Wine Shipment in the Summer

I recently received an email from a highly reputable and respected winery asking if I would take my quarterly allocation of a new release. I happily agreed to take a half case. A day or two later I wondered whether I should contact the winery to make sure that they dont ship the wine in this summer heat but I thought they would obviously know not to send any wine since they are located in California which as we all know has suffered recently from major heat and brush fires. Well of course you know the punchline - they shipped the wine. Worse it came Monday which means that it sat in a UPS warehouse over the weekend where temperatures here were in the 90s. I am at a loss as to how to handle this. Do I call up the winery and ask for a refund? Do I wait a year or two until if would normally be ready to drink? All suggested solutions would be welcome.

Billy, Hello and Welcome to the Forum...

If the bottles show no signs of seepage and if the corks have not been pushed even a bit out of the bottles, I would be concerned but not terrified. If they do show either or both of those traits, I would contact the winery immediately, explain what happened and insist firmly, albeit politely, that either a refund be made or new wines shipped entirely at the expense of the winery (and of course not during the midst of the heat).

If no signs of seepage or cork problems are seen, I would shoot of an email to the winery (with a copy to yourself to keep in your files). In my case what I would do is to show optimism (wine lovers are optimists most of the time) and reflect my hope that the wines were not damaged during the heat of shipping and short-term storage. I would follow that with a note to the effect that you intend to cellar the wines in good conditions until they are ready to drink but if before that the wines show seepage or after that they seem to have been cooked that you will expect a refund or replacement bottles. I would, of course, ask them to confirm by return email that they agree with you on these terms.

Do please let us know what happens in this case. And if satisaction is not obtained, do not hesitate to name the winery in question. Within the last threee days I have had two other communications about such a situation, both involving the same winery. I'd guess that your case is similar.


Best
Rogov

Rogov, ..
what about if its shipped on a 2day air shipping (not through the weekend) so the only time the wine is at risk, is that 1/2 or 3/4 day in the truck for delivery, a lot of retailers say its ok (never ground but 2dy air yes)
what do you say ? not much to be concernd or still bad
Please and Thank you
Menach

Menach, Hi......


Thanks to Charlton Heston (and other sources), most of us are familar with the first of the 10 Commandments. We should all become aware of several other commandments that were handed down at Sinai. One of those deals with shipping wine in non-cooled containers during hot weather conditions. I'm against stoning people to death for such offenses but they should be given a not-at-all gentle patch en tuchas* to atone for their sins. Hell, I won't even take wine home from a store on a day like those we've been suffering lately.

Best
Rogov

*patch en tuchas: In this case not Hebrew but Yiddish for "a good spanking"

sorry father.... i sinned ! i promise i wont do it again
hoping for the best
best...
Menach

[Jenise]

Rogov, ..
what about if its shipped on a 2day air shipping (not through the weekend) so the only time the wine is at risk, is that 1/2 or 3/4 day in the truck for delivery, a lot of retailers say its ok (never ground but 2dy air yes)
what do you say ? not much to be concernd or still bad
Please and Thank you
Menach

I am not Rogov, but I cannot resist asking you if a box of wine spent only one afternoon sitting in a car whose internal temperature was 120 degrees when it was 80 degrees outside or five days, would it matter to you? Second day air stuff still has to get from warehouse to shipping facility, and from there to an airport, where it could sit on a hot tarmac for, well, too long. It's not as if 2nd day air guarantees air conditioning through the chain of custory--it simply moves faster.

I buy direct from several California wineries and not one of them would consider shipping at this time of year unless the buyer agreed to accept all risk, in large part to protect themselves from questions like Billy's. Billy, would you mind sharing which winery showed such poor judgement?

I buy direct from several California wineries and not one of them would consider shipping at this time of year unless the buyer agreed to accept all risk, in large part to protect themselves from questions like Billy's. Billy, would you mind sharing which winery showed such poor judgement?

I think that the winery in question should be given the benefit of the doubt; i.e., I will optimistically hope that they will remedy the situation and take note of their error and promise never ever to do it again.

If not, they are fair game.

Hell, I won't even take wine home from a store on a day like those we've been suffering lately.

I was like this also (maybe even more so) back in my Second Temple period antiquities/artifacts collecting days in taking items home/transporting them, however more for the sake of security, but today this afternoon and as a regular practice with wines I don't carry them by foot for even a few blocks from the store to my home (from Emeq Refayim to Baqa) during the summer. Instead, I wait for air conditioned transportation…

- E.Y.

[Jenise]

I buy direct from several California wineries and not one of them would consider shipping at this time of year unless the buyer agreed to accept all risk, in large part to protect themselves from questions like Billy's. Billy, would you mind sharing which winery showed such poor judgement?

I think that the winery in question should be given the benefit of the doubt; i.e., I will optimistically hope that they will remedy the situation and take note of their error and promise never ever to do it again.

If not, they are fair game.

Billy, you are far more charitable than I. Call me a cynic but I find it much harder to imagine that some warehouseman went berserk one day and decided to send all the wine they had sitting around on an 85 degree day or target you, more specifically, all the way across the country, than to think that someone decided "hell, we need room, let's get this stuff out of here." Of course, you'll know by the answer you receive from the winery: please share when you get that.

