wine sits in the warehouse overnight and stays on the truck all day, the risk of overheating is very low. Also, because someone over the age of 21 must sign, the shipment could go through the whole thing for another day if there’s nobody home.
Note that if you do get a shipment that has been cooked, aging will not improve it. Just cool it in the fridge and consume it soon. That’s as good as it gets.
Article by Tom Peiffer, Phoenix Wine Shopping Examiner at Examiner.com
View more of Tom’s articles on Examiner.com by visiting his writer’s page.
