When you receive a wine shipment from an online purchase, do you drink immediately (after bringing it to the correct temp) or do you let it “rest” for a period of time?
So many threads, opinions, pseudo- studies on this topic. Search ‘travel shock’. I tend to let wines rest a bit- just me- others prefer the Pobega method. Good luck.
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Unless you have no other wine to drink, what’s the downside to waiting?
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Right you are. I didn’t see that. It’s interesting, though - many of us take such meticulous care in storing our wines, making sure the temperature and humidity and light are appropriate, but I bet somewhere along the way from the winery to the store, the wines were not stored properly.
Like adopting a puppy, one wonders if there was mistreatment in the past that could affect its demeanor and behavior.
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This is one of the biggest problems with buying in the US. Too many hands involved and many importers cheap out and don’t even bother with refer shipping or proper storage.
I bought some Williams Selyam this year and the box insert said to wait 4 weeks.
This.
I have no idea whether travel shock is real. But it’s not worth the risk of trying to find out when I have plenty of wine that /didn’t/ arrive today.
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I usually wait 10 to 25 years.
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Minimal exposure to things like light and humidity are simply not going to matter. Wine is more robust than it is given credit for. Even short term adverse temperature exposure is not nearly the thing sometimes made of it on this board. However, we also seek to mitigate these risks primarily by buying from reputable sources and shipping during optimal temperature windows. If this is done then really the most significant risk is that it was mishandled prior to arriving at the retailer, which is out of the ordinary consumer’s control. This all applies solely to new release of course. I don’t sweat it too much for the most part. Mistakes have been made over the years, but primarily due to retailer error of shipping during hot months or very cold, and (almost?) always this has been made right when the mistake was called to their attention.
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Normally, I have a shelf in my cellar where new wines needing to be sampled are placed (bottle standing). These would be new producers that I may want to purchase more before they sell-out or long term agers that are (again) new producers which should be tried before next release. On average these bottles would be opened within 1-2 months. This process allows the wines to settle from shipping.
I wonder if the ‘shocked’ state of wine after shipping has anything to do with displacement of sediment or lees and/or gas.
If it’s a red with 8+ years of age I’ll let it sit anywhere from 1 week to 1 year depending on it’s age. If it’s a white - let’em rippppp!
I enjoy an early peep since it’s the best way to decide if I want to deepen my commitment on any one wine beyond 2/3 bottles. It is the reason I was able to buy over 18x 2018 Rivers-Marie Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast. There are many examples but this is one that comes right to memory. Here is another:
Trying a 2016 Produttori Barbaresco within a few days was reason enough to go 2 cases deep.
I am an impulse buyer but the impulse must be strong. Sometimes it’s just fun to try something soon!
Cheers!
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Do you think storing wine at 75-80 degrees in a home for a month could have an effect on the overall quality? Is it long enough to cause some deterioration?
No. Absolutely not.
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