Cargo Hold Temperature For Wine Transport
 

Could people list the temperature of there cargo holds on various aircraft.

I need to know if there are any temp' extremities on various types for the transporting of wine.

Hi there Gnadenburg,

on our aircraft (B747-400BCF) all cargo holds are temperature controlled (air conditioned).

Temperature requirement for both main and lower deck holds is set on the flight deck; temperature range is 4C(40F)-29C(85F).

The aircraft does a good job keeping target temperature :ok:

Hope this helps, greetings TS737

...and would that be red or white? :ok:

I recall when Jugoslav Air Transport purchased their DC-9 & DC-10 fleet by bartering Avia local wine to the US market. Not bad wine, considering the price! :)

We use a temperature around 14ºC on the A340. The airplane temperature is not a major problem. If you deal with expensive wines I think the difference will be on the boarding. Usually the load has to wait outside of the airplane under the sun over the overheated asphalt. I recommend you to send by a cargo airline. They work mainly at night and you can expect more care than a regular. I remember one of the magazine advertisement from DHL it was a French wine producer saying how good DHL is.
PS send me a bottle.

The mainstream airliners mentioned are all likely to be satisfactory. The biggest thing you can get wrong is to ship wine in an unpressurised compartment (or aircraft), which is far more of a problem than temperature.

Note that we're not talking about exploding bottles or corks flying out, but... in my experience, if the wine uses a traditional cork then exposure to significantly reduced pressure can cause some seepage through and around the cork. If the wine is for immediate consumption, you'll never notice a problem, but the seepage will make the top of the cork damp inside the foil capsule. If you then store the wine you will have a disappointingly high proportion of corks that subsequently rot and "cork" the wine.

The only wine that doesn't suffer from this is Champagne, since their corks are already designed to accomodate a significant pressure differential.

Thanks for the contributions.

It would seem that transporting wine would require insulation from temperature variations that may occur on the tarmac and in the hold.

The hold of cargo 747 seems to have quite a temperature spread. Which would be a concern for un-insulated wines.

Wine
 

I used to own the world's smallest air cargo company. We shipped Fresh Fish exclusively, the odd case of wine was transported in the cockpit.
My days as a sommelier instruct me to say as you must obviously know, wine does not suffer travel well. It is most comfortable in the cellar or navigating one's gullet. What is the hurry? Is this Beaujolais? Nouveaux?
JetPaks are reserved for time sensitive cargo, wine does not qualify. If you must transport wine, send it by ship, preferably my sailboat, I will watch it like a Hawk, and the leisurely pace can bring no harm to a robust Red.
(The rolling of my boat I consider an "auto-riddling" feature).

Gnadenburg,

the temperature spread on the B744F is quite large indeed, to accomodate requirements of many different kinds of cargo carried.
The environmental control system will keep the temperature the pilots have set (any temp within the abovementioned bandwith of 4C-29C); it does this very well.
We set the temperature exactly as our customers wish, according to their instructions.

TS 737