Wine Storage: How Long Outside Ideal Temp Before Damage?

WINE TALK
1

So a colleague of mine has recently rented an off-site wine storage locker that guarantees proper temperature and humidity conditions for long-term aging. The thing is, he’s been having a lot of wine shipped to our building, which he has been keeping in his office until his locker became available and he was able to take the wine over there. His office is probably around room temperature, maybe as high as 75 degrees. My question is this: if the wine was shipped direct from a winery or retailer with proper storage, and is now heading into a locker with proper conditions, how much damage could he have inflicted on the wines while keeping them in his office? How long is too long? A couple weeks, a month, a few months?

2

No one can tell you the answer to this. However, in general, I wouldn’t be terribly concerned, especially for those in foam shippers. Yes, they will obviously gotten to ambient temperature, for the foam mitigates any daily temperature swings, and slightly mitigates the peak temperature.

3

Scott,

Even inside the shippers, the wine will reach ambient room temperature fairly quickly (under one day).

If the wine is a delicate white, I wouldn’t want let it get to 75F at all while a few days for most reds, although far from ideal, would unlikely do noticable harm.

You will get a thousand opinions because there is no scientific data on the subject.

4

IMHO, anyone who claims to know the answer to that question for certain is fooling you. In 1979, I bought a case of 1976 Burgs and they spent the next 7 years in a rack in my basement that was underground only in the front part of the house, and there was a heater, a water heater and a leaky door to the outside in the same basement. I opened one of those in 2006 and it was one of the 5 best wines I ever had (going with things like 1945 Grahams Port and 1928 Margaux). So there is at least a lot of luck in the process. The best answer, I think, is get it into good storage as soon as practical and don’t fret too much so long as you don’t let it get to the 90s.

5

Like has been said by everyone before, there are no good facts, but only opinions. Here’s mine:

  1. Wine is routinely subjected to temps like you describe in the transport process - especially those coming from overseas. Maybe not 80+, but I’ll bet 70+ is very common and higher is not uncommon.

  2. It’s all about long term storage at the temps you are talking about. Leave it there for 2 years and I’ll start to wager you can taste a difference. Leave it there for 2 months and you’re probably still fine. Leave it there for 2 weeks and I say no way that causes a problem. I will say that 75 is starting to make me a little nervous. I think 70 and under is a better number and would likely be fine for a pretty long while.

  3. The only way I believe wine is seriously damaged by very short term elevated temps (cooked) is if it gets up to something like 90 or more for hours. I know a local wino (posts on both boards) who has several times inadvertently left a bottle in his car in the summer here (remember, it’s Dallas!) only to later notice no discernible damage. Now, the time from the potential damage to drinking was short, but this hurts the argument that short, high temps completely ruin wine. Now, I wouldn’t want to chance it with those bottles long term (20 years+).

  4. Overall, I think wine is hardier (especially red) than we give it credit for and the problems tend to arise with long term (years) storage at moderate temps or any time at extreme temps. I think we view wine as so delicate and mysterious because of all the flaws that can show up in wine. But, I think it takes some pretty extended heat exposure to do serious damage.

  5. Notice that the vast majority of wines by the vast majority of retailers sits at room temp until sold. It may not make us winos happy, but clearly most of those wines are not fatally flawed from it.

  6. All that being said, I do rush my wines into controlled temp. storage within a week and if I have wine around the house I keep it below 70. Based on my thoughts above, that’s probably overkill, but it’s the OCD in wino. I suspect I have a lot of company on this board!

All just my opinions.

Chris

6

Catastrophic heat damage requires very high heat and more than a few days. I accidentally had a case shipped to me in the middle of an unexpected, blistering heat wave this late Spring. Fearing the worst, I opened the bottles through the summer and was pleasantly surprised. I have also picked up close-outs where I know they were broiled by the supply chain just to see. It takes a lot to immediately destroy wine.

More and more, I am convinced that heat damage has become a critic’s excuse for bad judgments, and a great way to blame the trade. This is not to downplay some royal screw-ups in shipping, but I’ve seen several attempts to blame heat damage for ways that heat damage just doesn’t really work.

