Poor storage options

[JBP]

Last Christmas, I took several cases of a 1 year old merlot/carmenere to Texas in preparation for my son's April wedding. Stored in a part of my mother's house that is neither heated nor air-conditioned unless there are visitors (there aren't). Figured I was okay for Jan - Apr. Fast forward - wedding postponed indefinitely and Texas summer has arrived. And several cases of wine sitting in what is undoubtedly a very warm part of the house. While it would be a chore for my elderly mother, I could ask her to move the wine to the area of the house she lives in (she would have to open cases and move a couple of bottles at a time) - the temps there are cooler, but not much. She likes living in a warm house. I think it is set at 80 during day/75 overnight.

Thoughts from the group? Shall I ask her to move it (gaining perhaps 10 degrees or more of "cooler" temps), tell her to give it all away and start over, or just leave it until I can get there (who knows when?). To the obvious answer, she is a white wine drinker. I have told her to open and drink the cases of sauvignon blanc I left there at the same time. And no one wants to touch the strawberry watermelon whatever that the future daughter-in-law requested (love her, just not her taste in wine).

 

[GaDawg]

Can the future daughter-in-law drink the strawberry watermelon?

 

[Ajmassa]

Might even benefit with the higher temps and they end up aging the wine at a faster rate. Could be drinking like a 3-4 yr old wine at the 2 yr mark.

 

[TonyP]

Wine will age and eventually spoil at room temperature. If I read you properly, the non-climate control area temperature is around 90F. At that temperature wine is likely to spoil in short order. As an estimate, 4 months at 90F could be equal to wine properly stored (at around 55F) for 20 years. In fact, 80F isn't all that much better.

Tell her to have a party.

BTW, if the strawberry-watermelon, or any of the wine, has some fizz, be mind full of corks popping.

 

[GaDawg]

Two things to consider. You don't want to cook your wine. Some one else will have to address time x temp.
Temp ( other than cooking temp. ) is not as important as temp. consistency. I have kept wine in the 70* just fine.

 

[JBP]

Thanks for responses. While I perhaps didn't articulate my ultimate question well, I think it is answered. There is likely little or no advantage to asking my mother to go to the effort of moving the wine to another part of the (still warm) house. While the temps were okay until early May, they will continue to rise over the coming months.

No fizz in anything, but good point to think corks. The future DIL would love to drink the strawberry watermelon, but she is 4 hours away from the wine. Mom will drink the sauv blanc. Just hate wasting all the red. But not the greatest loss in this time of COVID. The scientist in me will accept this as a poorly designed experiment - I can track the temps in her house remotely and see what it tastes like when I finally get back down there. And keep plenty aging in appropriate temps here for when the wedding does take place.

 

[Ajmassa]

With the temps set at 75° day & 80° night maybe moving them to somewhere near an air register But away from the thermostat would help maintain 75°.

stored at 75° would be a whole lot better than 90° Possibly even ideal for the wedding. Hopefully you can get there before the dog days of summer.

 

[sour_grapes]

The scientist in me will accept this as a poorly designed experiment - I can track the temps in her house remotely and see what it tastes like when I finally get back down there.

Hey, how about asking her to move ONE bottle to the fridge, and ONE bottle to the air-conditioned space. Then you can compare the three aging environments, with little work for your mother.

 

[JBP]

Nice improvement on the 'experimental design'! I like it (and can expand on it).

 

[Rice_Guy]

When I lived in Texas closed environments would occasionally get to 120F, . . ex we had fans in a Fort Worth warehouse go out and room temp stable canned dog food started gassing.

Watermelon and strawberry are not exceptionally stable flavors, this case is at risk.
red grape has good stability, it may last but will show a few years age