Lots of great questions.
First, I’m looking hard for an alternate explanation, too. It’s really possible I’m just missing something (oh yeah I put them in the oven at 350 while making cookies! forgot!) or that maybe I’ve just had a crazy run of bad luck with what I opened.
Everything was purchased at release over various years. I moved everything from one storage unit to another – three cases of wine had to sit in my garage, on the floor. Nothing had been in weird conditions at any time beforehand. The thermometer was one of those digital things you can move around, so I put it on top of the top case and read the display when I walked by. Since the temperatures were moderate, I didn’t pay close enough attention and it’s possible a few days went by before I saw the 79 (79 point something, to be fair). And the thermometer saves high temperatures – 79 point something was the highest.
None of the wines were in styrofoam, as they were coming from, and going back into, storage, so they were in the smaller lays-flat boxes. (Less protection, right?) Also, they were stored next to a plugged-in fridge, and it’s possible the compressor or condensor or whatever might have belched out some heat at some point?
I’ve had 7 wines from the three boxes – 3 of them were definitely advanced to an extent I noticed (and I’m kind of an idiot about that sort of stuff). In other words, the porty taste, the ashy finish, and a little bit of wine creeping up the cork (though not much). Additionally one of them, the Jean Edwards, was flawed, but I think it might not have been heat-damaged, just flawed, as when I opened it up the reek of cork was knee-buckling. Never had a wine atually smell like cork so much.
People seem to agree that this is unusual and that I wasn’t a total dope to treat the wines this way. Mostly I’m kicking myself, but I’ll keep tasting through and see if maybe I just got a few bad bottles in a row.
Thanks for all your responses, even the brittle ones – I would feel cheated of the full berserker experience if I didn’t get some of those.