Managing Wine Abuse

How much abuse can a wine take? I decided to tackle this reader question from Art in a blog post.

The question: “When cellaring wines temperature, humidity and bottle position are considered very important but wines are shipped (in extreme conditions I would guess) and stocked in retailers, standing at room temperature for god knows how long. just wondering how much abuse a wine can take?”

Shipping and Handling Wine

Today, wine is shipped on pallets in moderately temperature-controlled units. A pallet of wine is a fairly solid mass and it doesn’t experience the wild temperature swings that were a problem when wine was transported in individual cases on a ship.

However, the bottle handling in a retail store or restaurant is fairly hard on wine. Because you have to see a wine to buy it, they get hit with a fair amount of UV light, which affects their flavour and longevity.

The good news is that wine is fairly stable, most tinted glass bottles block out harmful light and reputable wine shops won’t leave wines sitting in the summer sun all day long. (Don’t buy wine sitting in the summer sun all day long.)

Storing Wine Properly

Most quality wines should be stored in the shop the same way that you would at home — lying down in a cool and dimly lit space. However, it is not necessary to store quick turnover wines in this manner.

When I was starting out in the wine business, I received an irate phone call from a woman who had seen a TV commercial for the wine shop and was upset that we sold the wines standing up, as the cork would dry out.

The wines in your local liquor store have a fairly quick turnover, a few weeks on the shelf at most. Furthermore, the modern cork provides a better seal than corks from 30 years ago and screwcap-sealed wines are generally best stored upright.

Only wines that are going to be cellared for a long time need to be stored lying down in a cool and dark space.

Managing Wine Abuse

Purchased wine should be stored in the cellar for a few days/weeks/years (depending on the wine) before consumption. This will give the wine a chance to settle down from the handling and it will usually bounce back from the normal abuse that it experiences during transport.

Old wines, such as old port, should be stored upright for a few days before serving and decanting, to help settle the sediment.

However, there is rarely any improvement in wines that have experienced excessive heat, oxidization or sun. If you purchase wine and find definite and obvious flaws, take it back right away.

And if you notice that many of your purchases from a certain shop have off flavours, you might want to find a new shop.