Odd email from Aeris Wines re:2015

This was a little more than interesting. Good job by Rhys/Aeris, but I wonder what happened.

Greetings from Aeris Wines,

We’re writing to inform you that we’ve begun packing the most recent Aeris release and will be shipping these orders to arrive before the holidays. However, in tasting the 2015 Etna Bianco Superiore we’ve decided that it simply doesn’t meet our expectations at this time. While most bottles are delicious, we have seen some variability among them. Because of this, we’ve decided that we would feel much more comfortable substituting the yet-unreleased 2016 version in its place. This is a difficult decision for us to make, but we think ultimately it will guarantee that you will have the best bottle possible. The 2016 Aeris Etna Bianco Superiore was recently touted by Ian D’Agata of Vinous Media as “Easily one of the best Italian white wines of the 2016 vintage.” While we don’t like having to substitute vintages, we think the exceptional quality of the 2016 makes up for the inconvenience, and we hope that you will agree. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us. Thank you for your continued support.

The Aeris Team

I do not know the winery or the wines, but actions like this reflect a commitment to quality and customer service that is to be commended. It reminds me a little bit of the cork issue that Cayuse had with many of their 2015 wines. Such decisions are obviously expensive for the wineries in the short run, but I think (hope) that they are smart economically in the long run.

I had been reading a lot about Aeris bottle variation here on WB, so this makes sense. '16 is a better vintage for Etna IMO, so not a bad trade.

Don’t get me wrong. I applaud the commitment to quality from the Aeris/Rhys team. My QC brain is deeply curious as to what might have happened.

Oh yes. Sorry David. I did not mean to imply otherwise!

My guess, and it is just a guess, is that they tasted through the wines and some were delicious (as they wrote) and that the bad bottles tasted advanced. You can see the reviews on Cellar Tracker pointing to that problem with some of the 2014’s.
Whatever the case is they did a good job in pulling the entire vintage and we can only hope that the 2016’s don’t start showing problems after another year in the bottle.

I bet Cayuse would have had an insurance claim, where this seems like they just weren’t happy about the quality.

Has Kevin previously addressed any concerns about the 2014 vintage?

Odd, but wonderful.

Would be awesome to get a refund on the 14s. The bottles I had were deeply troubled.

I don’t buy white Burgundy because I don’t want to play roulette. While I haven’t opened my 2014s, the notes have been mixed, and now this. Somewhat troubling. It would be good to know if the issue(s) were resolved in 2016 going forward.

I encourage you (and Diane et al) to reach out to him on this issue and report back.

I nearly bought some 2014 on Winebid last week, but got scared off by the inconsistent reviews. Even at the discounted $30 (+ fees) a bottle I wasn’t throwing my hat in the ring. Many other consistent whites from etna to purchase before thinking about touching that.

I have had a lot of bottle variation the 2014. One was excellent, one was oxidized, one felt more flabby and tired, and three more in the cellar. It definitely colored my ordering going forward. Never had an issue with Rhys.

Same. As a result, didn’t order any 2015s.

Funny, I got the email but just assumed it was yet another “we are shipping now” notice and didn’t even read it.

I’ve opened two bottles of the 2014 and they’ve been wow wines, absolutely excellent, wines that I think almost any of us would like. So I’m pretty confident that if anyone disliked their wine, they probably had a flawed bottle.

I’m glad they’re doing this, I hope the 2016s are great.

If it’s oxidation, I hope they will consider screwcaps or DIAM enclosures. Why not?

Sorry for the delayed response! We have been wrapping up our Pinot harvest and are in the middle of the Centennial Mountain harvest of Nebbiolo, Nerello Mascalese and Carricante.

To clarify, The 2014 and 2015 Aeris Etna Bianco Superiores were bottled with lower sulphur levels than our standard. Most of the bottles are fine but there is more variation than we would like. If anyone is unhappy with their 2014 Aeris Etna Bianco Superiore, please let us know as we are happy to refund or replace those bottles.

The SO2 protocol was changed for the 2016 bottling and we have seen zero bottle variation (It arrived last year). It is a really fantastic wine that captures all of the best attributes of great Carricante grown around Milo (the Superiore zone for Carricante).

Meanwhile next year we will release our first wines (2017 Nebbiolo and Carricante) from Centennial Mountain vineyard. We are very excited to show customers what we have been working on for so long!

Thanks Kevin.

All 3 of the 2014 we ordered and consumed were excellent! A pretty exciting project.

Thanks Kevin. Love the pragmatism!