How hot is your wine?

WINE TALK
1

After receiving countless wine shipments whose boxes were hot to the touch and bottles were warm, I asked several questions:
First I asked delivery drivers how hot the insides of their truck get. This yielded: “about 14 degrees F above outdoor temperature”
Then, I decided to conduct an informal test of some wine shippers. These were 2-bottle shippers. I exposed them to heat and measured internal temperatures. The results and summary are here:
Informal Test of Wine Shippers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Blogger and PhD candidate in Chemical Engineering, Tom Mansell provided some critical calculations which indicate that wine inside a shipper exposed for two hours to 112F can reach 78F and after three hours, they can reach 82F. Tom explains his math here: Can wine take the heat? | Ithacork: Wine and Science in the Finger Lakes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I also posted some additional thoughts on my blog: RedWineBuzz.com is available at DomainMarket.com. Call 888-694-6735" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I’d like to see data from inside a bottle that was exposed to similar heat conditions.

Then there is the issue of whether this exposure actually affects the wines…

2

I’ve seen lots of unscientific studies regarding this topic, some say don’t worry, others said it’s panic time. I even remember someone did a test regarding UPS and Fedex trucks…since Fedex is white, the wine stayed cooler.

All I know is, don’t ship in summer.

3

I don’t buy that. Both trucks have the opaque white roofs, letting in similar amounts of light and heat.

4

And they have really cool camera’s in the back when they’re backing up! [wink.gif]

But this is where styro (of course bad for environment) works as a better insulator than other shippers.

5

“wine inside a shipper exposed for two hours to 112F can reach 78F and after three hours, they can reach 82F. Tom explains his math here:”

Hmm… but if the drivers are correct that internal temps are 14F higher than external temps this means the outside temps would be 98F. That’s the height of summer heat in most places. So, yeah, don’t ship in summer.

Note that this also implies that temps in the high 80s would leave the wine inside in the high 60s-low 70s (presumsing they start at cellar temps).

6

On the day I exposed my shippers to112.4F, it was 83F outside. On the day I got the exposed to 113.2 The reported outside temp was 79. This disparity is likely due to the fact that the space inside the van is finite and can warm up significantly.
I presume you looked at the graph on winebusiness.com that plots projected rise in wine temperatures.

7

and I read the title as “How hot is your wife?”…opps…wrong board [bye.gif]

8

You are not the only one.

9

That will be the seminal (…) post on my new blog: http://www.hotWILFswithwine.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;