So I want to purchase some wine now and ship it. It’s a short trip, store is about 5 hours away from my house and is ready to ship.
The high temperatures for the next week are between 62-78
Is this too hot to ship? At what temperature do you hold your shipments?
If it’s that short of a trip it should get there in one day? Upper 70’s is where I start to worry, anything around room temp I don’t worry too much. If it’s something your going to drink soon I’d ship. Maybe wait if your going to cellar for 20 years, because what does it matter anyways then.
Great question. If it is warmer outside than you’d want a store you frequent to be, it’s too warm for me. Highs of ~70 degrees is my limit, so we are quickly approaching the dead period in the mid-Atlantic
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If it’s that short of a trip it should get there in one day? Upper 70’s is where I start to worry, anything around room temp I don’t worry too much. If it’s something your going to drink soon I’d ship. Maybe wait if your going to cellar for 20 years, because what does it matter anyways then.
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Going to drink it in 2-3 years. I just went ahead and shipped it since it was such a short trip. Thanks for your input!
I wouldn’t worry about the bottle being in the mid or even high 70s for a few hours. That happens in stores, in a car on the way home, and in an air-conditioned house. Are they sending it by truck, or by UPS or FedEx? If the latter, the 5 hour distance isn’t so relevant.
The risk with shipping often is that it sits in a truck or a warehouse that’s very hot, or ends up in the sun on a loading dock, where it could get much warmer.
What it’s shipped in makes a big difference. If it was at cellar temperature and packed in styrofoam, I wouldn’t worry about shipping it overnight.
5 hours should be 1-day shipping ground, unless you are in a weird delivery area (like going from CT to NY, or NJ - PA, crossing a couple of state lines) which adds an extra day to the talley. I wouldn’t worry about it yet.
I think we can have an overly limited view of appropriate weather for shipping. If it’s 70 in your town, what was the low, 55? 48? What about everywhere else the wine is going on it way to you? When is the exact perfect moment to ship, and then how does everything get out precisely at the moment? No supply chain can handle that. And I don’t think it needs to. Shipping windows are larger than people seem to think. Even shipping overnight, think about the journey your package makes in the hold of an airplane, on the tarmac, on the truck, etc. Things can happen obviously. But packaged wine is more durable than you think. How did all that wine in the cellar of Bern’s get there ok over the years? When it ever much less than 70 in tampa? My point is - heat damage is my number one concern, more than corks or anything else we obsess over. And yet consider all the wines in Hawaii, Florida, Houston, etc and there’s no great truth that those places are full of cooked wine or even slightly less than optimal wine. Shipping wine is like driving to work on a rainy morning. Things can happen but to react and say - no one should be on these slippery roads when basically everyone is getting themselves to work safely, it just seems an overly narrow view of what’s reasonable.
I agree with Vincent I think wine is way more durable than we give it credit for. If I was OP I wouldnt think twice about having it shipped. Trophy wines you are going to lay down or flip and high temps could/should be a different story.
But somehow it’s in the nature of wine people to fret exaggeratedly about every theoretical imperfection: humidity too low in my cellar, highs in the 80s at some intermediate point in the shipping path, travel shock, bottles not stored on their side, wine glasses can’t go in the dishwasher, bottles spent a few months at room temperature, can’t drink wine with [insert food eaten by 90% of the people on the planet], on and on.
I’m not sure what it is that makes wine geeks so overcautious, or maybe it’s people with that personality who tend to be drawn to wine. Topic for its own thread, maybe.
Anyway, wine is 100X hardier and more versatile than many WBers want to believe. Of course, it’s everyone’s choice how they want to buy and to handle their wines, but with the OP seemingly newer to getting deep into the hobby, we shouldn’t transmit our paranoia onto her.
personally, I think the temp depends a little bit. 75 is OK if its overcast, but a big problem if its a sunny day (especially here in the south) especially in a brown UPS truck. I know my black car on a 75 degree day is much warmer than 75 when I get in it after work.
I experimented with styro and cardboard shippers in my hot garage a couple of summers ago (I posted these results, and some others, here on WB at that time):
Bottom line, for me, with 2 day shipping, I’m comfortable with ambient temps that are below 80F as daily high temp. Especially if they’re shipped in styro. I’m not sure my hot garage perfectly simulates the conditions of a delivery truck, but I’d bet its pretty close.
sorry mispost – I had the wines wrong. They are 2005s, probably those should be shipped in 95 degree weather to speed up their aging! In any case I’m a bit less concerned now.