what is the lesser of 2 evils for car transport?

WINE TALK
1

What’s the safest place in the car to leave your wine on a hot day for an hour or so?

  • 1. in the car itself on floor with windows down a bit.
  • 2. in the trunk
  • 3. Neither - never leave it in the car for more than 10 minutes top, period.
  • 4. other, I’ll explain

0 voters

Say you need to leave your wine in the car for an hour - hour & half. What is best…in the trunk or in the car itself with windows down some? Yesterday I had some early drinker $15-$20 sparkers. I left them in the car for 75 minutes while I worked out after work. I parked in the shade and stored them in a 6pak on the passenger side floor. Temp was close to 90 out but probably more like 75 / 80 in the shade. The btls never got hot. Didn’t feel hot. I’ve never done this with higher end stuff or stuff I’d age for more than 6-12 months before drinking. My car is white but with black interior. What do you do. Take the poll.

2

Ice chest with enough ice relative to the number of bottles and the time and temperature to be endured.

3

Agree with Mark, that being said… never in the trunk.

4

Parked in the shade I don’t think it would matter. In the sun the car interior definitely gets hotter, and heats up quicker. The interior color matters much more than the paint color.
I’d regard the potential for theft as a greater threat, and voted for the trunk.

P Hickner

5

In the shade for sure. I’ve been known to park a long way from where I need to be just to be in reliable shade for the period of time I need to leave the car. Then in a styro shipper, in the trunk. You’ll be amazed how long styro will keep the wine at its original temperature, particularly if the temperature difference between the bottles, and the space outside the box isn’t particularly great.

6

Miami-Ice Chest or NYET !

7

As others have said ice chest with blue ice packs. I also try to plan my trips so that wine beer is picked up last so I can transport straight home.

8

Blankets in the trunk can help too, but definitely find some shade.

9

Ice chest vote from me, too.

In general, when it comes to cars and heat…treat wine like it’s your pet dog. (Except for the ice chest part.)

10

I disagree. The trunk might be best, depending on the circumstances.

Unless you’re leaving the wine for a short enough time that the passenger compartment stays cool from being air conditioned, it may get warmer than the trunk from light and the ambient air temperature. The passenger compartment is basically a little greenhouse, and I suspect even in the shade there may be enough infrared rays to warm it up more than the trunk. I think it’s light and infrared that are the enemy, not heat from the air.

I’ve been surprised how cool a trunk can remain, particularly if you’ve got several cases of wine at cellar temperature. If you can fold down your back seat while your driving so the AC gets to the trunk, that would help, too.

11

In a cooler with ice packs only.

12

It’s hard to answer the poll, because it completely depends on the weather. I assume even the most conservative storage geeks wouldn’t care about a shipper box being in the car for an hour while it’s 60 degrees out.

As Craig gets to in the original post, what matters is how warm the wine inside the bottles ends up getting for how long. Too warm and/or for too long, and it might be a problem.

I’m in the “wine is much hardier than Eurocave and Vinotemp want you to think” crowd, so I don’t stress about that stuff very much, but everyone has his own gut feel about it.

13

I say the trunk. Many times I have gone for a bike ride and left a bottle of water in the passenger compartment and it has been hot enough that it is undrinkable. When I leave them in the trunk, they are ok to drink, but maybe still a little warm.

14

I think it’s pretty clear that Craig was asking about days when it’s warm.

15

Yes, but the answer depends a lot on what “warm” is.

Anyway, I’m not trying to be annoying “the poll is flawed” guy, but I was just trying to say that the answer is sort of a sliding scale that depends on temperature, length of time, what kind of packing materials, shade, sunny or overcast, etc.

16

His question was passenger compartment or trunk, and the more I reflect on it, the more I think the trunk will be best in most cases. At 60 degrees in the sun, the passenger compartment will get very warm; the trunk won’t. At 90 degrees, the trunk won’t be as bad. At 70 on a cloudy day, I’d worry more about the passenger compartment getting warm.

Maybe at 80 at night the inside is better because it will stay cool from the AC for a while.

(I spent the last week in sunny conditions in the 60s, and the car got boiling in no time in the sun.)

17

Ice chest in the trunk. In fact, having been a boy scout, I keep an ice chest in the trunk most of the time, unless we need the room for something else. Good for keeping groceries from spoiling, too. If the ice chest is hot from being empty in the trunk, remember to throw something cold in it before hitting the wine store.

NB: Trader Joe’s sells frozen bottles of spring water for something like 17 cents each.

18

If you have a regular sedan auto, I’d say trunk.

19

In a cooler with ice packs.

20

My chauffeur leaves the Rolls running !

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