Bottle shock/ bottle sickness

Interesting! I found this:

http://www.winespectator.com/drvinny/show/id/44883

Was it a french wine? Did they taste the same wine lot before transporting the wine? If it was an older unfiltered wine, transportation can disturb the settlement.

BTW the Movie "Bottle Shock" is a 2008 dramatic interpretation of the 1976 blind tasting where a California wine embarrassed the french wines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgment_of_Paris_(wine)

French judges carried out two blind tasting comparisons: one of
top-quality Chardonnays and another of red wines (Bordeaux wines from
France and Cabernet Sauvignon wines from California). A Californian
wine rated best in each category, which caused surprise as France was
generally regarded as being the foremost producer of the world's best
wines.

Edgar, that was where I first learned about it! The movie suggestion popped up on Netflix. I usually don't like to advertise that I get my information from movies but.....sometimes, I get my information from movies.

But I had never brought wine home from overseas before I saw the movie so I have never experienced the phenomenom. So I am curious to hear if others have brought back wine that was not as good as they remembered.

After we buy wine and travel home with it - in the trunk of our car or in a plane ... we lay down the wine for probably three to four to allow the bottle shock to dissipate. My husband is wine judge and we have learned over the years to be patient :(

Donna---3-4 days? Months? Years?

Kermit Lynch, Berkeley wine merchant and importer, didn't sell imported European wines until it rested several months after shipping. Back in the 70s wine was shipped by ocean vessels (ships) in containers that were not refrigerated. Kermit believed that the motion and lack of climate control stressed the wine. I understand that Kermit now advocates shipping in refrigerated containers.

I have no idea if the following is another case of alternative facts or good science:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bottle-shock-just-movie-stephen-reiss-ph-d-c-w-e-

I once conducted an experiment to ascertain the veracity of bottle
shock. Aspen, Colorado, which was my home for 30 years, has a large
annual wine event....

I contacted winemakers I knew would be at the event and had them
overnight bottles of wine to me, in styrofoam shippers, months in
advance. Once the show was getting set up I had the same winemakers
grab a bottle each of the wines they would be showing. These wines
came from their distributors in Denver and had just made the four
(hour) drive in the summer.

We tasted the wines blind. Across the board the wines that had been
sitting still in ideal conditions in my house for several months, beat
out the just transported wines.

...Sounds very complicated. ..... It is !! But that is what makes it so much fun and interesting. Love it in blind tastings when box wines beat bottle wines.

My input would be that it is a concern for the very high end, very old wines, usually reds, where movement and temperature disturb the sediments and re-introduce some flavor components back to the wine. Another concern if you expose wine to high temperatures.

It can be a big concern if you stick cases of wine in a shipping container, haul it across on the deck of a ship, or ship it home from Europe where you know not the conditions of travel.

For the most part, buying a few bottles and sending them home in your luggage with minimal handling and likely not extreme high temperatures, is not much more different than buying a bottle from the local store. This is especially true of the types of wine and vintages I, you, or anybody on this forum would buy.

It is worth mentioning that in the movie "Bottle Shock" the issue with the wine did not occur with transporting the wine to France, but in the production process through an Oxygen Reduction reaction in white wine that caused the wine to turn brownish, which resolved itself with time. That is not an issue you would encounter with buying and bringing wine home.

As for being disappointed with the wine at home, I can only relate an example I have noticed with other travelers and myself, I can have a Red Stripe beer on the beach in Jamaica, laying in the sun, and it tastes GREAT!!!. Buy a six pack in the states...meh. Same with that beer at Oktoberfest, a wine at the little restaurant in France, basically the atmosphere can make the experience.

I agree with the poster above who said that atmosphere makes the drinks taste better. The only thing I've ever brought home with me that tasted almost as good as it did in its original country was coffee from Costa Rica.

Having said that, I buy wine in Italy and have been told by several people there to let any wine that travels to rest for two weeks after you unpack it before opening it to drink.

I don't know a lot but I've been told in more than one wine class to let that wine rest. I've only sent home one case from Italy but we have enjoyed every bottle we have opened so far. I plan on sending more home on the next trip. Maybe I'll watch the movie.

I hope the Canadian statute of limitations for smuggling has expired for us, as we managed to squeeze 12 bottles of French red and white wine into our checked luggage in the Fall of 2006. We didn't let it settle for any particular length of time, and no issues with it upon drinking.

... atmosphere makes the drinks taste better.

Another and perhaps more important factor influencing wine tasting than "atmosphere" is food pairings. Some foods enhance the wine and others distract. Do an internet/google search on "wine pairing that affect taste" and you will find more thoughts beyond the classic red vs white paired with beef vs fish. I solve the pairing dilemma by replacing the decision with an ale vs pilsner choice.

And I will add that what is even more important than "atmosphere" are the friends and companions that you share the drink with.

Edgar, I remember reading an interview with Baron Phillipe de Rothschild, owner of some of the most famous vineyards and labels in Bordeaux. He was asked about the best bottle of wine he'd ever had. He said something like " it was a carafe of house white on a hotel balcony on an Italian lake, shared with a beautiful woman. I was a young man and in love."

I buy wine in Italy and have been told by several people there to let any wine that travels to rest for two weeks after you unpack it before opening it to drink.

That sounds reasonable and in line with what I read when I researched the matter years ago. But when we bring wine home from France, we don't plan to drink it right away anyway. It's usually months and sometimes years that it sits in my cellar.

Oh sorry 3-4 weeks. That's what I get for replying to this rather then working while at work :)

A lot of supermarket wine purchased in the States is allowed to "rest" for a day before it is consumed. Supermarket wine is often shelved vertical so that if the wine is not filtered the solids settle to the bottom of the bottle. Then the bottle is carefully transported home in an air conditioned vehicle, a stored upright to settle out any solids stirred up from the car ride home before being uncorked for the evening meal.

Of course, if the wine is being transported again to a dinner out with friends, filtered wine avoids disturbing solids that settle out.

A lot of supermarket wine purchased in the States is allowed to "rest" for a day before it is consumed.

A lot of supermarket wine purchased in the States was probably manufactured a day before it is consumed.

There are good wines produced in the US, and a lot of them are available at grocery stores.

I picked out a handful of producers for my French girlfriend when I visited her in Miami. We went out every night and didn't really get a chance to drink them. After I went home she told me she and a handful of her French friends, who own condos in South Beach, tried them and were surprised how good they were (none were more than $15 a bottle).

That said, there's also a lot of really bad wine produced in the US. I only like to drink red wines. If you want to experiment, the best bets (for reds) are Napa or Central Coast California and Columbia Valley Washington/Oregon.