The wonderful wineries of Australia and New Zealand are a must see for any tourist traveling to the Southern Hemisphere.
Most tourists will want to take a bottle or two home as a souvenir of their stay, but it can be confusing to know how to transport this precious cargo. By following these simple tips, you can guarantee that your wine will arrive home in the same condition it left the vineyard.
If you’re traveling in a hire car, the natural instinct of most drivers is to store the wine in the trunk. However, this area of the car can get very hot and cause the wine to spoil. A much better option is to keep the wine inside the car for the air conditioning to cool it.
Just as you shouldn’t store wine in the boot, you shouldn’t store wine in the sun. Wine left in a parked car will also become overheated, so once your day of wine tasting is done make sure you take your purchases into your hotel.
Ideally your wine should not roll about your vehicle. This movement can interfere with the natural aging process. If buying a small quantity of wine, ask the winemaker whether he can spare a box. This will generally have partitions inside so bottles sit securely and do not clink together. As you visit other wineries, you can then put your new purchases inside the same box. If your car isn’t full, you could even secure the box in place with a seatbelt.
While it’s tempting to toast to your return home, it’s much better to wait. Just as we suffer jet lag, wine experiences a kind of travel “bottle shock.” It will taste much better once it’s had a few days to recover.
