2012 Maison Ilan

I think it’s about time to start a thread exclusively on the 2012 wines, including communications, delivery, and tasting notes (once received either via direct or retail).

As far as I’m aware, there were two communications from the Domaine (Ray) that mention the 2012s…

  1. January 1, 2015: “We are in the process of bottling. Updates to follow within the week, inside of quarterly update.”

  2. April 13, 2015: “It is with tremendous amount of excitement that I share the nexs (sic) of our labels passing U.S. label approval! We are now moving forward with our remaining '09/'10 magnums, '11s and 12s shipments into the U.S. We will update you as progress is made quickly!”

I am looking forward to the next update to hear details of when they will be delivered, by whom, and for what shipping price.

I will post you all tomorrow. I doubt his brother will show up, or whatever was at wherever it was at gets transferred to Daly City on Friday for pick-up, but why bother lying in such detail? Just tell me to F-off, I lose he wins. So I will wait the day. As an aside, nothing against WB and influence of these participants as buyers and market leaders, but FB, as narcissist and annoying as it it, can be an effective venue to pursue remediation and retribution compared to the courts. I suppose they could be filling my bottles now with second tier Anderson Valley wine, so if someone has the images of the labels and cork seals, that would be helpful to have – assuming of course someone shows. Full disclosure, I never paid up for the Grand Cru and have a modest sampling of others.

I believe Adventures in Wine was announced as the import agent for 2012’s. I’d expect them to be highly competent, if and when they get the proper info and wines. (I don’t have anything owed to me at this point.)

I did receive the following update from Ray the other day. I am not commenting on whether there has been actual progress. Just wanted to pass the update along:

Happy to Get the 13s Labeled and Ready to Ship?

All of the different pieces of our logistics work have now come together in this one moment that I have been eagerly waiting for. We learned quite a lot while figuring out shipping logistics and have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure we had everything ready to move forward, stronger than ever. That time is now. Pickup is starting this week for a (for us) huge collection of deliveries. If you are waiting for any wine from any vintage, Updates will trigger as each piece is shipped from our winery. We greatly appreciate your patience. We thank you for understanding that this means that we will be exceptionally busy during this period and are focusing on much anticipated deliveries and changes to service protocols.

It took a great amount of work to get to this point with small amount of lumps taken in the process but the tide has officially shifted and I couldn’t be more proud!

Thank you again to all of those that have supported us!

All the best!

Ray Walker

Sorry, I meant I will post you Friday. Already feeling a bit Thursday. I did speak to Adventures in Wine, they seem to have it all figured out, until they figure out what they haven’t figured out. I am not ready to disclose my conversation since there are still gray zones that should be resolved shortly, but let’s say I find this whole thing no less fascinating. I’d say amusing, but it turns out I did pay up for some Grand Crus after all.

My only updates are that I reached out to Adventures in Wine directly in early May, and got the following response:

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Merrick Dowson <> merrick@adventuresinwine.com> >
Date: Wed, May 6, 2015 at 1:01 PM
Subject: Maison Ilan
To: "> stephenmcoyle@gmail.com> " <> stephenmcoyle@gmail.com> >


Dear Stephen,

Yes, we are hoping to make things work for this company and get things straightened out. We are waiting for a final label approval. Once we have that we are going to do a trial shipment. At present we are unaware of the details but as soon as we can we will be back in touch. In the meantime you might want to e-mail the winery directly.

Best regards,

Merrick Dowson
Owner

Sent from my iPhone

Plus, the email that I got from Ray in mid-April:


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ray Walker <> ray@maison-ilan.com> >
Date: Mon, Apr 13, 2015 at 4:51 PM
Subject: RE: Chambertin 2011
To: Steve Coyle <> xxxxx@gmail.com> >

Hello Steve
thank you for your email. I’ve called numerous times and have difficulty in reaching you. Regarding the UPS or FedEx route, that is indeed a humdinger. I was hoping it would just be a matter of paying extra for this service but the requirements are well beyond what I view as reasonable.

The 2012s are coming in with Adventures in Wine. The 11s that were short, such as your Chambertin bottle will be coming along with these. To clarify, your 11 Chambertin will be just that, 11 Chambertin. 12s will ship once label approval has been confirmed. I do not control this so I must wait for this news and pass it along as it happens. Rest assured, you will receive this information directly. Distribution will also be taken care of by Adventures in Wine.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate in contacting me. It is a pleasure to address any concerns which you may have and meet them with clear solutions.

All the best,

Ray Walker
MAISON ILAN
Grands Vins De Terroirs
+33 (0)6 47 37 03 83 Mobile (France)

A few other subsequent emails with Ray said that the 2012s were coming (along with my missing bottle of 2012 Chambertin), but nothing else since I reached out to Adventures in Wine on May 6th.

Okay, this essentially is a 2012 post, but I have no skin in that game. But to save everyone and Adventures in Wine the hassle and time this is what I discussed with AIW: They have everything ready regarding the next shipment–as in the 2012’s, and some remaining 2011’s–they will be picked up at the winery “this week” by Hillebrand. Then they drive them to the port, 2-3 days, they go in a container and they head on over. Takes about 40 days until port arrival and perhaps customs as well. So there you have it. Big fuss about nothing. Oh, come on! This can’t end that easily and dully with no more suspense people! So when I asked the gentleman point blank (and this is after I asked him if he knew the whole crazy story, which he did), “Has anyone, you or anyone at Hillebrand (sp?), seen these wines yet?” The answer was…

OK, healthy skepticism is fine, but we seem to be moving toward unhealthy skepticism at this point. Of course they haven’t seen the wines. From what you described, nobody would expect to have seen them. They predicted to you that they will see them this week. At least let the week happen before you, in effect, call them liars.

