Chill filtered, extra stable for aging.
Liquids do not freeze all at once, so it’s possible the wine started to freeze and then warmed up (maybe the driver turned on the heat to start his/her deliveries). When it’s that close (1-3 degrees), I can’t know what happened, and I no longer want to take the risk. Corks do not move if you put the wine in a 90 degree car for a few hours…but I wouldn’t want to age a wine that went through that either. For me, anything below 40 degrees or anything above 80 increases the risk of damage that may be noticeable later in life.
The freezing point of wine is much lower than 32. It’s extremely unlikely any of it froze.
I was very surprised to see my first BD purchase show up on my doorstep during the coldest week of the year. Sadly, three of the six bottles had corks that got almost pushed out the bottle (we’ve been in the single digits all week, with negative lows at times). Of the remaining three bottles, two were fine and one had the capsule burst (cork didn’t seem to have moved much).
Update: it seemed to be an issue with UPS not honoring the shipper’s request to hold until the weather changed. To his credit, the sender (Ian Burrows of AEREA Vintners) was incredibly fast in getting back to me and very gracious, offering to replace the bottles no questions asked. Amazing customer service.
Same issue here from the same vendor, and the same positive customer service experience.
I got 3 of the 2018 and 3 of the 2019. the 2019 were on the top of the box - I have 1 that looks like your photo, 1 that slightly popped up but maybe like 1/4 of an inch if not less, and one where the seal cracked but the cork remained in place. The bottom level were the 2018’s and there were perfectly in tact.
Ian thought it was cold weather too and didn’t know why UPS did not hold back. I just found it interesting that the damaged ones were on the top of the box and not the bottom but what do I know.
I told Ian to hold off on a refund until I at least tried it to see if it was any good - I feel bad just pouring it down the drain but he refused and gave me the credit on the two. Now will I try this semi popped up corked one…hmm…who knows.
Oh wow…where are you guys located where the temperature was so low to pop the cork up like that?!
I’m in Lansing, MI. Temperatures en route (e.g. Nebraska, the Dakotas) went into the negative single digits in the last week.
I am in Northern NJ just outside NYC. When I look at the tracking history on UPS it just says it left OR on the 3rd and arrived in NJ on the 9th. Not sure the route it took during those 6 days. Got to NJ on the 9th at 8:50am and go to me on the 9th in the afternoon so not long here in NJ. That said its been cold and snowy by at worst at night down to the upper teen’s maybe? No single digital/below 0. I just found it odd the only bottles damaged were on the top, not the bottom of the box. If weather I’d think any damage would be more randomized but I can’t say I have a ton of experience. Vendor made good on it before I wanted him to as I was willing to try the wine first. So I have no complaints other than being down 1-2 bottles from my BD purchases.
I’m in the Detroit suburbs and had the same issue with the same wine as Luca, although one of mine was actually frozen with the cork all the way out. It has been pretty cold here in the midwest; and it was definitely the shipper who was at fault, not the winery.
And to Eric’s situation, it was the bottles on the bottom of a double box that were frozen with the corks out or almost out.
This is more cautious (on the low end) than my approach. Not that received wisdom is infallible, but as I’ve collected and understood the received wisdom in my head over the years, heat and cold do different things to wine, and this difference is significant. Heat accelerates certain chemical reactions (and even causes some?) that are irreversible. So a heat-damaged bottle (where the heat wasn’t severe enough to push out the cork or cause leakage) is irreversibly heat damaged, even if later stored under ideal conditions, and it may/will show as such with age. So I also tend to be skeptical of the ageability of a bottle that was exposed to temps over 80 for an extended period of time.
Cold, OTOH and AFAIK, slows down the reactions and doesn’t cause any as long as it doesn’t cause freezing - and if it does cause freezing, the reaction is reversible. Thus, as I’ve always heard it, a wine frozen and then thawed will taste just as good as if it had never been frozen (as in the Marcassin example above) - UNLESS it froze to the point that the wine expanded enough to compromise the seal between the cork and bottle, in which case it is the compromised seal rather than any “cold damage” to the wine that will impact its ageability. And a pushed cork should be visible, so I never worry about bottles shipped in the cold that arrive without any visible cork movement. Plus, given the freezing point of wine, if I were to pick a corollary to the heat damage extreme, I’d probably pick 20 or 25 as the temp I’d worry about (if the wine were exposed to temps in that range for several hours or more), rather than 32 or anything higher than 32.
Just an alternative approach, of course. I’m certainly not trying to convince anyone NOT to be as cautious as they want to be.
the three bottles with damage were all on the top of the box, not the bottom. The 3 on the bottom are perfectly in tact. I could wonder about the contents inside but I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that the wine is fine. I can post photos later of the 3 in question.
Further, I didn’t intend to name the winery for this BD purchase, but since it was obvious and Luca did, I 100% agree that Ian Burrows of Aerea was extremely gracious and immediately said he would replace the wine (also a first ordered because of BD, thank you Todd) without question or even the pics I’d taken. Another example of fantastic customer care.
Sorry Eric, I probably wasn’t clear, the frozen bottles delivered to me were on the bottom of the box.
Ah ok - so I guess location within the box did not matter.
And I agree, I was not going to name anyone but it was already out there and Ian did a fantastic job. I sent him a photo and said I plan to drink it this weekend, but if there are any issues I’d rather mention it now versus complain later on after the fact. And I also wanted to alert him if he had other shipments headed out to maybe put a pause on them. He immediately started the refund process and said regardless if the bottle is good or bad its not the experience he wants to deliver so he did a refund on the two damaged bottles. I like Gamay, I like Ian, so I am hoping to like these wines too and continue to support him!
Do you feel its worth drinking? Dare I say use for cooking? I do not see any leakage.
I would bet a bottle of frozen wine that the issue of finding the frozen bottles only in one row or side of the box relates to where the box was within the truck. I would think that in a “lay-down” shipper, the bottles on the bottom will freeze first if the box is on the floor of the truck and those on top will freeze first if the box is on top of other boxes, but doesn’t have other boxes on top of it. Likewise, in a vertical shipper, I’d think that the bottles closest to the sides or back of the truck would freeze before the bottles closest to the middle of the truck.
FYI, most of the Upper Midwest will probably not see ANY above zero temperatures until Monday or Tuesday.
Ouch! Here in the relatively balmy Lower Midwest, we won’t see anything above 20 from about 10pm tonight until Wednesday morning, but that beats four solid days below zero! ![[truce.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/d33e712b50d5efc2425bf219c404fbdb7ed0ba50.gif "truce"){kind=small}
Hi Art - we really are disappointed on your behalf that you had to deal with the inconvenience and as soon as the weather starts to warm will get the wine replaced/refunded. We appreciate your clear communication to notify us of the issue. I have scheduled meeting with shipping handlers because this really isn’t cool (no pun intended). Ive threatened boycotting UPS a few times over various service issues, but have put it down to bad luck, this might have been the last time they get our business… following some much needed reflection. Shipping laws, erratic weather patterns and distance/cost present an array of immediate and complicated logistical decisions for all wineries. These concerns should not concern the customer, just know they exist, and that I think I speak for all small wineries we say we appreciate your patience as we work to rectify this disappointment.
Keeping our chins up and our glasses full!!!
IB
3 Likes