A couple of Total Wine Bombs

I love my in-laws but why they don’t just let me go out and buy their wine with them is beyond me. I am sure the slick sales people at Total Wine steered them into these two disasters.

2016 Château de Nages Costières-de-Nîmes Rosé ButiNages - France, Rhône, Southern Rhône, Costières-de-Nîmes (4/1/2018)
Simple rose with sweet fruits and subtle spice. Drink now. (82 points)
Jeb Dunnuck gave this 90 points. One of the worst Rose wines I have tasted in years. If it wasn’t Easter I might have been in the 70s.

2013 Cruz Alta Malbec Grand Réserve - Argentina, Mendoza (4/1/2018)
Terrible wine. This is no April fools joke. Easter egg dye, dirt and burnt toast. Worst wine I have tasted this year. (71 points)

Were your in-laws as disappointed as you?

Yes they were. I am tempted to go in there and have them recommend five wines to see if any of their winery direct wines are any good.

Through a rather painful series of trials and errors, I have a blanket policy of avoiding these “direct“ wines. Our local TW has some good stuff, to be sure, but you absolutely have to know what you’re getting into when you buy there. I found myself going there less and less.

I’d pretty much sworn off Total for the past year. When they opened, they had some good wines, like Mt. Eden and Talley, but one by one they disappeared from the offerings. They still carry some Ridge.

Anyway, a week ago I bit on the 20% off Winery Direct coupon and mostly lived to regret it. The Testarossa wines from California are in the category and these are dependable. However, I took the advice of one of their “consultants” on a couple Rossos and they were disasters. I’m sure it made her day that I asked for her opinion, but I didn’t know anything about the Winery Direct Rossos.

The Winery Direct wines are by no means their worst wines. Those are stacked up in the aisles. Buyer beware.

Bottle variation perhaps?

At the end of the day, many folks are going to dig both of these wines - Total is in business to move products, and they seem to do a good job of it. But ‘buyer beware’ is certainly a valid statement when it comes to shopping here or at BevMo - so many ‘private label’ wines with nothing to compare them to, and those shelf talkers make them sound so good

Cheers.

Not trying to defend TW because I hate that they push private labels without notice, but those coupons are good for something. At least near me, 99% of Bordeaux is Winery Direct (1st growths on down) and so are a lot of US producers (e.g., Chappellet, Blankiet, Togni). Often, they aren’t marked as such anywhere but the website.

They don’t have the best standard pricing, but with those coupons I find you are usually less than the winesearcher low (and obviously, no shipping). One of the reasons I don’t buy futures - I can get them off the shelf for less with the coupons.

Yes, I did rather well buying my 2015 Jadot’s from them…and they were all about $5-$30 lower than other places. You do have to know what you’re buying there…but there are some real gems in all that Pooh.

Were you honest with your parents about it? I had to finally tell my parents I don’t enjoy their Easter ham and they made tri trip instead!

Love that!

Cheers.

I bought a 2009 Chateau Pontet Canet (100 points RP) there the other day. Typically high $300s most places, including at high end wine stores by me. Total Wine had it for $320, and then I had a 15 or 20% winery direct coupon (as almost all Bordeaux’s, for which they have a huge offering of, ate winery direct). After the coupon and tax, it was around $270. Pretty damn good when I have one of the top boutique wine stores close to me, where I typically shop, and they had it for $399.

I personally avoid any interaction with the staff. They’re nice but they aren’t very knowledgeable and they push almost exclusively the winery direct wines, with high scores from James Suckling. Most of the winery direct wines I’ve had aren’t particularly good, but they do include some good producers.

[quoteWere you honest with your parents about it? I had to finally tell my parents I don’t enjoy their Easter ham and they made tri trip instead!][/quote]
Yes and I sent them my tasting notes. My mother-in-law thought there was something off with the Malbec and was glad I confirmed how bad it was. Not corked or heat damage just a crappy bottle.

I do buy wine from Total Wine but no winery direct stuff. I have seen some decant winery direct Washington Producers.

It is amazing going in there on a off time in Minneapolis and it is still brisk with business. Other established shops in town are taking a beating with them in town.

I use the coupons to buy specific things at Total Wine. The selection has varied over the years. But I can still regularly get some of the better Ridge Zins, some better Rioja and Produttori normale at very attractive prices. They’ve had things like St Cosme and Joguet at times. There are also some good deals on certain Cali Pinots and Syrahs but timing is the key.

I also avoid the staff unless I need help redeeming a coupon.

The only good thing about their Winery Direct program is that it includes the majority of their classified growth Bordeaux so their “Winery Direct” coupons apply to most all of them. I got some great deals on 2014 Bordeaux that way.

I get they have house brands. So if they are getting classified growths at winery direct pricing why are they not offering better pricing? I have never found the Bordeaux wines in the MN Total Wines good on pricing.
Example:
2009 Ponet Canet Total Wine $325, Flinkinger $225

I am sure if I spent more time researching I could find many others.

Chateau de Nages is actually a very solid Costieres de Nimes producer, not at all a house brand. May not float your boat, however.

-Al

Picked up some 2014 Leoville Poyferre for $56 after coupon. Pretty decent deal.

I think it would only be current releases at lower price levels. A chain store is the last place I would look for a deal on a library type wine from a strong vintage.

+1

I’m interested in less than 1% of the wine they have on the shelf but the inventory is so large that still ends up being quite a few. Weed through the plonk and you will find a lot of board favorites on the shelf: Ridge (Geyserville & Lytton Springs), Williams Selyem, Bevan, Sojourn, Chappellet, Andersons Conn Valley, Carter, Ancillary, Lagier Meredith, Tablas Creek, Round Pond, Heitz, Epoch, Cristom, Beaux Freres, Cantemerle, Grand Puy Lacoste, Leoville Barton, Produttori, Il Poggioni, Beaucastel, Shafer, Ghost Block, Blankiet, etc.

+1

When I overhear any conversation between staff and other customers I cringe at what they are steering customers into. They seem to be trained to steer customers into particularly high margin wines, which as a successful business I can’t fault them for, but I’ve never heard them recommend a wine I’d consider buying.

TW staff primary marching orders r to push wines with the most profit margin.