deNegoce email re: heat stabilization

I wanted to start a new thread on this rather than clutter up the other one. I finally received a received a reply to my concerns about their shipping practice:

“Yes, we should have announced earlier, but we are monitoring the weather across the country and are confident that shipping to Texas will be fine in this weather. The wine has been stabilized and will be fine in temperatures up to the mid-90s. If you have any problems, we will stand behind the wine. I will be happy to hold remaining orders for you in the meantime.”

I’m curious to get feedback from winemakers and others more knowledgeable than I am - what sort of process would render wine stable to temps in the mid-90s. I know of fining agents that can help with temperature stabilization, but I’ve never once heard a claim like this and it seems skepticism is warranted.

I got the same email. WTF?

Erg. Will the wine not expand from the heat and pop the cork?

That is utter nonsense.

This is just so wrong.

This is extremely disappointing to hear.

I’m not pretending to know the answer. However, anyone know of actual evidence that would support or refute this assertion?

Do they just mean that they use styrofoam and ice packs so the time in transit is not sufficiently long to take the liquid temps into a danger zone? Seems like we’re speculating on what a vague term means. Maybe just ask?

It’s just like getting pasteurized! [snort.gif]

They do not. They ship in cardboard and it’s a 4 day transit through the southwestern US so icepacks are not relevant. As I understand it stabilization is a pretty specific term in winemaking, which is why I came here.

I also asked dN, but the shipment will likely be delivered before I get a response. Bert said they had “hundreds” of emails to get to and my first response took 48 hours. That should be a clue to them that shipping was a bad idea, and if this response is nonsense, that’s a worse idea.

I assume they are referring to heat/protein stability - likely bentonite fined to remove protein so that it doesn’t throw a haze at higher temperatures. But this does not render the wine immune to the other detriments of high temps. Just that it will still be clear.

After seeing what temps are doing in CA, I emailed and asked to have my cases held until the end of October. I got a reply within 30 mins stating it was no problem. Very happy with the customer service at this point.

[popcorn.gif]

I think I was partly responsible for the shipping hold until now. Looking forward to comparing my 17 with one that wasn’t cooked:

Happy I only bought 3 cases and a little annoyed I bought 3 full cases… With his experience I’d expect his operation to be pretty smooth. There’s always a little bit of a learning curve when starting a new business, but getting the product safely to the customer should be pretty straightforward.

Mid 90s outside, 110 in the truck?

dN shipping right now:

“The wine will be fine in temps to the mid-90’s” sounds like wishful thinking to me. Why the hurry by de negoce to ship when it’s been held this long? The weather will be so much more favorable for shipping in 3 or 4 weeks.

Probably just doing a wine.com system upgrade! [wink.gif]

Count your lucky stars.

TX folks did not get the same courtesy or level of service.