Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/138003
END POST TYLER COLMAN Wines in Transit 122 V I N EYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | ers the freezing point of wine to about 25°F.) A Boston-based company that tracks wine shipments, eProvenance, undertook tests with ETS Laboratories in Napa and found that heating a wine to 80°F for 36 hours caused a permanent change in its flavor components. As the temperature increased, the wine in such a sauna became irrevocably altered even more quickly. At 86°F, the wine withered in just 18 hours. Granted, these results support eProvenance's business interest, but I don't think the findings are farfetched. Through monitoring transmitters placed in containers and cases, eProvenance has collected more than 1 million data points on more than 5,000 wine shipments around the world. Its data show that a staggering 15% of global wine shipments reach 86°F in transit. Some routes are worse than others: Wine shipments to China reached that threshold for nearly half of all shipments, and the Bordeaux-China route was the hardest hit, with 90% of the wines reaching that extreme level. While refrigerated shipping containers add more expense to a long July - Aug 2013 journey, they do offer much greater protection. But even if a shipper uses reefers, as they are known in the industry, transfer on either end of the journey to local trucks may expose the wine to heat at certain times of the year. Indeed, even if the local warehouse is climate-controlled, the local delivery trucks may not be (and some distributors preload their trucks the night before). The scale of heat-damaged wines deserves more attention and discussion. Even though logistics can be dull, vintners should keep close tabs on how their wines make it to the end consumer. If a wine is sold through a mailing list, try to ship it only in the "shoulder" seasons of spring and fall, as Garagiste does (and most wineries shipping directly do). But since distributors can be the broken link in the cold chain, make sure they treat your wines with as much care as you put into making them, all the way to the shop or restaurant. Climate change will only make this a more important issue. I hope that one day wines will receive the same kind treatment as perishable vegetables and cut flowers on their path to market. Broccoli and tulips: something for wine to aim for when it comes to shipping. (Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Vineyard & Winery Management.) on Rimmerman of Garagiste has carved out a niche, importing wines from small estates and offering them to his mailing list – mostly via e-mails sent from his smartphone while he's on the road. A recent New York Times profile noted that Rimmerman has been called the "J. Peterman of wine." But one of the most distinctive things that Rimmerman does as a virtual wine retailer is to hold all shipments, free of charge, for the cool weather of spring and fall. He recognizes the damage that heat can wreak on wine. Rimmerman's caution raises the question of what poses the greatest threat to wine quality: counterfeiting, corked, or cooked wine? Although counterfeiting looms large, it really affects only the world's most coveted wines. Further, many auction houses and retailers have tightened verifications and counterfeiters focus on the biggest and best names – so caveat emptor when buying 1921 Pétrus in magnum. Corked wine may well be a greater problem. But here, too, the issue seems to have been reduced with the rise of alternate closures and the cork industry's efforts to understand and combat TCA. That leaves as the greatest threat to post-bottling wine quality the one that is little discussed: heat damage during shipping, resulting in "cooked" wine. A wine left too long in a loading bay on a hot summer day can seem to be tired, advanced beyond its age, with muted flavors and aromatics. (The converse – damage by freezing temperatures – is rarer in wine, because the alcohol low- Tyler Colman, author of the wine blog Dr. Vino, teaches wine classes at New York University and the University of Chicago, and wrote the book "Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink." Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwmmedia.com. w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m