Most deceptive wine business practices to watch out for

I am sure everyone has lots of experience with companies in the wine industry being deceptive in some way or another.

What are some of the most deceptive/ misleading practices you have seen?

Here is one that I can think of that seems to be growing in popularity among sellers.

The seller has a bunch of bottles listed on their site, or side by side at their store, or even in an email list. They of course show the ratings, usually just the highest ratings (which personally I think is already deceptive), but one of those ratings coincidentally is not for the given wine, but for the given vintage of that region, because the bottle didn’t get very good reviews. So that 88pt $30 2016 Brunello is now displayed as a WA 98 pointer.

*although some probably deserve to be bashed, this thread is not aimed at attacking any specific sellers.

I have a pet peeve in tasting rooms where I am told something is “highly allocated, tasting room only, hard to find, not available to purchase, etc…” and then I can usually find it online and sometimes even for less than the winery sells it for.

One of the things I hate the most and find deceptive is when retailers use tasting notes but omit the score because it’s too low.

Note 1
JS101

Note 2
WA95

Note 3 describing this “very fine” wine
No score (was NM89+)

Saying “free shipping” in the subject line but then read the print in the email and it is “free shipping on orders $500 and above.”

high handed vintage substitution policies, esp when its a merchant professing to be in the fine wine trade.

Another one is name dropping even if no connection exists whatsoever: “This Selosse influenced winemaker, …” although they never worked with Selosse, their wines tasting nothing like it, but they do have bubbles in it. Extra points if it’s not even Champagne (e.g. Cremant)

Selling uncovered futures can end badly.

One thing I’ve noticed more in physical stores in the last two years has been old stock being mixed in with current releases e.g. I saw a 2013 blanc mixed in with the current release 2018’s over the weekend. This will particularly screw over the person ordering from an Instacart type of intermediary, or perhaps the innocent spouse dispatched to the store, and instructed to come home with a favorite estate.

Or they might hit a home run with some bottle age?

Or how about ‘from a 98 point Napa Vintage’ but certainly NOT a ‘98 point’ wine . . .

The Retailer calling it a “95 point” wine and basing it off their own rating system. As in their wine buyers scored it themselves instead of pulling in the rating system from a publication or well-known reviewer.

‘Close neighbor to a 100 point vineyard’

This was the first thing that came to my mind. My eyes could not possibly roll further when a retailer tries to sell me on a (usually) unknown wine from the XX point(!) vintage. Cannot imagine a less relevant data point. And this dead horse has been well flogged, but of course the score from the in-house “critic.”

I’ve noticed one lately in some email offers wherein a wine being sold is given, say, 97 points from Bob Hughes or some other less mainstream critic. It is then placed in a table with multiple other wines (usually only related by grape variety) which have all been given the same score, and the last column is the price, where the wine being pumped is the cheapest by far. It’s not really even a pet peeve as the deception is so transparent, but don’t imply that some unknown Napa cab is as good as a Harlan or Dominus, or that some Mercury is comparable to Rousseau because they received the same score…

I once bought some wine from a retailer that was called “pre-arrival”. It didn’t arrive before the retailer declared bankruptcy and went out of business. Very deceptive, however the pricing was phenomenal.

I had an experience with a board darling NY retailer who would never fess up to making mistakes. For example, shipping 11 bottles and when you’d inquire about the 12th, the answer was “it was shipped to you” or “let me look into it” - sometimes for weeks he’d be silent and unresponsive. The shipping label showed the weight - and it was light. The same retailer would substitute a less desirable vintage then feign disbelief when you’d call and speak with him. In the end, there are many stand-up retailers, and sadly, some who make it all about them rather their customers.

Or a trans shipper that replaces one of your purchased bottles from the retailer with a lesser bottle (lacking retailer sticker), charges you for insurance, and then refuses to replace bottle or compensate you in any way. I’ve been slow rolled over 6 weeks now.

Was very guilty of this in my retail days. 89 Point wines don’t sell. Since all 90+ wines are considering “outstanding”, I always included that in the 90+ scores. Anything less than 90 would get a “very good” at the end.

Hey, gotta move those SKUS!

Well, it still is “pre-arrival”!