How you can quickly “cook” your purchased wine while wine tasting
We were tasting in Calistoga this last weekend and it was 95 degrees out…hot, hot, hot! During that uncomfortable, sweaty walk from the beautifully air-conditioned wineries to the car, I saw upwards of 10 cars/limos getting packed up with just purchased wine. Most of them were adding to previous bought wine from earlier that day or even from the day before (insert cringe-worthy noise). This made me want to run and buy everyone buckets of ice for an immediate solution! Since I couldn’t do that, I was inspired to write this post…
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but going wine tasting throughout the summer, and of course into fall, is one of our favorite pastimes. With and without the kiddos! In the Bay area, temperatures during these months are an average of 80° (anywhere from 100° to 65°) and you need to make sure you are prepared to store your wine in those hot cars, limos, party buses etc.
Every time we taste, we end up buying way more wine than was initially intended…some may call it a problem, my husband calls it research 
. And of course, the more we drink, the more we buy…oops!
But, where do you store all this wine while you are driving around from winery to lunch to winery, to winery, to winery, in the heat? Research shows that if it is more than 80° outside, your car can quickly reach more than 150°, aka, your new pricey wine should not be sitting in that hot car! Your goal is to make sure the newly purchased wine doesn’t reach over 80° while you are galivanting around wine country. Once that happens, the fruit flavors begin to suffer and the acid tastes become more pronounced, meaning the wine got cooked! Your corks can also push out and/or there can be a residue on the cork as a sign of heat damage. Any of these outcomes could mean your wine is aging prematurely and ultimately may be undrinkable.
Solution:
- We ALWAYS bring enough cooler bags to store at least 15 bottles, because hey, you never know what may happen! Be sure to put ice packets in the cooler bags so they remain cool and if you have access to something like a Yeti, that is what we would recommend. Click on link above to purchase
- Bring your wine into the next winery with you. They will understand and no one will care!
- Have the winery ship it to you! You will most likely need to pay for shipping but they will package it correctly and only ship it when and if the temperature outside will not harm your wine while in transit.
Buying wine is expensive, emotional, enjoyable and can bring back memories from years prior when you pop that perfectly aged bottle. So, why would you go through all that joy of tasting and purchasing and then risk cooking your wine by leaving it in a hot trunk? Don’t do it.
Click on pics to the left to link to our YETI shop.
