Comments on: Good wine gone bad: Traveling with wine, car edition

By: HOWTO: successfully check wine on a plane | Dr Vino's wine blog

HOWTO: successfully check wine on a plane | Dr Vino's wine blog — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:02:18 +0000

[...] daily email, or free monthly updates by email (right sidebar). Thanks for visiting!After two bad wine travel experiences this summer, I finally got it right about ten days ago. Returning by plane from a [...]

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:12:42 +0000

Dan -

An interesting theory, to be sure. But our ride was not all that bumpy on the interstate.

If bottle shock applies then what about when you pick up a couple of bottles on the way home from work, hope in the subway, climb some stairs, etc, before pulling the cork? Wouldn’t most of the wine poured in the US then be in a state of bottle shock?

If so, then it’s a bigger problem than TCA!

By: Dan Jaworek

Dan Jaworek — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:44:01 +0000

Bottle shock. I was always skeptical of the concept but I’ve seen it in action. Long car rides have had this affect on many wines I’ve brought to my brother’s lake house. They simply don’t show well after the ride. Knowing this, I don’t drink any wines that I receive vie mail for a few weeks to allow them to shake it off. I doubt it was the heat. I suspect it was the motion/vibration.

By: Andrzej Daszkiewicz

Andrzej Daszkiewicz — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 08:13:40 +0000

A few hints based on my driving in Europe with a trunk filled with wines:
All bottles should be separately wrapped in a few sheets of a newspaper (paper is a good insulator!).
All wrapped bottls should be packed in a cardboard boxes, which then should be sealed.
Taking these steps I was almost alvays happy with the wines I brought home, even after a few days they spent in the trunk. On several occasions I unpacked a bottle in the afternoon after a whole day of driving in the strong Mediterranean sunlight and it was still cool, even without an AC (yes, we still sometimes drive such cars)! I agree though that unsulfured wines might pose a problem.

Greetings from Poland!

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:21:59 +0000

Christy – GREAT point! One of the wines that wasn’t showing well was, in fact, a no-sulfur-added wine. As you say, those are delicate and particularly sensitive to excessive heat. Some of the others were “natural” wines so they may have had a low does of SO2 as well.

And, yes, I’m willing to buy the theory that parked cars are hotter than UPS trucks. I’ll have to ask my very nice UPS driver how hot he thinks it back there…

By: bill

bill — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:59:26 +0000

A few things about receiving wine through UPS- as Stu pointed out, more air space, and open doors equal more airflow, and those guys seem to always be moving, therefore no time to really cook the wines. Also, any wine that I have had shipped to me is always packed in that extra thick styrofoam. I’m not an expert on heat transfer, but I’m sure that the styrofoam, as well as the sealed box provides a little bit of insulation from extreme heat.

Definitely use a cooler or insulated wine bag.

By: Tish

Tish — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:13:28 +0000

I remember driving from DC to Pittsburgh one summer in an un-airconditioned car, and by the time I arrived, a cork had pushed its capsule a full quarter inch out and red wine was bleeding down the neck. The lesson I took was that a car heats up very fast becuase of the relatively little airspace in it, compared to a large truck. Also, these were in an pen-top box. Maybe that let the heat get to them faster… However, I should note that it only happened to ONE of about 6 bottles, and it was the OLDEST wine by at least 5 years. Maybe the cork wasn’t holding tight?…

By: Christy

Christy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:37:06 +0000

You mention the wines were from different producers…were some more natural than others. A hunch, but lower sulphur levels, minimal filtration, etc could all result in a wine that’s less stable and more likely to have a fast reaction to heat.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:29:49 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions. The wines weren’t in the trunk; they were in the body of the vehicle benefiting from the mild AC that made it to the back.

A UPS truck, by contrast, is not air conditioned in the storage area. And my guy always comes at about 5:30 so the wines may have been driving around all day. And I’ve had some wines arrive just fine via UPS. It’s weird that the wines were advanced (yes, their age seemed accelerated, sometimes beyond where I wanted them). A puzzle.

By: Dylan

Dylan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:28:49 +0000

You mentioned the 06 and 07 wines tasted a bit advanced. By “advanced” do you mean it tasted as though the age of the wines had accelerated?

It’s interesting, because I’ve heard of the phenomenon of “cooked wines” from high-heat scenarios taking on a flashed-aging taste to their quality.

I guarantee your trunk was the culprit here and Stu hit it on the head with air space. If you can’t fit the cooler, definitely pick a spot which you can tell will be shaded for a long time–or take a shorter lunch.

By: Stu

Stu — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:16:44 +0000

If you can fit a cooler, use it. If not, and you are parked in a ‘safe’ area, defenitly leave the car and AC on. Don’t know if the heat damage was that effective in so short of a time, but the inside of a car (esp trunk) can heat up real quick. As for USPS, there is more air and space in the truck so I would think that naturally it would be a little cooler than in your cars trunk