Cooked wine

[lindy]

Who knows anything about cooked wine? How long does wine have to be exposed to high temps to be ruined?

[Innkeeper]

Hi Lindy, and welcome to the Wine Board. It depends on how high the temperature is. In the low 70s F a week or two. In the California sun outside a winery, as I have seen palates full in, one afternoon.

This part of the Board is for technical questions with the Board such as how to edit a post or even make a post. Therefore I'm moving your post to the Novice thread, and hope to see you back often.

[Brom]

No, your wine will not be ruined or cooked by being kept "In the low 70s F a week or two." Not in a month either.

It is certainly preferable to keep your wine cooler than this. Storage should be at 60° or less, but if the claim of ruination in a week were true, probably over 90% of all wines sold would be unpalateable.

Wine is nopt the delicate flower some believe it to be. It will be particularly important to keep premium, ageworty wines at proper storage temperatures, but even these will not necessarily be ruined by less than perfect storage.

When I first started drinking and holding wine, for several years I lived in a third-floor walkup with a flat tar roof. Indoor temperatures over the summer probably averaged around 80°F. Wines I bought in the spring drank fine at Christmas.

[californiagirl]

Welcome to the board!

If I am reading the question correctly, we are talking about the Ca. hot sun... 80's or even 70's would be a perfect summer. But our average summer temp is 95* or hotter- we had over 20 days in a row last year over 100*. I would say that if you are at a party, or having guests over and entertaining in the heat... keep your wine cool. Wine Enthusiast as well as many wine retailers sell sleeves for wine bottles for this very purpose.

And, yes, IMHO California sun does affect wine. That would explain why a good majority of the wineries will not ship wine out during the hot spells. And if memory serves me, hotwine stated that he would not purchase wine from warehouse retailers during the summer for this very reason, (due to hot temps).

[hotwine]

CG, your memory is a lot better than mine. The log shows my last Costco purchase was in March and the last from the discounter was in early May (about a month late - those were cooked).

The cellar is getting kind of lean.... last PN was pulled for grilled Copper River salmon this evening. Will have to stretch remaining cellar stock until about October. The confounded distributors (both of them in this area) fail to refrigerate, and few of the retailers can be trusted... so the safest bet is to hold off on further purchases until cooler weather arrives.

[californiagirl]

hotwine- I will only purchase any wine this time of year from retailers made by wineries that are somewhat local to me... not alot of travel time and those that are young in age. (I mainly keep selections to Bogle, Montevina, Boeger, Villa Toscano and Renwood.) Pickin's are still good.

[wondersofwine]

On this one I hope Brom is right. I don't have a wine storage unit and usually keep the room temperature around 70. But the air condiditioning went out for 3 or 4 days starting May 6 (when temps got to 90's outdoors). So far the wines I have sampled don't seem to be cooked, but I am terrified and heartsick that some of my prize Burgundies may have been ruined before the air conditioning was repaired. Wish me luck!

[Thomas]

On the other hand, I have had wines push corks after only a few hours above 75 degrees, and wines that remained fine under the same conditions. What I am saying, unfortunately, is that what happens to a wine under the wrong temperature depends, too, on the relative stability of the wine going into the "problem." It is unfortunate because we have no way of knowing which will be more susceptible to death by cooking, but you can bet the wines that had been handled more in the cellar will be the more delicate ones.

[lindy]

Is a wine cooked when the cork starts to push out? I have about 9 nice bottles that were exposed to about 100 degree heat for about 1/2 an hour. I went and looked at them and 3 of the corks have poked out about 4 millimeters. Are these the wines in the worst shape? Other than this one fatal car ride the wines have been kept in pretty good conditions. (64 degrees and dark)

Thanks for all your responses!

[Drew]

Lindy, that or wine being forced thru or around the cork and noticable under the capsule would be an indicator that the wine might be cooked. Ultimately the flavors of stewed fruit in your wine will prove it's cooked or not.

DRew

[winoweenie]

Lindy early on I had several instances when I let wine get either too hot or freeze(an overnite stay in Elko Nevada in January) and only had one bottle out of many cases that was bad. Only thing you can do is cross your tongue aand open and try one of them suckers. WW

[Brom]

"I have had wines push corks after only a few hours above 75 degrees"

I am not disputing that this happened.

Have you any explanation why such a thing would happen?

[Thomas]

Brom, what I tried to point out is that such happenings might have to do with the relative stability or condition of the wine.

The only explanation I know is that after an individual wine reaches its maximum warm temperature it expands, and that is how the cork gets pushed. But again, each wine is an individual case. Lindy's experience proves that point. Out of 9 bottles exposed to the same 100 degrees for 1/2 hour, only 3 pushed corks. Maybe density comes into play too. Perhaps those were the 3 sweetest wines, with more viscosity!

Once the cork is pushed, oxygen gets in, and its hot oxygen in this case.



[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 06-17-2004).]