I get that there is a history here, but sheesh.

Adam, I agree. Timr to chill. (Except by the timeline posted above, will be 8 or 9 weeks best case before anyone stateside sees the wines.)

OMG. IT IS ONE BOTTLE OF WINE. When the 2012’s appear, if your one bottle is not there, then go crazy. Until then, what in the world are you pissing into the wind about?

My biggest question is why we don’t get this info from the guy whom we entrusted our money to and who is, ultimately, on the hook for producing and delivering the wines? It is ridiculous and piss poor customer service as usual. I will be glad when this is done! After 2012, I am out and will happily never worry about Maison Ilan again!

The lies, the piss poor customer service, the amount of chasing that I had to do to get answers and, eventually the wines that I have received, etc… Plus, I have a fairly large 2012 order (several cases). I have purchased tens of thousands of dollars of wine from Maison Ila, and getting every bottle has been a hassle and an experience that I would rather never repeat. That is why, Eric!

The guy told you that your bottle would come in with the 12’s. It is one bottle. Wait for the 12’s. Then go Berserker if he fails. He may be a liar, but his communications have not been that vague this year.

Now, if you have that many 12’s outstanding then I get the angst. But the single bottle of 2011 does not seem to be the case to hammer on every week.

Sheesh, Adam, I was just trying to help and all, wasn’t trying to go negative. The thing is, at the grand picture and why I am even here among you considerably superior oenophiles, is that there are 256 pages of posts on this topic. Not posts, pages! And as far as I can tell, none of them have anything to do with how these wines taste. I really enjoyed the one 09 Chambertin, at call it 5 years old. Don’t ask me what kind of pie berry or animal hoof it hinted of, I just enjoyed it. But here’s the thing-- French wine at either side of 100 euros is a luxury, and it is all insignificant in a way (my apologies to the several case guy if it’s material to you) except the human intrigue remains relevant in a post Madoff realm. And we will know by Friday if Hillebrand picks up what looks like French wine to them, in France. Guessing that would be Burgundy, not Nice. Then we’d have other problems. Where the intrigue is, is that a man is saying all this, showing pictures of all this, telling me and others directly–not unpolitely, nor politely–that my wine will be in my hands or at AIW on Friday, and yet AIW still knows nothing about any wines showing up on Friday. So the mystery remains unsolved and yet we shift closer to the edge of our seats. But the real upside is, the positive for young Adam, is if we can pump this up to another 400 pages of posts by Friday, I’m think Steve’s one little 750mm bottle of grape juice is going to be worth thousands! Think of the conversation 10 years from now- Oh, you know Maison Ilan? Sure, I know it. What years? Mostly 2012’s, but I have a few 11’s. Really? Where did you pick up the 11’s? From Ray. What!? Directly? No! You where there! You have the emails showing he lied to you? Oh my, if I could get my hands on a bottle of the 11’s with an original email… I’d pay… Not for sale, the 11’s are mounted on the wall next to my buck horns…

Thanks Ray, Stephane, or whomever you are! I had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get the 7 of 8 bottles of 2011 Le Chambertin that I ordered, not to mention the shit show that I had to go through for my total 2011 order of:

12 Maison Ilan Les Robardelles Volnay 1er Cru 2011 Pinot Noir 750 ML
8 Maison Ilan Aux Charmes Haute Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru 2011 Pinot Noir 750 ML
10 Maison Ilan Les Chaffots Morey St. Denis 1er Cru 2011 Pinot Noir 750 ML
12 Maison Ilan Les Monts Luisants Morey St. Denis 1er Cru 2011 Pinot Noir 750 ML
7 Maison Ilan Tete De Cuvee Chambertin Grand Cru 2011 Pinot Noir 750 ML
8 Maison Ilan Mazoyeres-Chambertin Grand Cru 2011 Pinot Noir 750 ML

Thanks for the smart ass comments. (and I wonder why I left this board for a while. Yes, Eric, this is why I am going F-Ing Beserker!!!). The worst part is that I ordered wine in every vintage from 2009-2012. Please give me my (measely) bottle of 2011 Chambertin, my 2012s, and I will never mention MI or Ray Walker again!!!

Whoa, sorry Steve. Didn’t mean to get you fired up. Seriously. I’ll let you know what I hear on Friday or from AIW if they come back before then. Matt O’Haren, mixed bag of 2011’s still not delivered, and a half case of 2009’s.

I started this thread with the hope that we could discuss the 2012 vintage wines, with emphasis on delivery of them.

If you don’t have any 2012s purchased, I respectfully ask that you post your thoughts in the 2011 thread.

Let’s also leave out the unnecessary drama, speculation, and ill words that simply are not helpful for anyone. Thanks in advance.

I tried that already…

http://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1466881#p1466881 (May 2014)

My apologies. I’m a 20 minute drive from the guys that seem best suited to confirm the US pick up for 2012’s is as planned for pick up this week in France and thought that would be helpful for all parties, including potential 2017 buyers. I was also expecting Ray’s brother in the lobby of my building tomorrow which might solve some other mysteries and validate recent statements. I will not post here anymore. I just hope he brings bottles and not a baseball bat based on some of my FB posts.

Matt -

If you have facts to share that are directly related to the delivery of 2012 wines, then by all means please share them in this thread. Any non-facts, hearsay, speculation, etc. isn’t what I had in mind with this thread. There’s more than enough of that in the other thread(s).

Thanks!