Travel Shock

What are your thoughts on travel shock? Is this a real thing or more of a superstition? I have read that one should wait 48 hours after shipped wine has been received to as long as 6 months. I’d love the community’s input on this.

Personally I have not experienced travel shock because I always wait a few months before opening bottles after receiving them.

Thanks all!

redux. Huge thread answers all your questions–search for it. Bottom line–some believe and some don’t.

Here are two long threads about the question.

Yes, but seriously, Alan has summed up those two threads admirably and saved you hours of your life. What a kindness that is.

I will wait for Anders’ response.

It’s a myth.

Glad to hear.

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any scientific or otherwise serious tests about the matter although it should be easy enough to put together good experimental data. Based on my own experience, however, I do believe it can happen.

On one occasion, when I had personally transported some wine home to Sweden from Germany (a two-day drive), my wife and I decided to share, in the evening of the day of arrival, one of the bottles we had just brought home. We found the first defect but just chalked it up to bad luck. We set it aside and opened a second and found that too defect. We cursed a bit about our bad luck and opened a third. Same story. We kept going until we had opened five bottles, none of which entirely OK, and then went to bed quite unhappy, not only or primarily because of our lack of enjoyment that particular evening but even more at the thought of all the potentially defect wine we had bought and which now lay unopened in the cellar.

But … when we dared to start opening bottles of the same wines again several months later, we were delighted to find that they were perfectly OK. Now, if we had opened just a couple of bottles that first evening, I would probably have chalked it up to chance. But five more or less defect bottles in a row is a lot and is something that I have fortunately never come close to again. So I am ready to draw the conclusion that what we experienced was travel shock.

I should mention that the five bottles we opened that first evening came from three different producers. Two of the bottles were the same wine (same producer, same bottling, same vintage) while the others were different. In only one case, we had but a single bottle so that we were unable to try the wine again later. Three of the bottles represented wines that we were already familiar with (i.e., we had tried exactly the same wine in exactly the same vintage at earlier points in time) so that we were well aware of what they were normally like. The provenance of these was also the same.

What the wines we opened that first evening had in common was that they were all serious reds (more specifically Nebbiolo from Barolo, Ghemme, and Roero) and all more than 10 years old. The common denominator with regard to the defects we experienced was that the wines were vinegary (four out of five), as though they had been prematurely oxidized.

What I should add is that I have never experienced anything similar with younger wines and therefore do not hesitate to open those immediately after lengthy transportation. But with older bottles, I now prefer to let them rest a bit before I touch them.

It’s a fact.

OK, now we’ve covered the subject in all the detail it deserves.

Oh, I am sorry, but anecdotes do not equal ‘data.’

Is their an un-footnoted allusion from a book you could provide?

Sorry about what? And who said they do?

No, but I am sure you can find one yourself that’s to your satisfaction. Personally, I am not interested.

Just let the wine breathe - fixes it right up.

In a blender

Nick, why don’t you experiment with it yourself? If you are able to keep an open mind about it, you can reach your own conclusion whether you think it matters to you or not.

If – as I expect would be the case should you experiment with an open mind – you discover that it’s a non-issue, you will find that knowledge very liberating. Drinking good wines of yours when you travel and vacation is a great pleasure.

[As noted in Anders post above, old wines with fine sediment may have the sediment shake up during transit and need time upright for the sediment to settle back down. This isn’t what “travel shock” means, but it’s something to be aware of.]

under a pyramid.

But only by removing the cork and letting it stand for enough time.

It’s a first world problem.

Right. If you travel to Bolivia travel shock doesn’t happen. Visiting Paris? Too bad

It’s real f*ck the non believers … on dry wines need to give them a rest min four weeks…some see wines especially PN…they can shutdown ad long as six months …sweet wines generally do not go through such shock as the RS masks the shock …

Salute !!!