If You Can’t Stand the Heat, Get out of the Packie

We received a phone call from our neighbor. “There is a package for you down stairs”. We couldn’t figure out what it could be because neither one of us had ordered anything. It turned out to be a shipment from a wine club…in mid summer??? What are they thinking?

Later that evening, we decided to take a walk. We were strolling by the local packie and decided to see if we could find something suitable for next week’s Wine Blog Wednesday. We walked into the store and much to our disappointment, it was just as hot inside as it was outside.

Both of these practices are perilous to wine. Shipping wine by common carrier in the middle of summer is asinine. Having an inventory of four thousand wines and not running the air conditioner because of some foolish sense of economy is jut plain backward thinking.

Tip of the day. Stop by the places where you buy wine on a hot summer day. If the climate is not controlled properly, stop buying wine there. Period. No reputable wine merchant will sell spoiled wine.

Read more about how to tell if your wine has been cooked.

9 Aug 08
Post Script. We decided to bake a pizza last night and opened a bottle of the wine shipped to us last week from one of our clubs. What we are experienced was that the wine had an okay nose, but tastes rather flawed. What we get is a week fruit behind the tannins, the oak is there but then the finish dies off leaving a bitter center palate. Yup, it’s cooked.

A Wine Treasure in New Hampshire

We have been up to the Ceres Street Wine Merchants a couple of times. Ceres Street Wine Merchants is 80% wine shop, 20% curio shop and is really quite unique. Ceres Street Wine Merchants is New Hampshire's oldest and largest private wine shop and features wines from around the world. They also have wine antiques, glassware and other related stuff.


On a recent visit, we had an opportunity to stop and chat with David Campbell, the proprietor. David is filling a niche in New Hampshire where the market is dominated by large state run liquor stores offering nationally distributed brands. What you will find at Ceres Street Wine Merchants is a collection of around 1000 wines that David has hand-picked according to his standards. He is looking for wines that are "true to their roots (pun intended)." When he samples a wine, he is looking for qualities that let him know where this wine came from. One of David's motto's is "Life's to short to drink cheap wine."

Ceres St. carries wines ranging from around $12.00 up to a couple of hundred dollars. David also handles many rare and valuable wines for clients of his consulting business. A display of 'empties' gracing a side shelf is a veritable pantheon of mythical wines. Among his collection are several Mouton-Rothschild vintages including 1945, and 1982, and a huge Screaming Eagle 1992 bottle (I believe it was an Imperial bottle--that's 6 litres). We purchased a 2003 Barbaresco, two Viogniers (one from Argentina, one from France), and a Rhone Valley Rosé. We will be reviewing these wines in the near future.

The shop is located at 65 Ceres St., in Portsmouth; New Hampshire's historic waterfront near the famous tugboats. So when you are in the area, be sure to stop in and say hello.

Buying Wine in Hot Climates

We have been in Sint Maarten for the last week. Our first night, we had a nice bottle of Cotes du Rhone at a restaurant that we were over-charged for but that was enjoyable. Being on a half French island, we thought we would have great wine to go with the great cheese and baguettes. This was not the case. Three of the four bottles of wine we tasted were hollow and most likely cooked. We decided to stick to beer. I had a really nice Belgian beer at the Sugar Cane Café in Cupecoy.



Buying wine in a strange place can be challenging, especially if it is in a warm climate. We bought wine from a super market, a restaurant, and a deli. In each location, we checked out the environment and found that the wine on display was air conditioned. The deli had an air conditioner in a little grotto with the wine. The supermarket wine was at an acceptable temperature.

Only the wine at the restaurant was really drinkable to our satisfaction. Our speculation is that the merchants are trying to treat their wine correctly, however what happens to the wine in shipment is most likely uncontrolled. How can one keep the wine fresh when it is probably handled many times a hot environment by people that really do not understand how perishable the product is? It may have been sitting on the dock or in the back of a lorry.

My advice is to find a wine that you know and try that first to see how if fairs. Is it fresh or is it hollow? The bad wine we had seemed to be lifeless, lacking structure and complexity. If your test wine passes muster, then go for something new and exciting. If it does not pass muster, perhaps you better save your money.