Someone just asked me if I knew anything about them. Has anyone here had experience with their selection, service, provenance? Thanks in advance.
I have not had experience or heard of them prior to your post. Interesting group of characters involved in the project and after reading a bit, are they basically personal shoppers/tasting appointment schedulers/ event planners/wine appraisers? They really don’t have anything specific listed on their website, maybe they want to keep it a mystery until contact is made.
Doug
This is a merchant which is on the WineFraud.com list of merchants to avoid. It is my understanding that the founder/at least part-owner of Company Fine Wines, Matthew Wilson, was one of Soutirage’s co-founders. Matthew Wilson left Soutirage in December 2015 to start Company Fine Wine, which claims a similar “relationship based” marketing approach.
As you may recall, in July of 2017, Jeffrey Gundlach, the founder of DoubleLine Capital, LP, an investment management firm and registered investment advisor that is headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, filed two related lawsuits in the Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Soutirage and its principals, including Matthew Wilson, of fraud and the intentional selling of counterfeit wines. See the link to the wine counterfeiting thread beginning here: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2318718#p2318718
The first lawsuit was entitled Gundlach v. Chadwick Meyer et al, Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. SC 127879. The second lawsuit was Gundlach v. GMW, Inc., d/b/a “Soutirage,” Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. SC 127880. Matthew Wilson was named as a defendant in both lawsuits. Mr. Gundlach alleged that at least 67 bottles that Soutirage and Matthew Wilson sold to him, with a value in excess of a million, were counterfeit. This case was scheduled to go to jury trial on October 22, 2018. Both lawsuits just settled on undisclosed terms.
So, under the circumstances, if you were looking at this entity as a possible source of Fine and Rare wine, you may want to rethink the proposition.