Wine Storage & Care Burlington VT

Heat Beating Tips for Wine in Summer

It is July, and I'm inside the notorious Washington, D.C. Beltway, which means that at least two things are happening:  Lots of wine is being consumed, and lots of wine is being mishandled and consumed in error, on account of the torrid, steamy heat.

Almost every year, Washington leads all cities in the United States in wine sales and consumption per capita.  A very lively bar and restaurant scene is coupled with relentless lobbying and countless association meetings and diplomatic receptions.  D.C. is awash in wine, and constantly so, regardless of the season.

Among its four seasons, D.C.'s summers are by far the most famous--or infamous.  The average high temperature in July is 88 degrees, which means that nearly half of the days get above 90.  The low-lying situation along the Potomac makes for swampy humidity, and when the heat and humidity get their act together, we get blasted with violent thunderstorms that cool things only momentarily before increasing the humidity and the general sense that we live in a steaming soup cauldron.

You get the picture.  Do these climatic conditions affect wine?  Absolutely, and in more ways than many consumers realize.  Last month, my WRO colleague Tina Caputo did a nice job of detailing the perils of heat upon wine that is stored in one's home.  However, heat can have a major impact on wine before you ever get it back to your dwelling, and experience also shows that one should keep the heat in mind when selecting and serving wines under hot conditions.

So, here are my top 10 tips for getting wine right in the heat, which will almost surely hit you wherever you live during the next couple of months:

Lookit:  Did They Cook It?

Lots of wine is compromised by heat before it ever gets purchased by consumers.  This happens at every point in the distribution process.  Plenty of restaurants and retail stores have less-than-optimal storage conditions, and the same is true for local distributors and some importers.  Wine that gets transported in un-refrigerated containers can get cooked along the way, and even wine that was conscientiously shipped can be harmed by being left for a couple of hours on a hot loading dock.

In many cases, heat damage can't be detected by visual inspection.  However, sometimes it does show itself, and you'd be wise to get into the habit of looking at every bottle you buy--year round (since a wine you buy in January may well have been cooked during the preceding July).  Sticky seepage around the capsule is the prime sign of trouble.  In most instances, this results from the bottle getting hot.  The liquid expands much more than the glass when exposed to heat, and at a sufficiently high temperature, will be forced past the cork.

This puts a double whammy on the wine:  The blast of heat will degrade it, and then, when the wine cools and contr...