If it’s something that can be easily described and explained by science, why not? Much of cooking can be described with science. Much of winemaking can be described and explained with science. Where it can’t I’m with you (until we discover it can), but ignoring fairly simple science in favor of personal anecdotes is how we get ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
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I skimmed the paper and noted that the author didn’t appear to mention what kind of closure the wine was bottled with. If it was bark cork, which is likely, the variation in free SO2 with this sample size is presumably statistically meaningless, given how much variation in oxygen transmission there is between different bark corks.
The variability in the closure, which at this point is surely not controversial, also presumably casts doubt on the whole project; oxygen transmission variability will obviously cause all sorts of variation in wine samples, particularly after the wine has been bottled for a few years, as is the case here. Perhaps someone with a statistical bent will weigh in here.
We import a lot of wines under relatively consistent modern closures such as Diam or screw cap, and as has been exhaustively discussed in an earlier thread we find clear differences over time with wines shipped long distances (Italy to CA) in refrigerated shipping containers. Other than this experience I have no opinion.
I have no idea why the author limited the study to cases which are anecdotally not normally associated with shipping shock, air freight and ‘a day in a delivery truck’.
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The K&L Champagne buyer (Gary Westby) feels that Blanc de Blancs recover from shipping (from Europe) more quickly than Blanc de Noirs.
-Al
I’ve felt the same for years. Magnums seem to recover faster. Though I suppose it’s possible they aren’t as negatively affected to same extent as 750s in the first place??
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John is right that there is a clear difference in the strictness of protocols that can be followed in experiments in hard sciences like physics and those of soft sciences like biology. Nevertheless even a soft science like biology can construct experiments and not merely observe. And it is also true that neither the “experiment” here, nor the couple of others I have seen recounted on this board rises to the level of experiments of even the softest of sciences. I believe in travel shock because of personal experience. I also don’t hold my belief with much assurance. But I haven’t seen any account of an experiment that is likely to change my mind.
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Wine was sealed under natural cork. I think the author noted as much in the paper.
The champagnes in the small experiment I did were sealed under DIAM. Part of the reason why I chose it as well
I skimmed the paper looking for the closure, I must have missed it.
You did way better with Diam, at least you know the bottles were probably consistent to start with.
Oliver, apologies if you’ve answered this before. I’m curious if you have ever hand carried some of the wines you are having shipped, and tasted them side by side on arrival of the shipped wines?
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And done so blind
I agree this has been beaten to death, and like you, I’m guilty of being one of the beaters.
I’d just give the fairly quick response I have to the good point you raise:
(1) experts and industries have done things which later proved to be unnecessary or unadvisable all through history, so while I agree it’s worth giving meaningful consideration to their perspective, it’s far from definitive;
(2) I have not seen evidence of that perspective being validated through repeated blind tastings, like it should easily be if in fact it is accurate, and
(3) even if it were accurate, it could well be that how newly-released wines show after the months-long process of shipping from the winery to the port, crossing the ocean, and going from the port to the distributor, that affects wines in a way that isn’t true of consumers getting already-released wines sent in the mail, or us taking them in the car or on a plane on vacation.
Anyway, I respect other opinions, and more detailed versions of these perspectives exist in other long threads and so they don’t need to be restated again here, but I just throw that out so both views on the “importers think travel shock is real” subtopic are briefly represented here in this thread.
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No, Alan, I haven’t.
On the other hand, assuming the wines are bottled with a consistent closure such as Diam or Stelvin we can compare essentially identical bottles with time being the only variable. It costs us money to wait, we have no reason to do so other than wanting to sell wines that taste their best. The business motives all run in the other direction.
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I applaud that you are doing something you think serves your customers interests, even if it doesn’t serve your own short term business interests. I do think it would be an easy and interesting experiment to try with some future shipment.
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You’re right that there is variability in OTRs for natural corks, but I suppose that’s in part where the statistical analysis and testing for statistical significance can shed some insight.
There are design limitations and things to improve in any scientific experiment. All one can do is try their best to control for as many variables as possible. And for what it’s worth, the author is well aware of those and acknowledges and discusses them (including the issue of different closures) in the paper.
I’m of the mindset that results from experiments that at least try to control for as many variables as produce different kinds of results than anecdotal experiences that are neither done in a controlled manner nor try account for any variables. But that’s not to say that anecdotal experiences can’t yield valuable insights.
Not sure if you intended this but I always wonder is it me or the wine when I drink wine that feels off when I travel with it.
Countless times in history, the “accepted wisdom” in an industry has turned out to be wrong.
How hard would it be to convene a few panels of experienced tasters, and blind taste “wine that arrived two months ago” against “the same wine that arrived two weeks ago” and see if (a) tasters can actually tell the difference and (b) the two weeks ago wine is worse?
It would take a few small groups a couple hours of time and the opening of a small number of inexpensive wines. And if the tasters discover that there isn’t actually an issue here, it would save a bunch of money, right?
It’s strange to see how “the accepted wisdom” gets a hold on us so often, but even stranger when it would be so incredibly easy to put it to the test.
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I don’t particularly worry about bottle shock in young wines. Older wines, especially reds with sediment, those I worry about. And for those, even a trip from home to restaurant is enough to concern me, and double decant.
I guess we don’t consider stirred sediment as travel shock, right?
No. At most, it’s one small subset of the theory of travel shock and not the one that has any disagreement.
Sediment can be stirred up by how you handle a bottle at the cellar/house/restaurant/table without going anywhere.
I’m sure there are plenty of folks who will receive a shipment of aged red and open one that night.
We are the freaks. 
Rodrigo - I firmly believe travel shock is more related to increased temperature-induced liquid expansion into the headspace of the bottle and the subsequent forced absorption of those headspace gasses than anything to do with actual “travel” or vibration, etc.
Here is an experiment any Berserker can try…take two bottles of same wine (no need to travel anywhere) and allow one bottle to get to a 100 degrees or a temp hot enough to expand the liquid fully against the cork (without pushing it) for a couple of hours. It won’t “cook” the wine so long as the cork doesn’t push and allow O2 in. Allow it to cool back down and re-taste both wines side by side the next day. I think you’ll find that travel shock is really temperature-induced liquid expansion shock.
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Cameron,
We use refrigerated shipping always, and refrigerated trucking almost all the year, to avoid temperature problems. I don’t know how many importers do this, though. My warehouse tells me they unload quite a few containers that are not refrigerated…
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