Sorry to see that, Tom.
I had a case of wine shipped from Empire Wine in NY to the Seattle area in early January. Eight day trip in a cardboard box. Bottles look perfect.
So I had a bottle shipped Monday 2-day. Of course it’s delayed. Of course. Overnight lows in Indy are18F. Wondering how concerned I should be.
I checked in on a bottle and it seemed sound.
I had a problem with half bottles that were shipped over a weekend, but lows were more like low single digits. The corks definitely popped up.
I have had lots of wine shipped in cold but not arctic temps. Once I shared a case with a friend, he authorized shipping and temps over the weekend when it sat were 0 or below F. About half or a bit less of the 750s had pushed up corks and had frozen. I only had a couple from the dozen and he just gave unfrozen ones to me. It was German Reisling if the sugar or alcohol content matters much.
Lower alcohol wines freeze much easier then higher abv. The only wines I’ve had trouble with freezing have been off dry German Riesling.
Gathering it’s probably ok. It will be in styrofoam.
I always say wine is sturdier than given credit for but I don’t like testing my theories haha
edit: it’s not a sweet/low alcohol wine.
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I’m in Minnesota. I wouldn’t be concerned at all until temps dip below 10. Even then, your wine would have to be sitting outside all night for it to freeze. For me, the code red danger zone is when temps dip into the negatives. At that point, I’d say half of the time you will have a problem.
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It’ll be fine.
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This is right. The only time I’ve ever had a problem (in Wisconsin) was somebody shipping during a polar vortex where it was below zero all day and the shipment sat overnight on the truck due to a delay. Even then 2 out of the 6 bottles (none packed in styrofoam) were fine.
This is sort of true. In some wines, German included, alcohol content is inversely related to sugar content. And dissolved sugars also lower the freezing point. I did a little back of the envelope calculation the results of which are, admittedly, approximate. Wine is a very complex solution, and freezing point depression can be difficult to calculate, especially when mixing two liquids. However, I think these calculations should be good to within 1 degree.
My results: a 14% abv dry wine will begin to freeze when it reaches -5.5 Celsius. A wine with 9% abv and 80g/L RS will begin to freeze at -4.4 Celsius.
So it’s just a difference of a single degree or so. I do wonder if those tall thin bottles that Germans use offer more glass to air surface and that may also contribute to faster freezing.
It’s been many years since freshman chemistry. Please feel to check my work.
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You forgot the C to F conversion
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you forgot to carry the one
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Came to note that I got my Rivers Marie cabernet shipment (to Massachusetts) in styrofoam today and 1 maybe 2 of the corks were slightly protruding…then I saw the pic in the last reply which I guess made me feel better about it?
I had wine at WineAccess since summer on weather hold. They chose to ship last Monday. While the wine was scheduled to arrive Wednesday, it actually came on Saturday. Six days with nighttime temps as low as 12 F. I was concerned, but the wine arrived with no signs of visible damage. No raised corks. I think it was extremely poor form to weather hold items all fall only to ship in December.
This is the best time of year to ship. I’ve received all sorts of wine in the last couple weeks and they’ve been great.
My RM and W&M are supposed to arrive by 9pm tonight, with lows in high teens tonight. Hope they dont do a fake delivery attempt because its getting late and let the wine sit in truck all night
Did they make it?
Wine.com shipped me something in late July