On Apr 3, 9:43*am, DaleW > wrote:
> Four friends joined me last night for the Two Year Somewhat Poor
> Storage test. We had 4 pairs of wines (plus several others that
> weren't part of experiment I'll put in a separate post). Three of the
> pairs were my test subjects. To recap, 2 years ago several of us on
> WLDG *(including Mark Lipton) decided to do a test. The idea was to
> compare bottles we cellared with bottles that faced the equivalent of
> sitting in an average retail store. While some top shops keep store
> cool all of the time, your average neighborhood store probably doesn't
> keep store cooler than 70 or so in summer, and probably doesn't run
> the AC at night , etc.

I always wonder what has happened before the wine reaches the retail
store. Your storage conditions and those in a typical retail store may
be mild indeed compared to what has sometimes happened in the import
and distribution chain in the past, and unfortunately still likely
sometimes happens. About 20 years ago I often bought wine from a lady
who opened a retail wine and spirits store next door to her clothing
store. She was quite a wine collector, went to auctions in the US and
UK, and usually would buy a few cases of old wines at each auction.
Her husband had a wholesale spirits business. She usually would not
buy wines from one of the largest wholesalers in the state because she
said they stored wines in a warehouse through the very hot summers
with no air conditioning. She rarely would buy wine from them when
they received a shipment during cool weather. The situation with a few
importers could be even worse. She told of grand cru Burgundy arriving
in Houston at the peak of summer and sitting on the extremely hot dock
for a long time. The heat was so extreme, that the corks were forced
up and stretched the foil capsule. The importers would press the corks
and foil capsule back down, but this usually left some wrinkles at the
top of the capsules, and she showed me an example of such a bottle.

Another factor is light exposure. I know a store that is enclosed in
mostly glass. If you go in in the afternoon, everything is in the
shade. However if you shop in the morning, one end of the store is
exposed to bright sunlight, and this just happens to be where they
store sparkling wine and beer. The effect on beer in glass bottles on
display, especially clear ones, perhaps is even more extreme than that
for wine. It does not take long for a premium import beer to take on a
nasty "skunky" smell and taste.