Heat is a “quality alarm” for wine. Vinarius wine shops: “we use refrigerated transportation”

A heatwave can alter the organoleptic value and distort the integrity of that bottle of wine lovingly stored for a long time in the cool of the cellar. This is always true, especially in a globalized wine market where wine travels for thousands and thousands of kilometers from the cellar, before ending up in the glass. And, even more so during periods of exceptional heat, like what we are experiencing now and will continue over the next few days. Therefore, Vinarius, an association that represents 120 wine shops throughout Italy, for a total turnover of 50 million euros, has launched an appeal on the matter. “The extremely high temperatures over the past few weeks have had seriously negative effects on the quality of wines being transported. We have proposed using refrigerated vehicles, to avoid compromising the product and creating a disservice”, the president, Andrea Terraneo said, calling all the players in the wine supply chain to work together to find a solution, and solve a problem that risks, summer after summer, becoming more and more central in the Italian wine supply chain, and that is, non-refrigerated transportation of wine.
Wine merchants, restaurateurs and, therefore, consumers, risk not receiving products of the highest quality. Vinarius pointed out that the long journeys inside vehicles at the wrong temperatures, would affect the characteristics of the product. “It is a highly important topic that needs to be thoroughly discussed”, Vinarius said, because transporting wines in vehicles not designed for refrigeration means not being able to maintain an ideal temperature that does not alter the product. Therefore, it risks becoming an enormous disservice to us winemakers and towards the public. It is definitely not enough to put the wine in state-of-the-art cellars inside the wine shop, because the damage has already been done during transportation. Our association is in the position to cover the costs of this service, but we are asking wine companies, Consortiums and other players in the supply chain to unite and work together on a common solution, to protect Italian excellence and all the customers of wine shops and restaurants that deserve to enjoy a product at its highest quality”.