It’s hot in California right now. And it’s not cooling down anytime soon.

Not only is it hot, it’s dry. There’s no water. Which not only means drier soils and more intense heat, it also means less electricity since a number of California’s grids are powered by hydroelectric dams. That means rolling blackouts in the middle of the summer because we can’t support all the A/C units. Which means—when you really need air conditioning the most—we’re going to be in trouble.

In the wine industry, the drought and the heat present multiple challenges, beyond the annual wildfires that have plagued California wine country for the last decade. As an example, when temperatures rise, wine dies. You leave a case of wine bottles in the car on a hot day and you can kiss them goodbye.

That’s why we’ve activated the weather warning for all shipments currently on the Mission website. Hard spirits can stand up to the heat just fine, but bottles may still leak if left in hot temperatures for too long.

If you can pick up your orders from a nearby Mission location, choosing in-store pick up is the best option under the current conditions.

And don’t forget to stay hydrated! If you booze as much as I do, you need to consistently consume water throughout the day. The heat can turn a foggy head into a full-blown hangover in a minutes, if you’re not drinking H2O.

The scary part is we’re just getting started. Summer hasn’t even really begun and we’ve already hit 100+ on back-to-back days here in the valley, forcing us to adapt our shipping schedule and hold back a number of sensitive packages. As California continues to warm, I fear we’re going to enter a permanent situation that completely eliminates the shipment of wine and spirits for almost half of the year, or places the risk on to the consumer as to whether they want to bite the bullet.

We’re not making things easy on ourselves out here, that’s for sure. I see hundreds of gigantic trucks heading back and forth to the Inland Empire each day, pumping out a gazillion tons of pollution into the already-thick atmosphere. This is the price we are paying for same-day Amazon delivery and the infrastructure required to maintain it.

Yes, California will require more than half of all trucks to be zero-emission by 2035, and all trucks to be zero-emission by 2045. But that’s a long way off. In the meantime, you’re going to see your life affected in a number of ways that move beyond air quality and outside temperatures.

As an example, if you rely on wine and spirits shipments for your daily booze, you’re going to have to start stockpiling in the winter to get you through the summer.

-David Driscoll