Wine on vacation

I have the privilege of joining my family in the Cayman Islands for a week long vacation each year. We are able to bring 6 wines per person. When we get to the condo, we have typically left the wine upright on the table in a 70-75 degree room until we are ready to take them to dinner, and we chill them for an hour or so beforehand. After reading and learning from the forum, i’m thinking that putting them in the fridge (not wine fridge) laid down is a better option. Is either harmful for only a few days? What is the best option?

Completely fine. I use the fridge at times… just take the wines out an hour or 2 prior to let it get back to your desired temperature.

For a few days only, both of those options will be equally good from the point of view of temperature. Your wine will not be affected either way.

It is probably more important to keep your wine away from light, and certainly away from direct sunlight, especially if some of your bottles have clear glass. So a dark cupboard, cardboard box, or at least a darkish corner of the room, would be better than the bottles directly on the table.

If your bottles have any sediment, better to stand them up for a day. If due to hot weather they need to be in the frig, stand them up in the door area used for milk etc.

A couple days at room temp is not even worth sweating.

When are you heading to Cayman? I try to go yearly and will be there in mid February. Usually take a few bottles of white!

Thanks all! The condiments shall be shunned to the vegetable drawer and the wine will occupy the coveted door space.

Heading to grand cayman feb 10-18.

I would just put them in a closet, it might be cooler than the room but not as cool as the fridge. I like my reds at 58-65 deg typically so going in the fridge and taking them out a while before drinking would also be an option. I would rather start drinking it a little too cool and let it warm then start out too warm and let it stay that temp.

Heading to grand cayman feb 10-18.[/quote]
Us too! Staying on the east side. Do you have anything planned?

Curious, do you pay duty on the wine? I’m headed to Exuma in a couple months and the wine limit is listed at 1qt…

I’ve never paid. Just pack into bags and no questions asked. Never even thought about it to be honest.

Everything, thanks to my wife and father in law - i’m very thankful for that! We’re on the west side. We snorkel a lot, charter a boat for a day, and shop/beach it for the rest. Dinners all planned as well. ragazzis, morgans and lucas are what i remember.

I’ve never paid. Just pack into bags and no questions asked. Never even thought about it to be honest.

+1 we bring a wine carrier and dont hide anything but its never come up

As a country whose economy depends crucially on helping foreigners avoid taxes, it would be rather rude to charge visitors duty.

Another option is to bring a 12 bottle stryo shipper. Bring/buy 2+ one liter bottles of water (plastic bottles), pour ~20% out and freeze them. Once frozen, put one of the ice bottles into one of the center slots of the shipper (make sure the bottles fit into the shipper with the styro fully in place/closed before buying/freezing…I’ve made this mistake and it’s annoying). Put wine bottles into the rest of the slots. Swap the ice bottle in the shipper with the other in the freezer once a day or so.

The temp of each wine bottle will vary depending on its proximity to the ice bottle…so you can position the wines according to your desired temp.

The other options mentioned here all work well too, so this is just another option and depends on your preference.

The situation where this was really helpful (for me) is when I’ve been in a hotel room (or camping) without a fridge (or too small to be useful). In this case, I bring a nalgene wide mouth bottle & fill with hotel cubed ice, placed in the center slot in the shipper.

I agree keeping the wine at room temp isn’t an issue for the wine, but that’s not where I want to drink it and this solves that.

I believe you are allowed 6 bottles (750ml) of wine per person without duty. Will double check Thursday am, as that is when I arrive in Cayman.

Cayman allows 4000ml per person duty free

At 70-75 degrees, I wouldn’t think twice (really, once) about it. That’s no different than most wines sitting in an average wine shop for weeks and months (and won’t harm the wine in the least).

If you want the whites to be in the fridge so they’re ready for drinking without having to plan ahead, that’s great, otherwise don’t worry about it.