A company called PakSense has developed a temperature monitoring label that can be applied to wine bottles or their packaging to show whether the wine has encountered any severe heat during its travels. Heat is an enemy of wine, and if wine gets too hot it can become "cooked" and loose it's liveliness or exhibit other flaws. Often times there are no external signs of heat damage, like leaking corks or corks that have begun to back out (note that these characteristics do not always mean the wine is damaged, but they are warning signs), so the special labels are a great way to verify if wine has been transported properly.

About the size of a packet of sugar, the labels are equipped with LEDs that blink green if the temperature has stayed within proper parameters, or yellow if the temperature has become too hot. The labels can be programmed for different temperature ranges and the temperature information can actually be downloaded after the wine has arrived to see exactly when the excessive temperature occurred. In addition to indicating potentially damaged wine, the new labels are providing peace of mind to winemakers who, up until this point, have simply had to wonder whether their wine actually survives its journey to its destination with the taste profile the winemaker intended.