How long after being transported on a plane would a bottle be drinkable?

I'm not a huge beleiver in the "bottle shock" theory. If that were the case the mere act of moving the bottle from cellar to table would render the bottle undrinkable for days. I do believe that older wines with a lot of sediment need some time for the sediment to settle and that may be 2-3 days. There will no doubt be a lot of differing views but that 's what keeps me coming back!

I have had wines as I am sure you have that were recent arrivals in the country.

In my opinion Burgundy and Oregon Pinot does NOT travel well and the travel can cause bottle shock. In my opinion, it can take 4-6 weeks on Burgundy and about 4 weeks on Oregon Pinots to settle down.

I find large Cabs, specifically Auz Shiraz and many of the Cal cabs are fine instantly.

Sparkling I suggest letting settle as well...travel defined as more than 300 miles by flight or wagon train can cause this to be less stable and similar to shaking a can of coke...not advisable.

I disagree. There's a huge difference between bringing a wine upstairs and the shaking it gets during transport. But there are certainly two camps on the subject, and as is often the case no real way to prove it one way or another.

I've had countless producers talk about the phenomenon, and many experiences with wines just bottled showing completely differently than three months later, or not showing properly after several hours voyage.

Some like to differentiate between bottle shock (occurs only at bottling time) and transport shock.

One thing for sure, as Bill mentions: older wines will need to settle after being shaken up.

-E

One can speculate about several things. If there is a sudden temperature change from the cellar to the hold of the airplane and if there is a considerable air pressure change, this could cause a bit of air to be sucked in or expelled from the bottle if the cork is not completely sound. This pumping effect could introduce a bit more oxygen into the wine - not enough to spoil it, but enough to change the taste a bit until the oxygen completely reacts. This might show up if one shipped the same wine, that is several years old, bottled in both cork and screw cap sealed bottles. Of course anything that stirs up a bit of sediment in the wine that is poured may change the taste a bit. Just taste some sediment. Some sediment is very fine and settles slowly and some has rather large particle size and settles rapidly. Shipping by ship can be another matter. Some better wines are now shipped in temperature controlled containers. However there are horror stories of fine Burgundy being shipped to Southern US ports in the summer and with temperatures sometimes exceeding 100 F. This can even expel the cork somewhat so that the capsule has to be pressed back down to force the cork back in place. Wines exposed to such severe conditions may never completely recover.