Storing bottled wine in your 4wd

Personally I do not drink wine (love my cuppa tea) but you may want to get another fridge and set it up on a higher temp.

Just an idea.

Phil

Duncan,

This is a very serious problem mate!

I carry my supply of red wine in one or two 6 pack wine cartons and pack around it with clothing etc.
Now because your heading up North where it's hot, you will need to chill your red down a bit before you drink it so one bottle of the white stuff will have to remain outside the fridge to make room for a red.
Seriously, I chill my red down in hot weather.

A bit of shaking does not seem to affect the quality of taste in my experience.

I have one saving grace. (depending on how you look at it)
My wife likes a drop of red as well as the white stuff.


Bill.

Duncan,
If you have ice to burn just place the bottle in the ice, if not drop some ice in the glass. Other than that rum and bore water is the go.

Saw a wine tasting in Cairns many years and the sales rep had it on ice, one wine buff spat about the ice, the rep replied " I don't believe 35 degrees C is the ideal room temp for wine.

Have a good one

Hey there Duncan,

Used to work in the wine industry [NZ] way back in its fledgling days.
Most of the reds were imported from France and strict storage procedures had to be adhered to [temp, light and vibrations etc].
It was the realm of snobs and us mere mortals had to stick to Lion Brown...hahaha.

Mind you, the industry had its perks. Long weekend, load the ol' series 1 Landy and head bush, heaps of reds rattling around in the back.
Rabbit stew in the camp oven, a few glugs of Chataux Rothchilds 63 tossed in for flavour, a nice Sautern or Equem for afters.
Some of the wines would have made Penfolds Grange the type of plonk you buy in a brown paper bag and head to the nearest park bench....lol.

I cringe these days when I see some of the wines I took for granted being auctioned for ten's of thousands per bottle. The folly of youth I suppose !

Sorry mate, I do tend to ramble. Now to address your question.
We used to toss the wines anywhere they could fit but, the beer, we used to wrap in wet newspapers and individualy place in plastic bags, then wrap in blankets or roll up in sleeping bags.
I'll admit though, over there 25 degrees was considered a heatwave and the Landy suspension was worse than any corrugations Ive encounted over here but the beer used to survive ok [if left to settle].....hahaha.

Cheers......Lionel.

We pack them on their side in a plastic box, with a layer of tea-towel between each bottle. Just make sure the box is packed tight - old bottles go back where they came from, and put other things in too to keep it packed tight. Have it firmly packed into the car so that the box can't jump around at all. - Have carted probably into the hundreds of bottles that way now, over many tens of thousands of kms of every sort of outback road, with no problems what so ever. As for temp - we haven't had any trouble even in the height of summer, - but we might have so much stuff in the vehicle that it helps insulate! Otherwise we just chill it in the fridge/esky for a while before drinking.

Which is why man invented this............

Why not leave the wine at home and enjoy a good cup of tea instead. At least you might have something to look forward to upon returning home. Try it !

You can also pack your wine in old thick socks and if you need to keep them cool, just keep the socks damp. You could use river / creek water for this and not need to use drinking water.
It also stops the bottles from rattling.
Probably a good idea to wash thw socks first!!

Pack it in with your clothes and it won't break. Ours always travels in the vehicle somewhere. I agree with the other lovers of red. Chill it a bit before you open it and keep a bit of ice around it's while open. Red should be enjoyed cool, not at 30 degrees. Enjoy the trip.

I usually pack bottles standing up in one of those cardboard wine boxes with strong reinforcing between each bottle. I return the empties to the box.

Leaving the wine in the car in 45 degree heat will stew it pretty quickly. Temps in the car of course will get much higher.

Provided you have avoided the above, when its time to drink your wine chill it in the Engel for a while to bring it down to about 18 degrees. If its an aged wine, the sediment will be well and truly suspended in the wine. The only solution is to filter it into a decanter or another bottle before drinking.

There is no substitute for a good red around the fire when camping. There are no drinkable reds in the cask format. Cup of tea instead? No thanks.

Duncan,
Here's an idea that works.
It's a bit bulky but if you want room temp reds................

Cut some 100mm pvc storm pipe into 6 lengths slightly longer than your bottle is tall, arrange them 3,2,1 and bind them together with robust cable ties (zipties).
Lay them down on a sheet of plastic so that one open end is on top.

Wrap 6 empty wine bottles in gladwrap(clingwrap) and insert into the 6 openings.

