How Wines Are Kept Before Purchase

[Innkeeper]

Hi Redwolf, welcome to the Wine Board, and thank you for your profound post. You have touched on one of those "you really don't want to know" areas. It is the reason I would not even think about paying that much for wine. If you pay $15 and it has been damaged before you got it, you can throw it away without a great loss.

If you thought what you saw in store was bad, consider the following. Visit Napa Valley in the summertime, and I can almost guarantee that at at least one winery and probably more you will find cases of very expensive wine awaiting shipment outside in 90 degree sun.

Only a tiny percentage of imported wine comes by plane or refrigerated ship. All the rest comes in plain ole cannisters. That coming from Europe and going to the Left Coast goes through the Panama Canal. That coming from Oz and going to the East Coast goes through the Panama Canal. Every been to Panama? It's damn hot all the time.