Wine Storage Conditions

originally posted by Yixin:
Rate of change of temperature is very different during a heatwave and shipping. Many Mosel cellars I visited remained relatively cool that summer. And this is way beyond my usual drinking pattern, but I've had much fresher bottles of e.g. 1998 Grand-Puy-Lacoste from a London cellar than from the estate (which saw the heatwave). Come to think of it, Rayas as well.
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Anecdotal of a few bottles here and there doesn't do it. I'm talking about a larger scale. There are always differences from bottle to bottle. I've had bottles of old vintages from my cellar that were fresher than the same wine served to me in the same year from the producer's (very cold) cellar in Burgundy. Similarly, I've served wines from a London storage that I know was in the upper 90º range in 2003 and no one has suspected a thing.

Grand Puy-Lacoste does bring up an interesting thought, though. Until relatively late in the 20th century, refrigerated storage was unavailable in Bordeaux and much of the wine at the ch“teaux (not in Bordeaux itself) was stored above ground in conditions that concededly were not good. Yet I do not recall seeing anyone comment on the poor state of the wines served at the ch“teaux (and my experience from when I used to visit Bordeaux also is that the wines were in very good condition).
 
originally posted by Yixin:
I've had much fresher bottles of e.g. 1998 Grand-Puy-Lacoste from a London cellar than from the estate (which saw the heatwave).
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a lot of bdx ex-cellar wine was repurchased from london in teh first place

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originally posted by Claude Kolm:
I've served wines from a London storage that I know was in the upper 90º range in 2003 and no one has suspected a thing.
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which part of the storage was in the upper 90s?

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I worried about this a lot at the time, particularly with respect to warehousing (in London) and elsewhere that relied on what used to be a cool climate, but not so much on the A/C.

I think underground cellars may have warmed up, but were unlikely to reach high temps, and were unlikely to have seen rapid moves.

I can't say I've seen generic problems. Maybe most of my wines come from producers with real caves?

By the time the cellars at Clos Rougeard warm up, we'll all have burned to a crisp and blown away.
 
Let's distinguish between heat damage from not using a reefer container when shipping wine to the tropics and potential heat damage from elevated summer temperatures. The key difference to me is the rate of change in temperature, which is much sharper in a container. There are also two distinct pathways to damage: chemical reactions of the wine itself, and physical degradation of the closure.

What I do know is that I have negative controls for all 6,000+ bottles of wine which were not shipped well, and there are 1. differences, sometimes stark, with well-handled bottles and; 2. pretty wild variation within the same case which was poorly shipped. I just had 8 bottles of the de Sousa cuvée 3A over the last weekend, and they were all different. From the good shipment, such differences within 2 years of disgorgement would be unacceptable.

I wish there was some simple answer to all this, but so far there isn't, and I'm not willing to take the risk with someone else's hard work just to save a few cents.
 
as I've implied, I'd store all wine at 10C if I could.
While I sweat fanatically over each degree over 54F, I've seen less difference between progressive natural storage and professional storage in the long run(*), than between the latter and the tundra(**).

(*) provided no shipment damage
(**) these tend to be in northern Europe, so (*) doesn't even apply
 
originally posted by SFJoe:
By the time the cellars at Clos Rougeard warm up, we'll all have burned to a crisp and blown away.
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it is too late to switch fatboy's vote for the ballon d'Or?
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by Yixin:
Rate of change of temperature is very different during a heatwave and shipping. Many Mosel cellars I visited remained relatively cool that summer. And this is way beyond my usual drinking pattern, but I've had much fresher bottles of e.g. 1998 Grand-Puy-Lacoste from a London cellar than from the estate (which saw the heatwave). Come to think of it, Rayas as well.
Click to expand...

Anecdotal of a few bottles here and there doesn't do it. I'm talking about a larger scale. There are always differences from bottle to bottle. I've had bottles of old vintages from my cellar that were fresher than the same wine served to me in the same year from the producer's (very cold) cellar in Burgundy. Similarly, I've served wines from a London storage that I know was in the upper 90º range in 2003 and no one has suspected a thing.
Click to expand...

While not on the long term scale, all of these studies have found that storage at elevated temperatures changes the aromatic character (and mouthfeel character) of a wine. I believe I was a panelist for a few of those studies.

The Combined Effects of Storage Temperature and Packaging on the Sensory, Chemical, and Physical Properties of a Cabernet Sauvignon Wine
The Combined Effects of Storage Temperature and Packaging Type on the Sensory and Chemical Properties of Chardonnay
Effect of Simulated Shipping Conditions on Sensory Attributes and Volatile Composition of Commercial White and Red Wines
 
Some of the observations in this thread would seem to indicate that it doesn't really matter whether the cellar is kept at, say, 55 degrees or 65 degrees.

I could keep mine at 45 degrees but have always elected to hold it steady at 60 degrees in the hopes that this temperature will enhance the evolvement of the wines at a pace in accordance with my age/wishes.

. . . . . . Pete
 
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