Would you trust shipping from distributor to retail outlet in 80F+ heat

Following threads on Wine Talk, it seems like many posters don’t buy wine that is shipped via companies like FedEx or UPS during the hot summer months (or the seller holds it, shipping in cooler months; or icepacks are thrown in with the wine, etc.) That makes sense to me as I don’t believe that these shippers generally accommodate temperature sensitive shipments and the trucks can get HOT sitting in the sun.

How about shipments form distributors to retail outlets? Is it safe to assume that those are managed in a fashion such that the wine sustains minimal exposure to damaging temperatures during the hot summer months, or is it wise to abstain from purchasing “new arrivals” (advertised through email list blasts) in retail outlets during summer months?

Thanks,
David

Depends. Best to have a conversation with the retailer in question.

During my year at a major retailer, new stock arrived first thing in the morning avoiding the heat of the day. However, this market also has a lot of retailers and distributors in a relatively small area so there isn’t much reason for wine to be still sitting on a truck by the time is gets hot.

A good distributor in a major market should have temperature controlled trucks. If they don’t, they aren’t a good distributor and the way it got to the retailer is probably the least of your worries.

RE Fedex etc, I think Vinfolio did a really interesting study on shipping temperatures within the box via various methods etc. a while back, you can probably google it. Makes a difference on the method of shipment obviously, as well as if they use styro or another material.

In Indiana only the smaller, independent wholesalers have refrigerated trucks. The big guys do not have refrigerated trucks. So a good distributor should have temperature controlled trucks but many don’t. And the producers know it, too.

JD