Sorry, but you didn't buy that corked bottle from us!

Have you ever had a winery refuse to exchange a corked bottle because they did not have a record of selling it to you? I never have, until today. I hope I am alone here. I dropped by the tasting room but they didn’t have the vintage handy. They emailed me later to say, sorry but no soup for you.

I once had a corked bottle of Lagier Meredith Syrah that I purchased from Wine Bid. When we did the recap for the evening one of the guests mentioned the corked bottle on WB in his notes. Carole jumped in and offered to replace it. I told her I bought it from Wine Bid but she insisted on giving me a matching vintage replacement. I’ve had other wineries send me unsolicited replacements when they read a note of mine online. Cabot and Bedrock off the top of my head.

I’ll get this one replaced eventually but was curious if this is standard policy with some wineries? I’ll tell you one thing, I will not buy retail from them again. Left a bad taste in my mouth in more ways than one.

Name the winery.

IMO, it doesn’t matter where you bout the bottle from. The winery made it, they should stand by it.

This.

I have never returned a corked bottle of wine other than at a restaurant. Considering I’ve also never negotiated the price of a wine purchased at a restaurant, I may be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Not going there. I am dealing directly with the winemaker now as that is who I purchased it from in the first place. Perhaps it will lead to a change in the policy and I do not want to tarnish his name if that is the case. I’m not here to call anyone out, I want to know if others have had the same experience.

Every corked bottle I have presented to the original winemaker has been replaced…so far.

This.



This

Outing them would be a last resort IMO. A winery should stand by their product, and IF, after all attempts are futile then yes out them as I would not want to do business with them. That said, I hope all goes well and if replaced, no need to out them.

I was in the camp of never returning a bottle. In the past year or so I’ve changed my mind. If I don’t return them, the winery doesn’t know there is an issue, the cork company won’t know, and that won’t help the situation. I do know of some companies that force the cork supplier to pay them for the corked bottle, so why not send it back.

That said #2…I had a terribly corked bottle of Chateau Montelena Chard I took to a dinner with wine folks. It was a back vintage bought at the estate during a special event. I contact the winery and told them of the issue, offered to mail the bottle or cork back, and said I understood if they choose not to replace it or, if so, it may be a current vintage replacement since this was a much older vintage. Quickly got a reply and they sent the same vintage as a replacement in a chilled package (as it was in the summer). That wasn’t expected but VERY good customer service. They’ve gained a loyal customer as a result.

I did have a winery claim that they thought there was a high risk of their wines being counterfitted. They said that they assume any bottle not purchased from them directly had a high probability of this risk.

Now, all of their wines are numbered…but this seemed a bit like a cop-out to me. They did make a kind gesture…but I had a hard time with their view that any bottle not purchased directly from the winery was suspect as a possible forged bottle.

I’ve had Rhys and Ahnfeldt wine send me bottles. Because of casual posts here. Without me even asking for a replacement.

Ahnfeldt even sent me a hat.

Years ago when I was a member at Amphora, I’d picked up a 6 pack of their Merlot. The first 4 bottles were great, the last 2 quite flawed with VA.

I gave the winery a heads up, and didn’t expect nor seek a replacement, as I’m no longer a member and didn’t feel it was worth anyone’s trouble, and said as much to them. They of course offered to replace both bottles. Very nice gesture.

No, and if the bottle is corked, as opposed to, say, heat damaged such that poor storage could have caused the problem, it seems it should be irrelevant how you acquired the bottle.

In all our years we’ve been in business we’ve had an average of one bottle a month returned or been notified by the purchaser when too far away to return the bottle. Occasionally, we will have somebody ship the bottle back on our dime. To this day every corked bottle or claim of corked bottle has been replaced either by the winery or distributor.

Always make it right, it’s easy.

In fact there is a guy on CT who wrote up a flawed bottle, I have reached out to replace it. No luck so far.

If you feel guilty, send it to me. [cheers.gif]

On Feb 16, 2017, at 3:39 PM, Xxxx Xxxx <Xxxx.Xxxx@xxxwines.com> wrote:

Brian,

My colleague let me know that you came into the winery today to exchange a corked bottle of 2007 Xxxxxx Pinot Noir. Unfortunately we are not able to provide an exchange for this wine. I have records of your purchases with us going back to 2010 and I cannot find a transaction that has a bottle of this wine in it. We hope you’ve enjoyed the other wines you purchased from us when you were a member. Let me know if you have any questions.

Warmly,
Xxx Xxxx
Tasting Room Manager
Xxxx Wines
xxxxwines.com



On Feb 16, 2017, at 4:20 PM, Brian Tuite <xxxx@sonic.net> wrote:

Xxxx,

I bought it directly from (insert winemakers name here) along with some large formats about 60 days ago. Should I email him directly?

Don’t throw out the evidence then. I’ll be back early next week as I am leaving town for the weekend.
Interesting policy, every other winery I have ever dealt with has replaced corked bottles regardless of where I purchased the them since they are warranting the product rather than the customer.

Brian

Sent from my iPad

Brian,
Like I mentioned, you didn’t purchase the wine from Xxxx. I have no record of your purchasing the wine from Xxxx. You purchased it from an individual as a private sale.

I have given your wine to (insert winemakers name here) and is in his office. You should communicate directly with him regarding your wine.

Sincerely,
Xxxx Xxxx
Tasting Room Manager
Xxxx Wines
xxxxwines.com

[swoon.gif]

Brian
Out the winery. I’d not want to do business with a winery like that.

Is this winery completely clueless? It doesn’t matter where Brian acquired your wine, the product with your f-ing name on it is defective.

Just some unsolicited advice to this winery. Making stuff like this become the end user/consumer’s problem in the year 2017 is a terrible way to do business. Replace the bottle. Jesus.

My favorite part is that they have records of Brian being a customer since 2010!