So this evening we opened a 2008 Outpost Petit Sirah. Only when we pulled the cork we noticed it was a Ravenswood 2008 cork. For what it’s worth this was a bottle purchased earlier this year on WineBid.
Has anyone else ever experienced a opening a bottle only to find a cork from a different winery than the wine?
Years ago, seems like another lifetime now, I worked with a winery that would put vintage on their corks. Well, they wouldn’t discard unused corks after a bottling and, you guessed it, they ended up bottling a bunch of wines with the wrong vintage on the cork. Sure sucks to find that out when you’re pulling a cork in front of industry VIPs. Helped me learn a good lesson very early on in my career.
I’ve never pulled a cork and had it be a different winery name all together. Assuming you trust the provenance of the bottle, my only two thoughts are it stems from the cork supplier (mix up during production and it made it into the outpost bag of corks) or the cork was somehow left in the corker on the bottling line from a prior run (not likely, most bottlers are super diligent about clearing out their corkers between runs and bottlings).
Was the capsule correct? It’s very easy to put capsules and corks on bottles. I make some wine at home and save bottles that I used to rebottle because it saves me a ton of money. Unscrupulous folks could easily get away with drinking a young wine, putting a cheaper one in a bottle and reselling it. A cork from a completly different vineyard is a big red flag for me. Lots of sketchy scammers out there.
Very bizarre - have not heard of that happening before, except in a few cases:
Producers working in the same facility - and perhaps one runs out and needs a handful of corks to fill their bottling needs at the last minute
A producer who ‘purchases’ wine from another producer already bottled and slaps their label on it. Happened recently with a producer on here according to a consumer.
My first thought was this was one of the first bottles off the line and the bottling truck had been at Ravenswood the run prior (although Ravenswood in 2010-ish was probably already big enough to have their own line?) and this cork was hiding in the hopper. Maybe Outpost & Ravenswood use the same cork purveyor? Pretty rare I would think, but I can’t imagine anyone faking a Petite Sirah, glad it showed as it should have and thanks for sharing.
I’ve heard of that happening. I’ve only seen it on once. Hidden Ridge cork in Immortal Estate bottle. Happened when Hidden Ridge sold and was rebranded.