Does this imply there’s no damage done to a bottle of chilled sparkling/white that is taken out a fridge (~40-45F) then back to cellar?
Apologies for drift, but I’ve heard opinions on both sides…
I have done that with $60 NV Champagne but never anything vintage/older. I did not notice from one bottle to the next.
Just be glad the shipment is not Champagne instead of table wine.
I would say a definitive yes. I can think of no reason that would be a problem. I routinely drink wines that have been in the fridge, both opened and unopened, and never found any problem.
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I’m FROM WI.
If you ship fedex 2 day air, it’s not going to sit in WI, it’ll sit in Memphis or Indianapolis, in a warehouse, not on a truck; typically it’ll probably be between cellar temperature and room temp.
If you’re saying it will freeze going from the plane at 8 am until it’s delivered usually around 1-2 pm for air while in a truck, I guess it’s possible, but the temperature of the truck shouldn’t be that cold because it’s contiguous with the driver.
Ground is obviously different.
The coldest time will be the last mile (or perhaps last overnight). Watch the tracking progress. I agree it is most likely to sit overnight somewhere warmer than Wisconsin. If that is the case, The temperature you receive it at will essentially be the coldest it ever gets. Touch a bottle, see how cold it feels compared to a fridge temp (32-34 F). If it seems close to that, I would say you are fine.
I have had this happen to me before and even within one case, 3 bottles had corks pushed, one was still partially frozen (you could see the ice cube floating around with a flashlight) and no visible cork push and the other two looked fine. I assume the difference was because of relative position in the case and alcohol content. All bottles felt ice cold to the touch. All tasted flat and lifeless.
The coldest time will be the last mile (or perhaps last overnight). Watch the tracking progress. I agree it is most likely to sit overnight somewhere warmer than Wisconsin. If that is the case, The temperature you receive it at will essentially be the coldest it ever gets. Touch a bottle, see how cold it feels compared to a fridge temp (32-34 F). If it seems close to that, I would say you are fine.
I have had this happen to me before and even within one case, 3 bottles had corks pushed, one was still partially frozen (you could see the ice cube floating around with a flashlight) and no visible cork push and the other two looked fine. I assume the difference was because of relative position in the case and alcohol content. All bottles felt ice cold to the touch. All tasted flat and lifeless.
Wow, I would not accept the shipment unless they offered to also ship new bottles in the spring free of charge. As you point out, what is your recourse in 10 years when you open one and it’s bad… Too much cost associated with storage to accept that kind of risk up front.
Damn, that’s the damage from extreme cold?! Whoa…
I appreciate the feedback on this. I don’t want to put the producer/winery out of money when it was clearly a miscommunication, but at the same time, if there is even a slight risk to the bottles being compromised, I hate having to feel like I need to open one immediately just to make sure. I clearly stated up front when I ordered it is far too cold to ship until March (at the earliest) for this very reason.
It’s interesting there is differing opinions as to whether the integrity of the wine is compromised when temps get this low. Clear, visible damage (e.g. corks pushing out) should be a no brainer, but I am also concerned about Chris’ feedback on the wine being ‘lifeless’ and only being able to discover that once opened. As Brian points out, I’ll likely have zero recourse if I delay opening these for a few years (as I was planning to do) and find they are faulty.
If I am a producer looking to add people to the mailing list, I’m just a little surprised they didn’t tell me to refuse the delivery and new wine would be sent in Spring. For a premium price point, you’d expect premium service when a mistake is made. To that end, I uncovered a snafu last week with my VHR shipment and the way Bruce handled it was a Masterclass in professionalism and making things right. I expected the same thing here, but to be honest, I’ll likely be a one and done on this mailing list as a result.
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I agree with Lee. I’ve received shipments with some of the wines having corks protruding and some not. I took pictures and got credits for the obviously compromised wines. I pushed the protruding corks back in place, and never could tell the difference afterwards.
In an extreme example, several of the wine had corks pushed out entirely, with wine spilling inside the shipping container. Even those wines were drinkable, and a bit of a bonus after replacement.
Well, if you drink it ice cold, it probably will taste flat 
But seriously, there’s no scientific reason a wine that gets cold, even frozen, should be “damaged” in any way. I’ve even frozen leftover wine in it’s partially empty bottle, and had the wine taste exactly the same when defrosted and warmed up. Sometimes I’ll even microwave it to speed up the process ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Cold, unlike heat, typically doesn’t damage the wine, in my experience assuming the seal is intact.
Agree with others, I’d complain if corks were pushed, otherwise the wine is fine. Freezing doesn’t hurt it, and if very much of it freezes (it doesn’t all freeze at the same temperature), it will push the cork unless there is an abnormally large headspace.
-Al
+1000 on the wine being fine as long as the seal isn’t compromised. And similar to Anton I’ve frozen leftover wines on occasion and never had any issue with them tasting off (once they came to temp).
Why would you have wine ship in the winter?
An air shipment sits overnight in a vehicle??
My dad in Green Bay received a shipment from California on a day when the temperatures were below zero. The wine had frozen, shattering the bottles. Fortunately, the store made him whole, as they had shipped without his permission.
I had 6 bottles shipped to me last year around early Feb here in NJ when we experienced major cold weather and tons of snow - was the worst year on record in about 30 years. Anyways 2 of the 6 bottles had corks pushed up. The winery refunded me for the 2 bottles and said just keep them. They were clearly bad whereas the other 4, without corks popped, were delicious. These were 6 bottles of the same wine spread across 2 vintages so a somewhat easy comparison to make across the bottles especially of the same vintage.
Very small experience in this area but to me if the corks aren’t pushed up I am not too concerned.
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Of course Alan is correct here. I think the idea that this type of temperature change can do harm comes from the completely false story about how beer gets “skunked” (hint: it isn’t really from temperature change), which people then apply to wine, based on no facts at all.