According to the video above, that could work out.
That said, the there are a significant number of posters upthread that have described it relatively accurately.
I ran into it with a Chardonnay that I made. I took three light green bottles back from a grocery store where they had been sitting on the shelf. All three, opened over a course of 2 years were definitely different from bottles not from the grocery store that had never been out of the box. All were a muddy kind of reductive expression, skunky, that was night and day from the other bottles. I left the price tags on the grocery bottles, so it was easy not to mix them up. It’s nothing remotely like heat damage either, so no other issues and consistent across the three bottles so not likely to be an issue with the cork.
I did a quick look at a couple retail spec listings. They say “UV protective glass.” I mean, iirc green glass is about 20% protective and brown is more 90-95%, maybe better with some. What i have yet to see is something like “100% UV protective”. Even that, i wouldn’t take literally. I see quite a range on wine fridges, from pretty clear to darkly tinted. But, regardless of the level of refractory chaos, it would be wise to count on some UV light getting through. If you spitball the best ones being maybe 99.7% effective, multiply that out over ten years. I guarantee some arent that good. If you have one with a glass door, placement matters. Dark cubby or direct morning sun, right?
As an aside, i dont even remember glass doors as an option when i got my first cabinet. I’m sure there were some, but i would’ve just turned the page. Now they’re the norm. I think that speaks consumer demand, like so many other pandering gimmicks. People want to show off their collections. Some people who dont drink or dont drink high-end have display bottles.
Any wine encyclopedia from any era covers lightstrike as a flaw.
I’m curious how wine is different from other products that sit on a shelf for extended periods: vegetable oil, soda, honey, etc. And what about meats and vegetables? Are the deteriorating by being exposed to light?
Ok, direct sun can be damaging, because of UV, but artificial light is pretty innocuous.
Most wine shops have bottles displayed on shelves, often for weeks, even months. If this was a real problem, there should be huge numbers of off bottles being sold.
Exactly. I think this is another fable I can add to my tome that will create a religion based on wine wives tales. Grapes can spend 10 hours a day for 5 months in various amounts of sunlight but get the wine in a bottle and 5 minutes of sunlight will outright destroy it?
If one honestly thinks “light strike” is a real problem for their wine, seek better retailers. Something went seriously wrong if any wine people in this forum bother with suffered this kind of damage. Josh is 100% on the money on this point.
I sell sake along with wine and we try our best to shade the wine at all times. Sake actually need to be fully away from sunlight and be in a cooler. I’ve seen some sake specialty shops cover all their sake in a type of colored film and keep the store quite cool. I understand these are different products, so perhaps another one of my classic responses that are unhelpful.
I have no idea about other states, but this is interesting to me as it is often said about Massachusetts by people in the business. Some retailers use it as an excuse to not accept returns when a wine doesn’t have cork taint. So many people say it that I always assumed it was true. The thing is, it isn’t. There’s a law saying returns of contaminated (I forget if this is the actual term, but it’s something like this) product must be accepted. There’s a law against consignment sales. But nowhere are normal returns, even if the product is sound, defined as consignment sales. It’s just something that’s so widely accepted that most people (including me until recently) believe it. I wonder if the same might be true in other states.
Here’s the NY law. If the law is to be followed, and I’m not calling anyone out but I’d bet the farm just about every wholesaler has violated it at some point, it ultimately gives the shaft to the retailer or end consumer. If a retailer knows the 14-day return period has lapsed and that jumping through all these bureaucratic hoops is largely impractical for a small business, they are either forced to eat the cost of a flawed product they received or tell the end consumer those are the chances you take when buying a bottle of alcohol.
As a wholesaler, good luck keeping the customer after telling them, sorry, can’t credit or exchange because…14 days. https://sla.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2018/10/bulletin-251-1965-revised.pdf
This was regarding returning part of an order because the account changed their mind after selling some and not liking it, not flaws…selling some and returning some is the definition of consignment sales and why my post stated to get a waiver from WSLCB.
Corked/flawed/damaged product can always be exchanged, in most States, by the retailer, the distributor always does in my personal experience although we don’t always have the same vintage to exchange.
My experience as well, but there are some companies that don’t gaf about you and say “too bad.”
I’ve had a trustworthy customer experience 2-3 bad bottles and I raised an issue with the distributor. We returned the rest of that wine for credit because I didn’t feel confident in selling the wine anymore.
Bad bottles or bad runs happen, we have had to source and isolate certain lots based on SCC or production date. “I don’t like it is not an acceptable flaw” and at least for me in the PNW the States, COD, do not allow for that without a WSLCB or OLCC waiver.
In California, I don’t believe the retailer is supposed to accept corked re mturns, but many do. I can’t say I know all 50 States laws as I am more West Coast historically speaking for work.
I have a small wine fridge with a double pane glass door, in which I mostly store Champagne, many bottles of which have clear glass. I open 150+ bottles of Champagne annually, and I’ve yet to encounter a bottle afflicted with light strike from my cellar, including dozens of Egly rose and Cristal, among others in clear glass. The only light source is LED in a windowless room and I keep the LED fridge light turned off.
Does LED light affect wine (milk, beer, etc) in the same way as fluorescent light? LED produces little to no UV rays. The information that I’ve read about light strike indicates that it was discovered as a result of spoilage in highly florescent grocery stores.
As much as we all like to pontificate and speculate and talk about running “experiments” to prove what we think…. if anyone is curious about the research that has already been done, the science behind some of the off flavors referred to as light taint, and why you can enjoy a delicious bottle on the beach, and yet get a poor result if you pick up a wine bottle that has been on display for 3 months (especially if it is unfortunately in a clear glass bottle)…. you should actually follow the link to Mark’s article.
Reminds me of an old joke about two dinosaurs arguing that a meteors weren’t a risk.
In my opinion, you should add “in my opinion” to that diatribe unless you have a lot better data points than “I don’t think this is real”. Especially since your regular posting is usually a lot less speculatively absolute.
As a producer, I can either:
mimic you and Alan R and say that whatever I saw was something else, ignore the research and corroborating stories, and decide this is just bogus hand-wringing.
or I can put Chardonnay and other white wines in dark green bottles to make sure that, real or not, I am doing the absolute best job I can to protect the wines I make so that consumers have the best possible chance to enjoy them as they should be.
Easy choice.
Of note, I have never seen or heard of lightstrike in red wines. And for all of the flint bottles, I have never seen, or heard, of lightstrike in Rosé wines. So pigmentation may make a difference.
I also don’t believe that 5 minutes in the sun, or a week under florescent lights wrecks a wine. But I have seen wines that definitely had exposure to long term grocery store florescent lighting that have a specific issue.
Fair, and very true, I am sorry I referenced your note about the beach…… there were other comments earlier about how light strike couldn’t exist because (insert this life experience involving light and bottles of wine)
