As it becomes warm enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk, owners of large wine collections, or even a few special bottles, should be asking themselves, "Just how hot is too hot?"

Wine is one of the few consumer products that can actually improve with age. But this assumes, of course, that the wine isn't damaged by improper storage. While most wines are probably more resilient than people imagine, wine can still take only so much abuse -- as I found out the hard way.

After a wonderful weekend trip to Napa, I returned to university so late at night that I skipped unpacking my bags and cases from the car. It was only during dinner the next day that I realized that my precious bottles had been sitting in the sun in the back seat all day.