I am curious as to the experiences of mailing list customers in dealing with corked wines. I have been relatively luckily in that I seem to have very few corked wines. When I do, because of our cellar makeup and the wines we tend to drink, they are generally not inexpensive. In the past, I have usually chalked it up as a cost of drinking wine.
Last night I opened a Peter Michael 2010 Le Caprice pinot noir. Nice wine that I enjoy, thought it was fitting for a quiet night watching basketball. The wine was obviously badly corked from the moment I sniffed it. I re-corked the bottle to save as a precaution, and opened my last one from the three-pack I was allocated. It was excellent.
It got me to thinking about flawed products. If I purchased a flawed product from anyone else, I would expect them to stand behind it. Why not wine? It’s not the economics, as the wine cost $110 from the mailing list, which isn’t enough to get in an uproar over. It’s more the principal of the thing.
Have others attempted to return bottles, and what has been their experience?
I’ve been very lucky and have thus far only encountered one corked mailing list wine. I didn’t intend to contact the winery. I did post a comment in this forum and was immediately contacted by William Segui on behalf of Rivers Marie offering a replacement bottle. I’ve been remiss not mentioning this exemplary service 'til now.
I’d return a corked bottle to a retailer…so I’d contact a winery if that happened too. Another reason to buy from Wine library. They honor the purchase long after the fact…I got the runaround by two people at one place (someone that had to check with Chuck Green & then I spoke to the man himself…he never bothered to call me back) so no more purchases there.
Hi Jim, I have had only a few instances of a mailing list bottle being corked. A year or two ago I had one from Carlisle. I called and left a voice message. The next day I had an email from Mike Officer who graciously gave me a credit for my next order. Same thing with Thackrey a while back. A voice message to his assistant Leslie and she gave a credit for the next time I ordered. I know of at least one other instance but can’t remember the winery… And the result was the same.
I suspect since I have been a long time subscriber to the few lists that I have kept up with that they trust me. None of these were super expensive and actually I let them know more as a help to them so they can see if they have a problem. But the classy response always tell me lots about the wineries I am dealing with.
I have been lucky in only having a couple of mailing list wines being corked. The last one was a Saxum. I sent them a note about it and they replied the next day offering to replace it if they had the exact vintage or offered a newer vintage if not. They made good and sent an extra bottle on my next purchase. They have always had great customer service.
I used to never even think about returning corked bottles but the more I thought about it the more it made sense to me at least to let them know and hopefully get a replacement. I think it is reasonable to expect a corked bottle to be replaced but I would not be horribly upset if it was not. If I bought an electronic item and it did not work I would return it and expect a replacement.
I think most WBers are like me – for whatever reason or no good reason, we usually don’t bother to try to return corked bottles we buy at retail. I think we’re more likely to do so with mailing lists, since we are repeat customers and there are records of our purchases, and you can usually just send an email and get a good response. But then I hardly ever get corked wine from those producers (French and Italian wines are where I experience most corked bottles).
I’m not sure I’ve ever returned a corked wine to retail. I should, I know, but I never do. Much of what I buy at retail isn’t local; I don’t keep track of receipts; I don’t want to remember to drive to the store with yesterday’s bottle and get some salesperson to deal with me; usually many years have passed between when I bought the wine and when I opened it (which I know has nothing to do with it being corked, but it makes me less likely to go to the retailer and say I want a refund); etc.
Jim–If I’m paying full boat retail to buy directly from a winery, I expect them to stand behind their product. There have been a few times when I’ve gotten a corked bottle that I bought directly from the winery.
I usually let them know, unless it was a very inexpensive bottle. Their response helps me determine whether I want to continue to do business with them. And, of course, I keep the bottle on hand in case they want me to ship the bottle back to them for testing (which has happened occasionally).
Several years ago I opened a Rochioli SVD Pinot that was obviously corked. I had been a mailing list customer for maybe 10 years at that time.
I phoned the winery the next day. They issued a refund for the bottle or gave me a credit, can’t remember which one. They made it very clear to me that it was an exception, they don’t usually do it, blah, blah, blah.
End result - I got full value for the corked bottle but I was made to feel bad for having requested it.
I have had at least 5 corked bottles replaced by the winery when I was purchasing from their mailing list. The product is flawed, you have been spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars with them - why wouldn’t you give them the opportunity to make things right? This included a badly corked 3 liter. Unless your time is more valuable to you than the money you are out I feel you have every right to request a replacement/refund.
I return each and every corked bottle that I can. I have returned mailing list bottles and retail bottles. I have a 97 Borgogno Barolo sitting on my counter right now waiting to go back to the store. I don’t understand why anyone would not return a product that is unusable.
Fwiw, we are happy to send out new bottles for flawed bottles. In reading a recent review on CT in regard to one of our wines, I felt that the review suggested that the wine was flawed, though it did not specify (notes of mushroom, wet dog…). I reached out and replaced the bottle proactively. No sense having someone not enjoy your wine because he or she has a flawed bottle. Too many other good reasons!
If I am dumping it…I will let the winery or retailer know, however, I do not request anything in return (refund, replacement bottle, etc.). I had a recent experience where the winery credited my charge card no questions asked! Strong customer service from Carlisle…kudos to Mike and Kendall!
I tend to think there are degrees of corkiness…and I end up consuming some of those that are mildly or somewhat corked. In the past I generally didn’t do anything about it, retail or mailing list…seems to happen rarely for me (perhaps my nose isn’t as sensitive to TCA). If I cannot get past the wet cardboard and all of the bottle is being dumped (after just taking one whiff and taste), I may call. Again, rarely happens…which is a good thing…
I’ve posted both here in one case and on FB in another case about corked bottles of Kutch. In both cases Jamie read the note and sent me a current vintage replacement bottle with an email regarding the shipping details before I could even get around to contacting him.
Not corked, but I recently had problems with three bottles of the same mailing list wine being marred by brett. Each bottle was worse than the one that preceded it, over a three year stretch. I reached out to the winery to let them know and heard back from one of the owners. He initially suggested my storage might be to blame (um, no) and then, in two subsequent emails, seemed to question my assessment of the bottles. No acknowledgement that the winery might be responsible in any way, or even a ‘sorry you had some bad experiences with our wines’. Our dialogue deteriorated from there. In fairness, his third email contained an offer to purchase some of the new vintage at a 50% discount. But, as the conversation continued to devolve (and became absurd, really), I decided I was no longer interested in being a customer.
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