Centralise each bottle in the tubes and fill the tubes with spray foam.

Allow it to firm up and then replace the empties with full ones.

The result is a compact, well... sort of, insulated wine storage rack.

Disco.

We usually carry a few dozen when we go away. Equates to a couple of glasses each per night. We leave them in the original boxes. Put the empty back in the box so it always full. They don't rattle around and it cuts down on rubbish in the bin. We have done this across Simpson a few times, CSR and a lot of other rough tracks and have never broken a bottle. I would still leave the expensive stuff at home as the vibrations and heat don't really help. We have a camper on the back and it is often 10 -15 degrees cooler so we don't really have a big heat problem. In reality heat and light tends to increase the oxidation rate and for a few weeks I don't think you will have a big issue. Local wines are often stored in warehouses around the place after they leave the winery and a great number of these are not cooled. I would still keep it as cool as possible and definitely out of the sun.

Steve

Try www.wolfblass.com.au they have just released a red in a Plastic bottle. Its from their Green label range and is showing what a good corporate eco friendly citizen they are claiming they reduce greenhouse gases etc. Havent tasted as yet, but great idea for the off roader

I gave up carrying bottles of wine when travelling ..... too much trouble.

But I have been known to pick up a bottle at the last pub before striking camp!

Now beer in cans in the bottom of the fridge is another thing altogether.

A few weeks shouldn't matter if you pack it cold, keep it well insulated (temp differential is a killer), and cool it before drinking. But if you want to know how quickly it can go off (possibly even in a month), have a look here: http://www.wineperspective.com/STORAGE%20TEMPERATURE%20&%20AGING.htm

Duncan , we have been on the road for over twelve months now and as we like good wine we use our 80lt car fridge as our wine storage takes 2dozen wines in their boxes with room for some scotch as well, fits neatly in the baskets of the fridge,leaving in their boxes they travel well even through corrigations and over rough ground
If the outside temp is high we just lower the temp in fridge to about 5 round lunchtime and alls good when we stop for the night.
We dont put the empties back just replace an empty boxes as we need to(fortnightly)
life is toooo short to drink bad wine or to go with out

regards kim and doug

Where there's a will there's a way..

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Just get yourself down to a BWS store where they been giving out the best soft packs for wines , you only need to buy 4 Botts of Wolf Blass wines ..or chat the staff up and if they have a spare one ...well they may even give it to you idf you ask nicelly ...a please will do !!

Has anyone else got these "

Hi Dunc. I fully appreciate your problem. I like my red wine too.
There are a couple of members of this forum who have been to my home and could attest to the temp controlled wine cellar I have. Guys, if you see this, just don't post the address!!!

When we started to do long term travel, it was a real challenge. At home, I was drinking 10 to 12 year old wine daily. On the road, you are limited by space, weight, fragility and temp control. I eventually had to bite the bullet and try some casks for the first time for many (like 20) years.

We are now in our van full time, with the house rented out. Wine is still in the locked cellar at the house. What I now do, is whenever we are near the house (only happened twice in past 18 months and won't again till Christmas this year), I raid the cellar for as much as I can carry - about 2 dozen. I wrap each bottle in several sheets of butchers paper and pack them in a large plastic bin. I carry the bin well back in the 'through boot' of the van, where there is no direct sun impact, only ambient temp.

These days, most of my wine consumption is from casks. After lots of testing, I've found a couple that are passable - after all, I have little choice. My favourite is a Hardy's Reserve Cab Sav in a 3 Litre Cask (Maroon colour). The Merlot isn't bad either when you want something softer. I recently tried a Renmano Premium Cab Sav in a 4 Litre cask which was pretty good too. Unfortunately my wife tossed the empty cask before I recorded the full details. There are an increasing number of places in remote areas where the largest wine cask sold is 2 Litre due to alcohol control regs, so you have to work around that too.

I keep the bottles for 'special occasions' and milestones. I have no qualms with putting red wine in the fridge or adding a bit of ice to cool it. At home, the cellar is 15 degrees C and I'm used to my wine at that temp. A bit hard to find 'room temp' like that in our favourite travel places.

Not ideal storage for bottles, but they never last more than 4 months or so before consumption and I have never had one go 'off'.

All I can suggest is that you do the best you can, then 'get over it' and give some casks a go. It only hurts for a while. The wine glut might be hurting the producers, but it is pushing some passable wines into casks as well.

Hope you work it out.

Norm C