Although most people here seem to think the wine is cooked I would actually throw in a bet on bottle shock. I had a similar sized parcel (2000-2008 vintages of very good Faugeres, Mas de Daumas Gassac etc.) driven up to the north of England from the south of France (about 1000 miles) three months ago. I drank 6-8 bottles in the first month and they all seemed off in the exact same way (dumb, with a touch of bitterness and unbalanced acidity (which could be confused with oxydative qualities) and an almost zingy, effervescent quality to them). It’s actually only in the last few weeks (so 10 weeks after transport) that they’ve seemed to settle down. I hoped that it was down to travel shock and am very relieved that that seems to have been the case.
What makes me think it’s down to travel shock, rather than heat damage, is that every single one of the bottles have been affected in the same way (much like in my own recent experience). I think it’s very unlikely that heat damage could kill every bottle of such relatively young wine equally, unless the bottles had consistently been kept at very high temperatures for the duration of their stay at the merchant, in which case you would see evidence of this on the bottles themselves (seepage, bulging corks etc.). If it were the case of a single heat event, it is likely that at least some of the wines would have survived (unelss temperatures were extreme but even then you’d see clear signs in the form of seepage etc.). The only concerning thing you describe is to me the condition of the corks; however this could be coincidence, or simply signs of the (admittedly not all that old) age of the corks.
Wines of this particular age are in my experience the most prone to medium-term bottle shock after long-distance transportation (particularly by boat but also by car) as they will have started dropping sediment (though it has not yet become particularly fine-grained) and the composition of the gasses that have started to equalibriate in the head-space and settle in the wine. When they’re given a serious kick, they can put their hair up and hiss at you for quite a while after.
Basically, I would suggest crossing your fingers and leaving them for two months. Hopefully when you return to them they’ll have come out of their shells again!
Based just on the info in this post, my first guess would be that the wines were stored necks-up in a fairly arid environment for a prolonged period. Dried out corks and oxygen incursion. Since the merchant claims they were stored necks-down, there should be a lot of sediment on the corks and in the neck from that. (I’d think if was arid and they were neck-down, there would be seepage along with oxidation.)
Eric makes a good point. 3 weeks is a short time to recover from shock. Perhaps you have a wine less susceptible to shock you could check.
Didn’t think to take pictures of the wine in the glass. I did take a picture of the bottles (I don’t know how to post pictures on this site) and now reviewing it I see that one label has evidence of seepage.
I’m with Wes. The fact many corks broke indicates they may have dried up from being stored for an extended period of time necks up. One will likely never know and sorry about this horrible loss.
How long were the bottles upright for a certain time before opening? The sediment must have collected in the neck and shoulder area.
Where were the wines stored? In an enclosed area (like a locker)? Would it have been possible that your wines somehow been exposed to higher temperatures – while the store’s inventory did not? Were the wines stored in the same spot for the entire period? Did anyone have access? Were you able to see the storage conditions when you received the wines?
Wait longer to see if the wine needs for time to recover, in case it is bottle shock. However, I would ask your merchant to inform his insurance company of a potential claim.
That’s my hunch too. Having corks like that seems like a strange problem. I’ve had a few wines like that – where the corks basically had to be cored out – and the wines were weak, despite good fills and no obvious external signs of oxidation. Those were older wines I’d purchased much, much later so had no ideas of the provenance, but the prices paid were an accurate indicator of the condition.
I’m sorry to hear this happened. It sucks to save wine for all that time, hoping for something magical to happen, and get this end result.
Wes made good points, those are some somewhat odd cork characteristics you describe.
Cooked wine, to me, presents with ‘stew’-like flavors, maybe even some tomato notes. It can also be very one dimensional and taste like kind of a crummy fruit jam.
I’d put things like raisin, prune, over-ripe plum on the potential profile, as well.
Google “cooked wine” flavors and see if that fits your sensation.
I agree with the others about looking for seepage, cork movement, foil bulging.
I agree that if the wines were stored inverted, you should have physical cues that would verify that.
Keep us posted with your tasting impressions, I don’t think we have a definitive answer yet.
When you hear hoof beats, don’t think zebras - think horses. There are countless arguments about “travel shock” on this board. I don’t believe in it, but even if it does exist, three weeks has to be enough to let the wine “settle down”. There are other discussions about storing wines upright. I have done it with any number of bottles, for quite a few years, and haven’t experienced any problems. There could certainly be a problem with an individual cork here or there, but if you are opening bottle after bottle and they are bad, storing upright can’t be the reason. If the wines had been exposed to excessive heat during your drive, you’d see obvious evidence of seepage and pushed corks. The fact that you don’t suggest strongly that it wasn’t - and even then, my own experience is that a single exposure to excess heat doesn’t ruin a wine right away.
The most likely cause is longer term storage at non-ideal temperatures, i.e., the wine merchant’s storage conditions. You haven’t told us what those were, and what guarantees you had that your wines were stored properly for the 12 years.
But to answer the question you posed in your original post: absolutely not.
When you hear hoof beats, don’t think zebras - think horses.
Or buffalo. Those are good to think about from time to time.
I agree with the upright issue though - I’ve stored wine in that position for many years. Cork is basically a bunch of waxy cells filled with air. It’s impervious to liquid. If it weren’t and instead acted like a sponge, bottles stored on their sides would leak.
I don’t see the insurance companies releasing payment anytime quickly though. If I were an insurance company, I’d want to know that every bottle was damaged, not just a handful. And I’d want to know when and how it happened. It’s going to be very hard to show that every wine is bad, and at what point the wine was damaged, and consequently whose insurance should be covering the loss.
I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’s just been travel shock, but if not, potentially very difficult to prove it was down to merchant storage and also difficult to make an insurance claim unless the merchant changes tack and fesses up to a major power cut during a heatwave or similar. I may be wrong of course, but without an ‘event’ it makes it more difficult.
I’ve heard of people storing wines upright (including in Italy) and swearing it’s fine (or even better). No comparative trials to back up or refute those claims, though Nolan’s almost 12 years is worth giving some confidence in it.
It does sound a little odd, oxidised yet not showing the characteristics of cooked wine that Eric describes, nor a terminal change in colour. At those sort of ages I do start to take a bit more care with corks, as they are more prone to breaking, especially if the cork is moist part of the way up.
One question to eliminate something worse - any reasons to doubt the wine inside is what it is meant to be? e.g. are corks branded correctly, wine of a style that you expect, no butler’s thief marks down the side of the corks etc. Very doubtful that someone would drink & refill a la Rudy, and the only reason I say that is it’s a potential route for a wine to be oxidised without any other signs of rough treatment, e.g. if they carelessly refilled. I’d be very doubtful of a merchant risking this level of criminality, but thought I should float the idea, if only to allow you to discount it.
