"Fred" > wrote in message
news:5CBje.1093$wq.959@fed1read06...
> My collection is down to
> about 250 bottles. I have a few gems.

If the wine got warm for only a few days, you're probably OK - especially if
they're reds. After all, the temperature during a red fermentation can
easily hit 100°F for a short time.

I've tasted wines that suffered greater abuse than that with no apparent ill
effects. One was a bottle of 1973 Mouton that spent a year in an
uninsulated trailer as its owner drove all over the country on tour with his
race car. We shared that bottle shortly thereafter (fearing the worst) and
it was fine.

Not that I'd advocate such treatment, of course, or that the wine's life
expectancy hadn't been somewhat shortened.

All that said, I'd suggest that you install some sort of electronic warning
device in your wine cooler to alert you to the _next_ failure. 250 bottles
is a lot of wine to put at risk. Also, you should consider that the time to
full maturity may have been shortened a bit by this incident.

Tom S