Wines shipped early, okay to sit at shipper for a week?

WINE TALK
#1

I live in BC, Canada, and normally have my US-purchased wines sent to a shipping agent which is located just across the border in Washington state. I drive down to pick them up from the shipping agent and then import them into Canada myself. It’s about 5 hours round-trip of driving, but I save a ton of money over buying them in Canada (if I can even find them here).

So I was coordinating to have a couple of retailers ship my wines next week, to pick them up at the shipping agent all at once. This week I asked the one retailer (who will go un-named) to ship my wines by ground shipping, next week. They somehow interpreted that request as me wanting the wines to be shipped 2-day air, this week. So they shipped on Wednesday and the wines today arrived at my shipping agent. The shipping agent stores all parcels inside their office, at room temperature. It would be extremely hard for me to get down there to pick them up tomorrow, so would they be okay to sit there for a week at room temperature?

The wines are a few 2007 Domaine Jean-Louis Chave Hermitage and 2010 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru, which were quite a financial outlay for me. I intend to keep them for long-term storage in a temperature-controlled cellar. Obviously, if sitting for a week at room temperature would ruin the chance of aging them, I would try to get there, but it would be extremely difficult. Okay to sit for a week?

#2

Assuming their offices aren’t getting above the mid 70s, it should be fine.

#3

I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If the wines are in the offices, I doubt that the offices will be much over 99 degrees F.

Besides, it’s still early in the year, so unless there’s some weird strange heat spike I wouldn’t worry at all. Even if the wines were there for several weeks. I don’t know where you got them from but I’m willing to bet that the wines weren’t kept at 55 degrees F from the time they were bottled until they arrived at your shipper’s. Don’t sweat it and just enjoy the wines when you get them! Cheers!

#4

Absolutely fine. But if you want to be really sure, for those wines I’d be willing to fly up from SF and keep an eye on them for you :wink:

#5

Your fine, the high in Seattle for the next week is 63.

#6

Thanks for the replies, I will hold off until I can get there next week.

Poor customer service from the retailer, as I notified them of their mistake as soon as I received the shipment notification. I sent them an email telling them about the error and asking them if they were able to recall the shipment. They have not responded. They charged my credit card for the higher shipping fees (2 day air, rather than the ground shipping that I requested). Should I ask for some type of credit?

#7

If yiu didn’t ask for air shopping you shouldn’t have to pay a premium for it. I’d ask for a credit. The worst that can happen is they say no.

#8

My guess, like others, is that the wine is fine. But I will say that this time of year, some office buildings have a real heard time keeping a comfortable temp. Mine for example regularly hits 80-85 on some spaces while others are at 70.
I would call if you expect anything from the retailer.
And of you really didn’t want them shipped two day, you should have called, not emailed, when you got the notification.