On Apr 3, 2:19*pm, cwdjrxyz > wrote:
> 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.

Yes, beyond retail there are of course concerns both re transport, and
at wholesale level. About 7-8 years ago Chateaux and Estates (this
might have been when Diageo bought from Seagrams) put a bunch of Bdx
(mostly 96-98) on market at fairly low prices. I bought a few bottles
of various things from NJ retailers before an ITB acquaintance said
that some stock had been stored in large warehouses- temp controlled
so things didn't actually cook/push corks, but maybe in upper 70s in
summer. No evidence that was the truth, but most of those bottles
underperformed when I drank.

Re the clear bottles- I'd say about 30% of the Coronas I've ever had
were skunked.