The Shipping News

Of course, only in legal US states . . . and legal countries for shipping. . . . .

How hot does the temperature have to be before the whisky can be affected?

@broadwayblue

That's a good question. It would be good to see some studies done on bottled spirits. I know that wine shipped in the heat can affect the flavour, though I had some shipped a few years ago and most of it seemed ok.

In my (unprofessional) opinion, anything over 99 degrees is dangerous for corks, and even the spirit inside. If you order in the dog days of summer, have the store hold your order until the weather cools down a bit.

And you would be surprised how easy it is for a hot summer day in a metal box of a semi truck trailer to exceed 100 degrees.

I'd be curious to learn more about this. I would hope your 99 degree cutoff is a fairly arbitrary number. Heck, if I don't have the air conditioning on in my place it can get pretty close to that. I would agree that a box truck could likely get well above 100, but would love to know when the spirits start to be affected.

@broadwayblue

I'm thinking that at 99 degrees the whisky will be destroyed. The corks would likely pop off. I've not see boiling alcohol since university or maybe high school science class, but I'm sure all you'd have is a mess.

I'd be wary of any temperatures above 40, and would try to keep things below 25 if possible.

I scoured the Internet and I can't find anything about transport temps and damage. The subject seems untouched, which is surprising. Of course, Americans are stuck in the Fahrenheit system, which is an oddity. The boiling point of water in Fahrenheit is 212 and freezing is 32. It is recommended to store red wine between 50-65 and white between 45-50.

Obviously whisky and whiskey are much hardier liquids . . . but still. Transport can be risky. I take back my 99 degree comment. I was thinking more about long term storage by default. I think for transport, over a short period, dangerous temps would be much higher, but I'm not sure the range of the dangerous temps. All I know is that I had a bottle go bad during the heat spell. Also, I think the taste of the whisky was affected. It still smells quite nice, but it tastes ruined and the complexity is practically nil. In addition, the head of the corn separated cleanly from the cylindrical part that goes down into the neck of the bottle. The separation was very clean without any breaking. It simply came apart.

I think that history has borne out that non-humid cool cellars are ideal places in which to store whisky. Dunnage warehouses mimic a cellar since they typically have stone walls, etc.

At any rate, I'm really driving in the dark here without headlights when it comes to whisky transport. I don't have the info. That's why I started this discussion. Places that sell wine do recommend waiting until heat spells are over and also not to transport during sub freezing temps. But, as I've said, wine is a different animal from whisky--far less hardy.

It is much more difficult for our government to sensationalize global warming with temperature measured in Celsius. We'd have to move to Kelvin. Another 311 degree day in Houston!

@Nozinan, Looks like I was confusing C with F. I was assuming he meant 99 degrees Fahrenheit. That's quite warm, but I didn't think that would approach the temps needed to seriously damage whisky. Wine is another story.

@Cunundrum, Yeah, I've tried researching this issue before but there is surprisingly little written about the topic that is more than conjecture. I found it odd as well.