7

Thanks for all of the great opinions. It sounds like his wines should be okay (and, therefore, I shouldn’t hesitate to deal with him somewhere down the road [cheers.gif] ).

8

I’m of the belief that wine is more hearty that some make it out to be. I live in an apartment, so storage is a constant concern, but I keep my special bottles and those that should age for a long time in very controlled conditions. At the same time, I have a 72 bottle rack that holds my “everyday” wine - or wine that I plan on drinking within a year. My apartment is usually about 64 degrees in the winter and 67-68 in the summer.

9

+1… Chris explained it well. Plus, I like it when posters use numbered lists. [tease.gif]

Perhaps your friends office doesn’t get up to 75 anyway. That is pretty warm for an office.

10

[welldone.gif] There are those who think that ten minutes at 70 degrees will cook a wine. I call bullshit. I kept some wine (as an experiment) in my garage for two years. Standing up. It was fine, though I’ll certainly grant that there’s no way I could have actually measured any damage that might have occurred.

1 Like
11

Thanks for sparing me the need to write this. Exactly my thoughts. At 75, I wouldn’t worry in the least.

12

Also agreed. If wine were so delicate that a few days, weeks or even months at room temp were going to do damage there would be very, very little good wine, red or white, on the market. Warehouses, retail stores, and transit are all going to have differing and often room temp.

JD

13

I’m of the opinion that 70-75 degrees should only be an issue if the wine already has issues with stability. Long term it’s not ideal, but if a wine goes bad at RT, that’s on the producer.

14

Anything more than a minute in 68 degrees+ will effectively cook your wine like an egg on a skillet. All who cannot perceive said flaws are poor tasters and most probably members of the anti-flavor wine elite. [berserker.gif]

But seriously, excellent post on the topic of oxygenation on “the other forum” by Agnes Corbon:

http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showpost.php?p=2877720&postcount=16" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Higher temperature means more of the latent oxygen will begin chemically reacting with the wine. The more delicate the wine, the more detrimental. The rate, degree and effect that has on agibility and drinkability varies not only from grape to grape, not only from wine to wine, but also from bottle to bottle.

15

Have to disagree here, at least for some wine. I had some Lapierre Morgon '03 that went bad after (IIRC) two summers when it was stored at about 70. Admittedly, this is a very delicate wine (Gamay grap) and I believe made with little SO2, but still, it happened. Apparently one can store it much longer if the temp is 14C or lower (57 F). There is a thread with some remarks on this in that other place.

16

We had other types of wine stored in exactly the same place for the same period that did not go bad. So I don’t think there’s much question…

17

Merci, mon ami!

18

I recently did a very scientific experiment that PROVES that there is no difference in the way you store your wine.

I had three bottles of Sierra Carche.

  1. perfectly stored

  2. left in apartment at 70 degrees for a month

  3. Baked it in the oven at 200 degrees for 10 hours

Opened them all and every one tasted exactly the same. [whistle.gif]

So please, don’t try to tell ME that storage makes any difference at all. [wink.gif]

19

One of my favorite personal stories took place close to ten years ago when I decided to have the basement finished (which created a new climate control issue - it was easier explaining to the SO why I wanted to finish than basement than why it needed to be air conditioned. but no matter…).

I did this in the Fall, so that I could move all of the wine to the garage for the week, while the work was done. Move it up. New basement. Moved it back. Two years later, I found a case of Chard in the garage. Now in the winter, the garage often gets in the teens. In the summer, it gets over 100. And talk about fluctuations!

So I find the case - either Simi Reserve or Chalk Hill, I’m forgetting which. Thought “oh, shit” and pretty promptly started opening them. Not one of the bottles was off. While I don’t advise this experiment for anyone else, it made me consider something - I have never had a bad bottle that I could attribute to conditions in my basement. While temps only change slowly, it’s probably around 50 through the winter, 55 in the spring and summer, and I set the AC for the low 60’s in the summer (last summer it didn’t turn on once).

All of which makes me wonder, on the few occasions I’ve had baked wines, what the hell does someone have to do to bake a wine?

20

Sorry, this only shows that Sierra Carche isn’t changed by these different storage conditions. Other wines are, see my post upstream.