Wines and Temperature Thresholds, Moderate to Extreme

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Permalink Reply by Awesome on September 26, 2008 at 8:16am

As a wine distributor in one of the hottest areas in the country (AZ), on occasion sample wines will be sent to us for consideration by wineries under consideration. When this occurs, we suggest they place a baggie of chocolate chips in with the wine shipment. If the chocolate chips are melted when the wine arrives, we know that it has gotten too hot. Chocolate begins to melt down around 86 degrees F.

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Permalink Reply by Steven on September 25, 2008 at 8:40am

I think this is relevant to this discussion especially as I am seeing more businesses launching their new tabs and or packaging to measure the temperature of the wine as it travels around - does the industry really want this?

The issue is - who is going to decided exactly if a wine hs fallen out of temperature spec., where exactly did it occur and (with my usual follow the money in or out of the bank account) who is going to pay for the replacement.

It all sounds great conceptually - but does the industry really want this adoption?

I see the cases sitting out side the large grocery stores in 100 degree weather waiting to be taken in to the store - so whose responsibility is it at this point - I see more trouble being caused than resolved.

Thoughts on this?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on September 25, 2008 at 5:29pm

If I were paying big bux for a special wine, I'd be particularly concerned about the "chain of custody" between the producer and me, and monitoring built into the packaging would make sense. Not so for something I picked up at a supermarket.

Also: how sensitive (and significant) is the monitoring? 100 degree weather might not register and, in fact, might not make a difference if the wine is not "cooked" by short exposure to relatively high temperature. I've bought a lot of electronics and other fragile things over the internet, and all of it has survived the harsh treatment meted out routinely by UPS. I'm not in favor of abusing anything or anyone, but I'm not convinced that short exposure to extremes would noticeably affect wine that will be drunk shortly after purchase.

Andrew

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