Do you let your wines rest for a little while after receiving them before opening? Does it make a difference for a young wine or only in wines where sediment is a concern?
I let any wine shipped to me rest for at least a week. I have other bottles I can open in the meantime. I’m sure others will disagree.
This is the old “travel shock” thing revisited, and you will get a ton of answers, likely all over the map.
Aside from stirring up sediment, there’s no real reason the wine should be adversely affected. I remember years ago reading an interview with one of the legendary UC Davis professors (can’t recall which one) who flatly said that the very idea is ridiculous, and has no scientific merit.
I stand them up for a week(or longer if necessary) to let the sediment settle as a matter of course.
TTT
I generally wait a couple of months
And yet I have experienced it, with old and delicate wine. Indeed I experienced it before I knew what it was, tasting the same wine right after I had driven with it in the car for four hours, and then again a couple of weeks later. This is anecdotal evidence, I know, but it’s my anecdotal experience and hard to get over.
I almost always let them rest. I mean, even if the science of travel shock is vague at best, why take the risk of opening a bottle and not having it show well because of one factor that I can 100% control and avoid? Most of us have many other bottles to drink so, as a matter of course, I always put them away to rest for a month or two. Could it be pointless? Perhaps, but I don’t see any point in changing.
Always for any reds with any age where there would be sediment, which comprises a large portion of my purchases. Generally, I let wines sit because I’ve got plenty of others in the cellar to drink. Whites, I’d have no problem popping out of the box.
For old reds, let’s say 20+ years, I want them to rest for a good month minimum. Shine a light through to see how clear or hazy they are. Any haze, they sit longer.
So I guess if I go to the store and buy a bottle of wine - between the drive home, and the possibility it just arrived at the store off a truck and got wheeled out to the aisle - I should let it rest a couple of months?
Saxum shipments come with a warning not to open the bottles right away with an explanation that they are shipped right after being bottled, the idea being that bottle shock exists without regard to travel shock. I did not listen once and opened the bottle immediately upon delivery, and it was a waste. A disjointed mess.
less to do with “travel shock” and more to do with stirred up fine sediment with old bottles.
My only concern with popping corks immediately after deliver is with older bottles with fine sediment. Otherwise, I have no problem shaking a corked bottle for an hour before drinking it.
What does letting a young wine sit for a week or a month theoretically do? Or, what does the travel via air, land and sea theoretically do to the wine? Again, assuming sediment is not a concern
I’ve never really heard any answers to the above questions.
1 Like
I think that nearly everyone here has a cellar or at least the early making of one, so my thought is, why not give the wine a bit of time to rest? Just open something else for the time being.
If you believe or not in travel shock doesn’t matter. In the end, letting it rest can’t hurt the wine.
Pascal’s Wine Wager?
I’m not sure about travel shock, but more inclined to be safe with older wines (sediment).
I might believe in bottle shock, but now we’re talking about new, young wines.
I’ve also gotten the letters that come with new wine shipments. I’m more inclined to believe that those producers wanted to get the wines sold and delivered as quickly as possible. Those producers are motivated to sell their wines quickly, and they want to avoid having to store or warehouse their bottled wine.
1 Like
You should probably do whatever it is that you want to do. I only mentioned what I do.
No. The wine didn’t have much sediment either right after travel or after resting.
I can see sitting a wine if there is a concern regarding sediment. As for being disturbed during shipping or in the car for 4 hours, why would that be any different from being shaken around by a vigorous decant?
That you can see.
How long would it take for sediment so fine, it’s invisible to the to naked eye, to settle from a shaken state to a completely settled state?