A few months ago I went to Chambers St. Wines, one of the best-regarded wine stores in New York, and parted with $150-plus-tax for a 1964 Borgogno Antichi Vigneti Propri Barolo Riserva. There was lots of brown gunk at the bottom of the capsule, but it looked like a stain from something other than wine. A sticker on the back said “Chambers Street Wines Acquired From a Private Collection.” I stored the bottle in a temperature- and humidity-controlled wine fridge immediately after purchase.
Last night I opened the bottle, and it was an utter sh!tshow. Upon removing the capsule, the entire top of the cork was saturated purple-brown. I tried to apply an ah so to the sides of the cork, but the prongs cut right through it–it had turned to mush–and large bubbles started popping up around the edges, making an audible pop and whoosh as more air was released. I finally pushed the cork in and poured the contents into a decanter. Needless to say, the “wine”–if you could still call it that at this point–was poopy brown and oxidized past the point of any recognition. My dinner companions took one whiff of the decanter and refused to even try a sip.
I’m well aware that this wine is nearly 50 years old, and that everything is a crapshoot at that age. If I had bought this from Winebid/WineCommune and the bottle’s exterior condition was accurately described, I’d’ve just said “caveat emptor” and moved on. But I was under the impression–perhaps incorrectly–that when you buy at retail, part of what you pay for is the store vouching for the provenance of their inventory. That doesn’t mean that every ancient bottle will sing like a siren, of course. But I think it does mean that they should not sell wine that has been transparently, obviously mistreated and fried to a crisp. Anyone looking at the top of that cork would know there was an 0.00% chance of there being drinkable wine underneath.
My questions for the community are:
Is there actually an expectation that retail stores are held to a higher standard than auctions regarding the condition and provenance of wines acquired on the secondary market? What safeguards, if any, are they supposed to implement before putting a bottle on their shelves?
How should I respond? Can I ask for a refund, store credit, or another bottle of the same wine if they have one in stock? If they refuse such a request, should I try to raise hell?
Return Policy
NYS law only permits us to accept the return of goods that are defective; for such returns we can offer a replacement of the same item, or we can refund a credit card, or we can issue a store credit.
Sounds pretty straightforward to me–no exceptions for age. You should ask for your money back. I’d be really surprised if they didn’t give it to you since they sold you a defective product. CSW is a reliable retailer.
Caveat Emptor on old wine. It’s a total crapshoot. If you buy it, that’s it. “There’s no crying in baseball or in opening older wine” (I’m paraphrasing). Again, just IMHO.
I have no idea why you would expect to be able to return a bottle that you were able to personally inspect when you wouldn’t expect to be able to do so otherwise. That bottle could easily be that way with perfect provenance. It happens. I don’t know of any business that accepts returns of aged wines.
I have bought older vintages from a few stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Less than 10% of the bottles I bought were actually good. I have a spent more money in the last 5 yrs on older vintages than recent releases. If I believe I got a $hit bottle(s), I never give them a dime ever again. So far, only 2 retailers are getting my money for older vintages.
When buying older vintages from private collectors, retailers(and auction houses) are not very much concerned about bottle condition or storage. Good ones do, of course. If the bottles were stored well, then the buyer benefits. If not, there is always a sucker. I have been a sucker more than once.
+1
You presumably inspected the wine before making the decision to make the purchase. And regardless of how well the exterior of the bottle appeared, in a wine of such age it is unreasonable to expect that a retailer should guarantee the provenance or condition of its contents.
Chambers has an excellent reputation. However, there is only (to me)one true option here. Call them, see how they react , and then make a decision on your future purchasing habits. This is really up to you and you alone.
I understand how it sounds. I bought a older vintage bottle from CSW sometime ago and was not disappointed with the purchase.
I write this based on experience and some off-hand remarks I have overheard at retailers. I am sure you agree there are bad apples in the business. No retailer or auction house can ever prove that the private collector kept bottle(s) in storage facility or under good storage conditions since purchase. It is a risk retailers/auction houses take on and so do buyers.
I have never gone back to a retailer or auction house and asked them for refunds because of bad bottles, no matter the price, because I understood the risk.
So you just stop buying from someone if you’ve had a bad bottle? Every retailer/auction house is going to sell an off bottle at one point or another. Why not develop a relationship with the retailer or auction house and see how they handle returns? Obviously if the result is not favorable, then move on, but at least give them a chance to make good.
I’m confused, either the defects were obvious and you were a little foolish to buy that bottle, or the defects were not obvious and the store did nothing wrong in putting the bottle up for sale.
I have and they recited the as-is condition policy(these are ones I have dropped). The ones I do go to regularly have given me a comparable bottles without even me asking for a refund or discount. They get my business regularly though at times they are a bit more expensive than most retailers.
I was wrongly assuming that the store would only source wines whose provenance it could vouch for, and thus I didn’t pay as much attention to the gunky capsule as I should have. Once I removed the capsule, it was clear the wine was fried, but I didn’t think I could return it with a cut capsule. The question is, is a retailer responsible for ensuring that its stock has been properly stored, and thus for compensating customers who buy bottles that turn out to be defective? (Obviously this doesn’t apply to corked wines, only to mistreated ones.)
From my perspective, a wine sold by a wine merchant is subject to the implied warranty of fitness and merchantability. Meaning–there is an implied warranty that the wine will be drinkable, since that’s what’s intended when you buy a bottle of wine.
HOWEVER, the implied warranties can be disclaimed by clear language, e.g., all wine sold more than X years after its vintage is sold “as is,” and cannot be returned for any refund or exchange or credit.
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