We've written before about the importance of keeping your wine away from heat and temperature fluctuations, so it shocked us to learn that only around one quarter of wine imported to Australia arrives in refrigerated containers.
We had looked into the numbers after seeing labels of other importers that prominently declared that their wine was transported in refrigerated containers. It made us wonder why they bothered to write it; a bit like declaring a bottle of milk to be gluten free. Surely that's how all wine was transported from other countries? It hadn't occurred to us that anyone would dream of risking the quality of their vinous cargo by putting it in a metal box for a weeks or months long journey, including an equator crossing for anything from the old world or North America.
But it turns out, the significantly higher cost of those containers, and a highly competitive pricing environment means that it is more likely than not that a random international bottle on the shelf of your local wine retailer will have had a perilous (and hot) journey here.
Temperatures in regular containers can easily spike above 40 degrees during sea and land journeys, which even for short durations can cause serious damage to wine. It can lead to browning, raised corks, cooked fruit flavours, and a general decrease in primary aromas and flavours, among other impacts on quality.
Travelling in these containers doesn't guarantee the wine will be ruined: cartons in the very centre of the container, and containers at the very centre of the stack, or below the deck (but not near the boiler), will probably survive the sea journey relatively unscathed due to the insulation provided by other cartons and containers. But it's a real game of Russian roulette that we have no interest in playing.
Rest assured, at Vino Cammino, the typical journey for our wine is to be in a temperature controlled environment all the way from the cellar door to our subterranean warehouse in Sydney. The only exceptions are for some of the short road journeys from our producers to temperature controlled staging warehouses in Europe and from port Botany to our warehouse, but only when forecasts are for moderate temperatures between 10-25 degrees. We make those exceptions not just for cost, but also to decrease the carbon emissions from running the refrigerated containers.
You can buy our selection with peace of mind that the wine you enjoy will be as the winemaker intended.