Well, I received an answer this afternoon to the emails I sent. They said that they stand behind their wines and would be happy to replace them in the future if there was any issue. The only surprise was when they said:
"You did not indicate on your order that you wished to have the wines held, so they were shipped. You did not indicate a preference for nor upgrade the shipment to 2-day air, though we recommended this in the allocation offering, so the wine went via UPS ground. I don't think you will have anything to worry about, however, as we ship many thousands of bottles of wine around the country all year long with very little incidence of damage. Based on the UPS tracking of the shipment, it only took three days to get to you, so I would say, based on past practice, that your wines are fine. Again, if you find that not to be the case, we will replace the wine for you."
I think I will call them tomorrow and suggest that, at least for their summer/late fall allocations, they should consider holding them as a matter of course until the weather nationally is more accomodating.
Any other suggestions from the Forum would be appreciated.

Well, I received an answer this afternoon to the emails I sent. They said that they stand behind their wines and would be happy to replace them in the future if there was any issue. The only surprise was when they said:
"You did not indicate on your order that you wished to have the wines held, so they were shipped. You did not indicate a preference for nor upgrade the shipment to 2-day air, though we recommended this in the allocation offering, so the wine went via UPS ground. I don't think you will have anything to worry about, however, as we ship many thousands of bottles of wine around the country all year long with very little incidence of damage. Based on the UPS tracking of the shipment, it only took three days to get to you, so I would say, based on past practice, that your wines are fine. Again, if you find that not to be the case, we will replace the wine for you."
I think I will call them tomorrow and suggest that, at least for their summer/late fall allocations, they should consider holding them as a matter of course until the weather nationally is more accomodating.
Any other suggestions from the Forum would be appreciated.

Billy - What did you think of the price and allocation system?

Billy - What did you think of the price and allocation system?

The allocation system is pretty good, I could have ordered up to 12 bottles initially. At $75 a pop however I only ordered a half case and that was still a bit steep even though the wines have a great reputation and usually do not disappoint. I do have a sense that although the offerings have been really good especially consuidering that they are "mevushal" (am I giving it away?) the pricing comes across a bit too much like Hollywood nouveau.

I am not sure how they arrive at their allocation per club member - I cant say that I have been a club member for eons or ordered a truckload of wines from them. As pointed out in another Topic I suspect that I currently buy more that I will reasonably be able to drink over the remainder of my life but I still cannot resist buying something that may not be readily available so that I can later surprise/please gatherings of friends and family.

I have a few, .. well little more then a few btls of wine waiting for shipping in various places across the US but most are in the eastern half of the US, yes we are in September but still here in NY by day the high gets to 70-75 degrees F and by night around 60, the Holidays are a 2 weeks away and ....
do you think its okkei for now to ship ? or still too hot and better wait.
i do also have wines for storage so .... wanted to hear your suggestions,
Please and thank you very much
-Menach

An interesting thread. What I heard from a local salesman is that GHW is the only winery that has refrigerated shipping trucks.

Makes one wonder if it's true...

Lior.

Menach, Hi....

For local deliveries (say within 150 miles of where you live), if they promise 24 hour delivery, no problem. For deliveries of more than that, only if they promise refrigerated shipping from point of shipment to local transporter and then a promise of 12-24 hours delivery after that. For cross-continental deliveries, best to hold another two-three weeks.

Best
Rogov

What I heard from a local salesman is that GHW is the only winery that has refrigerated shipping trucks.Makes one wonder if it's true...

A very good question.....one that needs a bit further research on my part but is well worthwhile. Possibly true in some cases but certainly not in all. I have already double-checked by phone and already know that Carmel and Tabor have refrigerated shipping units. Am waiting for call-backs from several other wineries.... I shall continue reporting back as information comes in.


Best
Rogov

Allah vey haTelephone Achbar......*

Already received one callback. Barkan uses refrigerated vehicles for shipment of all but their lower series wines.


*God and the telephone are great.

Good news and good journalism on your side

Thanks!
Lior.

Another callback...... Recanati ships using only refrigerated trucks.

Another callback.... Dalton does not use refrigerated trucks but when shipping from the Upper Galilee to warehouses around the country the wines are loaded into semi-trailers and shipped before five a.m. and arrive at their destinations in about two hours. The wines are loaded chilled from the storage facility at the winery and arrive still cool.

Yet another callback ..... The wines of Binyamina, like Recanati, are shipped entirely by Skaked Brothers and all of their trucks are refrigerated, wines arriving in Tel Aviv and other distribution points at no more than 15 degrees Celsius.

An interesting question that arises from this one......how do importers ship? That will be for a series of phone calls on another day.

Best
Rogov

Menach, Hi....

For local deliveries (say within 150 miles of where you live), if they promise 24 hour delivery, no problem. For deliveries of more than that, only if they promise refrigerated shipping from point of shipment to local transporter and then a promise of 12-24 hours delivery after that. For cross-continental deliveries, best to hold another two-three weeks.

Best
Rogov

Hi
Thaks again, looking at the foarcast of next week the highs will be 67-69 (day) and lows of 50-58 (night), and are some wines i would want for the holidays, so going for the delivery this week and hoping for the best, all shipping are anywhere from 1-3 days and the furthiest is Chicago, so...
anyway .. Ciao for now . looking fwd to get all'of'em
Salutoni
Menach