Gents- We’re all looking for a perfect provenance bottle that was magically underpriced or mis-priced, with no buyer’s premium. And I respect everyone’s right to state their opinions on wines and auction houses, but wonder why the need for throwing shade? I’m referring specifically to the implication that the provenance of wines on WineBid might be questioned versus other specific houses.
HoosJustin, MikeL, CFu- we’ve conversed publicly and privately, and WineBid greatly appreciates your patronage as a buyer and some of you as sellers- so you all know the quality and where the wines come from.
What you may not know, and for the record, is that as a matter of regular business WineBid has the most rigorous and thorough inspection process of any auction house. I know this for a fact from speaking with several current and former employees of most of the well-known houses. WineBid hand-inspects over 90% of the bottles that come in (cases of newer vintage wines may be random sample inspected, but absolutely all singles are inspected)- which no other house does. We have 6 WSET certified inspectors who conduct a thorough multi-point provenance, inspection and pricing process, leveraging a proprietary database of over 500,000 wines and wine label photography developed over the past 15 years, as well as other in-house IP- which no one else has or does. And from those inspections, WineBid publishes more detailed provenance, quality and pricing information, along with more detailed high res photos than any other house, live or online. And even with all of the expense we put into inspection, photography and documentation, we still manage to charge the lowest buyer’s premium.
Now, we don’t guarantee that every bottle is perfect provenance or perfect quality- in fact we more clearly state and show the variations of almost every single bottle. What we do guarantee is that we will do our utmost to provide you the most detailed information so that you can make your most informed bidding and buying decisions. While you may not like our short-form provenance descriptors, it’s still more detailed on a per bottle basis than anyone else provides. And by the way, none of this is to meant to question or throw shade on the other houses’ processes. I don’t take joy at seeing negative remarks about other houses, and I do believe that all of the bigger and well-known firms make commercially reasonable efforts to vet their wines. However, I also know WineBid goes the extra mile- to the extent that one of the other house’s CEOs remarked to me that he was actually envious and respectful of the job we do.
Finally, I’ll add that it’s ironic that at least one of you is bidding on the wine in question. While we appreciate your bidding on the wines, if the subtly negative suggestions are meant to try and scare away other bidders, it’s really not effective and not appreciated, as it places negative connotations on our overall brand. We do appreciate when some of you catch items that may have been mis-inspected or mis-categorized and bring it to my attention at my email, which is faster and more constructive than posting something here, and for all other constructive feedback you might want to provide.
WineBid takes inspection seriously, we take our brand seriously, and we take your wines seriously.
I sincerely hope that one of you wins this bottle, and that you all find perfect provenance wines at great deals this year, whether on WineBid or elsewhere.
Happy tasting and sharing through 2021!