I’m considering trying to ship a couple Wine.com bottles to Virginia next week. It would be two-day shipping, I believe from the Miami warehouse. Highs in the area are supposed to be from 44-50, lows from 32-37.
Obviously hot weather shipping is a no-no, but I didn’t find much information on the lower temperature bounds for wine shipping. What is the general consensus on when to hold shipments due to cold weather. Given that it is two-day shipping, do you think this is doable?
You would need a week of below freezing temps or an artic blast of 15F or below to have concerns. Just let the wine warm up gradually if the bottles feel especially cold when you receive them. It’s moving to/from the extremes that cause the biggest issues.
I read last week from a wine website (I can’t remember which once) that they automatically hold if temps. are supposed to dip below 20 F. So, if you want to be a little more careful than the 15 degees mentioned above, that can serve as a lower level. Low 30s should be fine.
Depends on alcohol content, but wine starts to freeze around 20F plus or minus a bit. It takes a while for the wine to reach that temperature even if the air is that cold. Also, it needs to be a just a bit lower to freeze enough to push the cork. Wine is an example of a non ideal mixture, the freezing point of the remaining liquid will continue to drop as part of it freezes (makes slushies not wine-cubes).
I live in Alaska. I just received a case of wine yesterday. One bottle pushed the cork out and that bottle is a casualty. Two others pushed the cork out about 3/8". They are survivors. Interestingly enough, they were all whites. The rest of the case was red and they look unaffected. This particular winery does not use foil over the corks, so that may have had something to do with the corks being pushed too. This is the first time I’ve seen this in my 15 years of receiving wines. I usually do not concern myself over low temps. Ambient temps are pretty mild too. I don’t think they dropped under 10F.
The reds may have had higher alcohol (so lower freezing point) and they also likely have more additional substances dissolved than the whites which further lowers the freezing temperature by a little. Ambient temperature of 10F is enough to push corks if the bottles are exposed to it long enough. Largely depends on unknown factors like how tightly packed with other things during transport, whether cargo area has any heat or started out warm enough to drop to ambient temperature (aka, luck).
Not necessarily too cold, but keep in mind the large number of packages during the holiday season makes things a bit more risky. FedEx also has a warning about more heavy packages being sent right now due to covid. I’m waiting until early 2021 to ship anything to let things calm down a bit.
I have experience shipping/leaving wine in the trunk in this temp range. As I said, it’s more rapid cold to warm or vice versa that causes the cork extractions under cold temps, and the wine is usually unaffected. Different outcome in temps too warm…
I’ve had good success with shipments from wine.com over the last month. I’ve gotten 12 orders shipped over the last few weeks and 4 orders this week alone running the Miami to MD route with absolutely zero problems. All but one of these wine.com packages have been on time (the one that was late was one day late).
My last shipment didn’t get delivered until the end of the delivery day and i started to get worried. I’m leaning towards having them stored at the drop off site for UPS if I get any more shipments this year.
I was doing ok on shipping until this week. I have a case of wine that was supposed to be delivered Monday that still hasn’t arrived - online tracking shows it made it to the Minneapolis area Monday evening and has been out for delivery each day since. I must be at the end of the route, and they’re calling it a day before they get to me.
To the OP: the good news is that at the temperatures you note, your wine could sit virtually indefinitely and be fine, so no issue if there’s a delay.
I think your theory is valid. I made the same assumption, but didn’t really validate it until last night after reading your comments. The whites are in fact lower in alcohol content. Lower than I would have expected… 12.5%. The reds are all in the 14.5% range. These are from a small winery I have not bought from before. Now I’m really interested in tasting them…
