I suspect the wines are perfectly fine. My experience is that it takes more than one afternoon in a hot car for wines in Styrofoam packing to warm up. (I actually tested this once with wine bottles of water, placed in my hot car, with a temperature sensor inside one of the styro sleeves, next to a bottle of water. The temp inside did not change more than 3-4 degrees over a period of about 5 hours in the sun.
The only thing you say that concerns me is that the corks are pushed up. If they are, in fact, pushed out of the bottle (through the foil), then I would be very worried, although in that case I would expect that youâd have wine seeping out of the bottles as wellâŚBut if you are just saying the corks arenât 100% flush with the glass, and are a few millimetres âupâ from flush, that is not very rare to see in perfectly well-stored wines.
As per the prior post, I would probably just taste one of the bottles with the pushed up corks and see what you get (and whether, when you remove the cork, you see any signs of seepage).
You asked that it be shipped when the weather was cool and were told no because it would be shipped temp controlled. It wasnât, at least that last leg, and the bottles (some of them) were showing signs of the heat. The first fact to me is the most important. Iâd ask to return them
Tyler, I wouldnât be thrilled about what happened. If the retailer said âit will be shipped in a temperature controlled vehicleâ I would expect it to be delivered from the retailer to me in a temperature controlled vehicle. The fact that it was UPS at the last leg, means that it wasnât what the retailer said.
Iâve always insisted on shipping when I feel comfortable, and if the retailer insists shipping during a time where I felt it was too warm (regardless if itâs on their end or mine), I would probably not make the purchase. In my experience, most retailers would hold for a reasonable time period.
Maybe ask the retailer if you set them aside for 3-6 weeks as he suggested, and then popped a bottle and it tasted heat damaged, could you return all the wine?
What is this part about? All of my wine for over 10 years comes from shipping retailers, I have never heard of one who declined to ship when both parties felt the weather was suitable. Why would they even want to store and be liable for your purchase any longer than necessary?
Thatâs ridiculous. While the wines are possibly fine, why risk it? A material misrepresentation was made to you. You shouldnât have to accept potentially compromised wine due to a patent misrepresentation. Iâd demand a return.
Unfortunately, 2 of the cases are from a very small under the radar producer that has no more wine to replace the ones that I ordered. UGH!!
Iâm certainly not going to wait 6 weeks for the âbottle shockâ to subside. But I will give the bottle with the highest elevated cork a try in about a week.
If it is damaged, hopefully they will accept a full return!
Thanks again for the advice. Never had to deal with this before.
Make sure you take pictures of them - and perhaps ask them exactly how the wines should smell and taste. You should have âvisual proofâ of the condition of the bottles upon receipt.
Not sure where that comes from. OP said: "I ordered about 4 cases of wine from a shop a few months back and asked for them to be shipped, and they responded back with the fact that they ship temperature controlled, and that timing therefore doesnât matter.
NOT WANTING TO BE A PEST, I just said ok." [emphasis added.]
Something along these lines pissed me off a few weeks ago. Very old, reputable shop that I work with occasionally these days but have probably purchased $15-20K of wine from over the years listed some 30 year old Bordeaux; I emailed âwould you mind checking bottle condition / fillâ, and got the response âhereâs a pic:â
Trusted vendor, photo looks good, send me the wine. Hereâs what I got:
Like, dang, what the heck did I do to deserve this? Utter fail.