Wine Storage - how hot is too hot?

[DerekJ]

At the moment, my wine sits in a box under the house. I bought one of them Hygrometer thingies from eBay, and had it there for the past week, starting with the 30 deg day we had in Sydney. It reads as follows:
Temperature
Min = 23 deg C
Max = 25 deg C (ambient 30 deg C)
Humidity
Min = 61% RH
Max = 69% RH
My guess is it would cool even more given the cooler temps we have had recently. The good news is the temp changes are very gradual. The bad news is the temp is too hot.

Now I know wine should be stored below 18, and ideally at 12-13. But what happens at 25? The wines have only been in there for a max 2 years. I am hoping they are not cooked, and simply had accelerated aging.

There isnt that much wine there and I plan to consume it over the year, hopefully they are OK. I plan to get some wine fridge/coolers. The cheapo made in china peltier ones. Are these good enough?

Another note, most bottle shops are not below 18 deg C. Certainly one local that stocks "fine" Australian wine (and does indeed have some good stock), at a guess the temp in there was around 26-27 on the day I walked in. They had air con, but nowhere near effective and only in one area of the shop. So some wine remained warm, others got blasts of cool air, and I am sure it is switched off at night, meaning the wine gets a great variation in temps. Some of his stock includes Grange, which I am sure he does not sell much of, so it sits on the shelf for quite a while.

Am I being anal, or does this mean my wine under the house, and much stock in many bottle shops have gone to crap?

[Gianna]

DerekJ

I am not totally convinced the warmer conditions ruin wine, as I have had some wines that have sat in a cupboard for 5 years where the temp is often as high as 30' and the wines were perfect.

However, having said that, warmer conditions are said to prematurely age the wine and at the 25' or 27' level, I reckon your wine is cooking...

[Red Bigot]

Derek,

If you are going to drink the wines under your house over the next year or so, then you should have no problems other than having to cool the reds down to 18-20C so you can drink them. They won't be cooked at 25C, but will mature a fair bit faster and some corks may weep a bit with the changes in temp. If you are intending to cellar any wines longer than 5 years you need a cooler, more stable environment.

Re wine shops, you are absolutely correct, there are some shops where I will only buy new releases that have arrived in cooler months, I don't trust there delivery/storage conditions for wines being received in hot weather and sitting in the shop for any length of time.

[Mobey]

Interesting question. Like Gianna I've had wines stored in a cupboard at 30C+ for over 10 years that turned out wonderful.

This seems to suggest that the key conditions are constant temperature (even if they are on the high side) and away from direct light.

[Craig(NZ)]

We have the same problem in NZ. On a hot summers day we can reach 12oC

I have some of my wine in temp control, some ambient

can only speak from my experience, i have noted difference in development for pinot and chardonnay mainly. Other styles havent noticed any difference

I have stored a number of wines, one wine - some bottles in temp control, some of the same wine out of temp control for about 7 years.

Perhaps id notice the difference in a say john riddoch if i waited 20+ years?

Anyway occassionally i wish a wine would develop just a little quicker!!

[707]

Derek, good idea to invest in some cool storage unit/s, it will certainly assist.

People invariably don't have sufficient space for their entire collection so be selective and prioritise the important and longest haul wnes for the coolers and store the balance of less important and drink sooner wines in the warmer passive storage areas.

My understanding of ageing in wine is that it is basically a type of chemical reaction and as with all chemical reactions, add heat to speed up the process. People in warmer climates have told me their passively stored wines are ok but look older sooner.

You're right about wine stores, they are generally in the low 20s temperature range and turn off the a/c at night so I never buy back vintages from them and make a habit of buying new releases direct from the winery or as soon as they are released to the shops and rarely in the warmer months. Most reds are released during cooler months anyway.

[mopiko]

So I was also told that a constant temperature was the most important thing.

So therefore, by that argument, and the obvious fact that at higher temperatures they will age quicker, would it be 'fine' to cellar wines at say 25 degrees, if it was somehow kept constant?

Whats the advantage of cellaring at a lower temperature?

[Red Bigot]

So I was also told that a constant temperature was the most important thing.

So therefore, by that argument, and the obvious fact that at higher temperatures they will age quicker, would it be 'fine' to cellar wines at say 25 degrees, if it was somehow kept constant?

Whats the advantage of cellaring at a lower temperature?

Other than the obvious corollary that the same wine will age slower at a lower temp? I assume cellaring periods published by wine reviewers are based on reasonably cool cellaring conditions, probably 14-15C.

I'm not aware of any definitive studies, but it's possible that slower aging at a lower temp may produce a better end result than faster aging at a higher temp. For me it's a practical matter, I like many of my reds at around 7-10 years, some a bit older, some a bit younger and that seems to work pretty well in my cellar that sits around 16C. At a higher temp the aging cycle is less predicatable as well as faster and that can cause problems if you have a largeish cellar, with some wines on the downhill slope by the time you think they would be just peaking.

[griff]

I delved into that bugger of a book (Concepts in wine chemistry). To summarize, the main changes in wine aging are phenolic oxidation and polymerization.

My understanding of this book suggests that a greater degree of long-chain polymers occur the more slowly the wine oxidizes. This difference in polymer profile is one of the reasons that fast-aging wines (putting wine in an oven) have a different flavour profile to one from a cool cellar.

The book suggests a 10 fold difference in aging between 10 and 40 degrees. This would be logarithmic though. As to the difference of 10 degrees centigrade (between 14 and 24), I'm not sure if it is apparent to the taster in all wines. Perhaps as mentioned earlier, it is only able to be picked up on wines that have peaked in their aging process. Hence, it is able to be picked up on wines that have less aging potential (chardonnay and pinot?) as opposed to wines built for the long haul.

I'm sure the book says more but I can't get my head around the chemistry this morning

cheers

Carl