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 ‘eProvenance has collected millions of temperature data points of wine moving around the world’, said Vogt, CEO and founder of the company eProvenance, while stressing that wine stored for 26°C or above for more than 36 hours is enough to damage the wine. He also explained to an awestruck audience that his company had developed technology that monitors the temperature of wines during transit and storage, from producer to consumer.
Robert Parker agrees with him when he says and endorsed the technology developed by them when he is quoted by Voigt, ‘tragically, far too many wines are still damaged by poor transportation and storage… it is a frightening thought, but I have no doubt that a sizeable percentage between 10 and 25% of the wines sold in America have been damaged because of exposure to extremes of heat. eProvenance has a proven technology solution to help remedy this industry-wide problem.’
 Based on over 10 million observations by eProvenance, 18% to UK, 16% to Japan and a whopping 74% to China go through a temperature of over 26˚C. Based on another study of over 10 million readings, 26% of shipments from Napa, 21% of those from Bordeaux and 17% of wines from Burgundy to the world wine destinations are over the safe range during a considerable time of the journey through the ship, according to Voigt who explained the wine spoilage phenomenon as follows:
As wine is exposed to temperatures above 25 degrees Celsius (77°F) several chemical reactions are accelerated:
- Oxygen uptake (aroma oxidation)
- Sulfur dioxide decline
- Ethyl carbamate formation
- Anthocyanins decline (browning)
 Accelerated chemical reactions degrade the colour, aromas and the ageability of fine wines. A study done by eProvenance to study the number of hours it takes to permanently cause the damage to these characteristics shows that at 24˚C exposure; it takes 96 hours (4 days) for the permanent change. But if the temperature goes up to 39˚C, the permanent chemical change happens in 6 hours. (One shudders to think of the number of hours wines may spend at the port, customs warehouse, transportation and if the warehousing facilities are less than perfect, in India or any other country for that matter)..
These reactions have been measured, and all have a common characteristic:
- They proceed linearly with time
- They proceed exponentially as temperature rises, at somewhat different rates
These reactions begin to degrade color, aroma and aging ability. As Vogt said the eProvenance system calculates the impact of these reactions on wine quality and provides the eProvenance Score, which reflects any meaningful changes in wine quality.
How bad can the Domestic Shipment be
 Voigt demonstrated a shipment by FedEx from California to Aurora Illinois. It left the origin at 1 pm with the ambient temperature at 1 pm. Tracking it through the third day when it arrives the destination at 6 pm, one finds that the temperature is always outside the safe band of 20-25˚C and reaches as high as 55˚C! It is of course never within the safe storage temperature band of 10-20˚C. In India where the shipment can take place in trucks and obviously non air-conditioned environment, the time spent in the danger zone is surely going to cook the wine. And this is only from the warehouse of the distributor!
Shipment through Reefer and Dry Container
 In another example he illustrated the case of a reefer shipment with controlled temperature. While most of the travel is within the safe limit, he shows how the temperatures vary and go out of range, fluctuating violently till they reach the port.
 In case of dry containers, the fluctuations are not as heavy, except that the same thing happens at the port of arrival when the temperature goes up to 41˚C.
‘eProvenance’ has been experimenting with technology developed by it through the use of battery-operated sensors that help control the shipment through regular monitoring by the company which offers a package of service from the winery to the importer/ distributor. Suffice it to know for us in India for the time being that the temperature variation and a prolonged exposure to heat beyond 25˚C for a significant period is constantly affecting the characteristics of every wine and what we get on our table. This, despite a perfect temperature control at the distributors, local transportation retailers/restaurant and the wine is already bruised badly by the time it reaches the importer/distributor.
Buying at the Winery or Duty-Free overseas
And if one thinks Indian domestic wines do much better, one can be off the mark too. Degradation starts from the warehouse of the producer and going through the same logistics chain as the imported wines, the results are sufficient to alarm you. It might make you wonder why the wine you tasted at the producer’s winery or the Tasting Room was always so much better in aromas and flavours.
It also justifies the purchase of wines from the winery or the tasting room-by at least reducing the time that the wine undergoes bruising enormously.
This is one more reason for the governments not only in India, but everywhere in the world to understand and allow 6 bottles of wine in lieu of 2 bottles of liquor.
For details of other seminars, please visit www.worldbulkwine.com
Subhash Arora
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