Mollycoddling wine

Why, for example, do many people insist on laying down red wine, while storing vertically many sherries that usually spend more time in the bottle than most reds?

The whole point is that we treat wine too deferentially. Some purists will not even go to a wine store if it involves their purchases spending more than half an hour in a car boot on a hot day.

There are also those who take insulated carriers to buy their wine during warm months.

I am currently nursing back to health a trial 15-litre bag-in-box red Ribera that arrived with a leak.

But taking it out of the cardboard container and dumping it in a plastic bucket solved the problem, even though it probably loses 2-3% a day through seepage.

In theory the wine should deteriorate, but it doesn't because although wine escapes, no air enters.