Hot Wine

And I don’t mean the stuff that’s off the back of a truck and sold in a pub, but hang on a second, that’s they way wine is delivered and sold! The biggest concern that consumers face is that of corked wine but there is another insidious issue that many people are not aware of and needs to be brought to the publics’ attention.

Just imagine that you have bought a bottle of expensive wine and have lovingly stored it in your cellar (which has pretty a good consistent temperature) for a number of years and finally open it on a special occasion. The wine is not corked, but it’s just not right and not as good as it should be. It may taste seem older than it should be or may even taste like stewed prunes or a bit stale. Chances are the wine has been cooked somewhere along the way.

The cooking can occur either in transport or in the retailers’ premises. The shipping aspects will be covered in another journal next summer, the focus here will be poor storage by retailers. Whilst I can only speak for Sydney and some local retailers in my area whose premises I have seen, it’s a safe bet these comments and observations apply all across Australia.

Some wine shops who proudly trumpet their specialisation in selling “fine wine” need a lesson in basic care of the product they are selling. For example, one of the biggest wine retailers in Sydney who are proud of their range of wines has a small area dedicated to their most expensive wines. On the surface this may look laudable but let me describe the area. It’s basically a small alcove in a corner of the store. The ceiling is very low by comparison to the rest of the shop. The lighting is also low but there are some spot lights that pour out a fair bit of heat. The air conditioning in this corner of the store (if there is any) is ineffective and this shrine dedicated to the fine wine is the hottest spot in the whole shop.

It’s possible some of these expensive icon wines (and some are very expensive older wines) may sit there for long periods prior to being sold. And by the way that’s the case in many fine wine shops. There they sit, day in, day out, month in and month out, all the while being slowly stewed by the far higher than optimum temperature.

This store is just one example. Many other fine wine specialists are just as guilt in their own right. Many do not have air conditioned stores and the temperature can regularly go over 30 degrees. Fine expensive delicate French wine costing over $100 a bottle being subject to these conditions does not do the wine any favours. Even those that are air conditioned are generally air conditioned for the comfort of shoppers, not for the concern of the wine so the air conditioning is set at 21 degrees and then turned off when the store closes. Overnight it can get far hotter and remember large temperature fluctuations are also not good for wine.

One large retailer in Sydney is not much more than a tin shed, imagine what the wine that has been stored there is like after a while. Even worse are the retailers that literally store excess stock, in some cases for years in not much more than sheds with an uninsulated tin roof. 

How about the stores that keeps cases of expensive wines in boxes above the racks right below the lights, the hottest part of the shop. Some smaller retailers may keep slow moving c-thoughs in fridges (with the lights on) for months at a time. (My token concern for c-through drinkers for the year – grin.)

There are some things you can do to minimise your risk. Firstly if you intend to cellar wine for long periods try to buy wine as soon as it’s been released and buy from retailers that have reasonable storage conditions. If you have to buy wine in quantity where storage is suspect, try it sooner rather than later. Some big reds are pretty robust (bad pun), but they may not endure long term poor storage well.

Copyright © Ric Einstein 2003