Forget speed, heat kills wine.

Odds are I don’t have to tell you it’s Summer. But here’s a little tid-bit you may not be clued into — HEAT KILLS WINE! And it don’t take long to do it, either. Temps of 80F can “cook” wine in as little as ten minutes. What does a “cooked” wine taste like? It’s not pretty, unless you really like stewed prunes. And if it doesn’t cook it right away, that kind of heat can really cripple a wine for aging. This is why those bottles you’ve kept in a rack over the fridge for a couple of years don’t taste very good when you get around to opening them.

But forget about the rack over the fridge, the most dangerous place for wine in summer is your car. Let’s say you find a favorite bottle in a store, one August afternoon. You throw it in the car, but on the way home you stop to get dog food. You’ve just started that vino’s Death Clock. I actually know someone who boiled a very fine bottle of Zin while transporting it, on a hot day, in the cab of her truck. By the time she got it to my apartment, it was dead as the proverbial doornail.

Don’t sweat it, getting around this is fairly easy, once you know about it. I live in HELL (otherwise known as Las Vegas), and when God’s convection oven is running full blast, I throw a cooler with ice packs in the trunk. I toss my winey purchases into the chill-chest, and they’re safe as can be. Note, I use ice packs, and not loose ice, so I don’t soak the labels. But then I’m a geek about that sort of thing.

While I’m on the subject of vinous-destructous, there’s another wine killer out there — The Sun. Direct sunlight will do a number on your wine, essentially “skunking” it like it does beer. You’ve seen those Sam Adams TV spots, right? So keep your wine away from your sunny windows, and nobody gets hurt.

Now, here’s a little shopping tip that combines both of these facts. If you’re in a store where the wine is exposed to the sun, or if the temp is 80F or higher, give it a miss. Especially any bottles that look like they’ve been there a while. You’ll save yourself cash and disappointment. Look for a store that’s pleasantly air conditioned, where the wine isn’t in the sun.

In case you’re wondering, “ideal” storage temp is 57F. But in all honesty anything in the mid 60s will do, unless you plan on aging the bottles for the long term.

Cheers!