WTB or Trade: 1971 Ridge Eisele (I know)

I know this one is hard to find, but have had some luck finding other unicorns here, so why not … If you have a bottle (or more) you’d be interested in moving, please let me know. Will want to know all relevant details as to provenance (dating back as far as possible), storage, fill, etc. Can do cash or trade.

Can’t quite offer a unicorn of that “unicorniness” but can offer some higher value bottles including:

• 1985 Sassicaia
• few vintages of Screagle including '01 and '13
• many vintages of Harlan including the controversial 1997
• 1982 Mouton
• Lots of vintages of other “cult” cabs like Scarecrow, Colgin, Dalla Valle (including both vintages of MDV), Abreu, Bryant (including 1997), etc.

I had never heard of this bottling. Just saw it on WineBid today and my jaw dropped.

There’s one listing on wine searcher

Same here. Looks like someone got a steal last week!

It’s not my preference to buy such a bottle from WineBid. I’d rather buy from a WB’er who can tell me more about the provenance than “stored in temperature controlled cellar” or similar.

Had not seen that … at that price, the bottle had better be pristine (with a great story of provenance) and that one is ~mid shoulder with no listed provenance.

Yup, I definitely agree with you position.

there’s a certain cost included with provenance. The Joseph Phelps cellar for HDH had two bottles of this go - $10k a bottle. But then another auction two months earlier were 4k a bottle.

HDH vets bottles as a matter of regular business—I trust both lots they offered. Random wine merchants across the country don’t have that type of expertise on hand. If HDH had such a bottle in their retail apparatus, and it had a fill level into the neck, that price would be more defensible.

How about 10 bottles?

Rudy?

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!

I just checked and I’m up to 194 bottles purchased on WineBid over the years. And really, my experience has been fantastic. Especially the older bottles I’ve bought have been in really good condition when I receive them including 67 Ridge MB, 73 Stag’s Leap, 75 Phelps Eisele, 76 Heitz Bella Oaks, 78 Chappellet magnum, etc. I just love chasing down prizes like those. And especially on that older stuff, the descriptions and very detailed photos on WineBid are second to none, love it.

As a “relative” newbie to Winebid, only 110 bottles in and more than half enjoyed, so far great. Initially I had some reservation about Providence but as my positive experience continues to grow I feel very comfortable chasing those bottles that I want without reservation.

I have had the wine a couple of times in the last five years, each time paired with the 1971 Monte Bello. I have a slight preference for the Monte Bello which is more classical, the Eisele particularly the second time was plummy and a lot less precise. It was with a group of a dozen tasters and split evenly.

The over/under on this is around $40k. No way will it sell at low estimate.

I bought a bottle recently from WineBid. A totally different and far better experience than the pre Mann era. Great customer service.

Russ,
I appreciate your comments. If I may push back a tiny bit, and note, I think I qualify as a pretty loyal WB customer, the comment regarding the value of “removed from a temperature controlled cellar” has plenty of merit. To me, that tells me close to nothing on a wine’s provenance. While, I personally bid with confidence with WB, more information would be better when known. I know most people on here have very detailed purchase notes for our wines.

I think Russ is being much too sensitive here. I understand the want to protect and defend one’s business, but there are no allegations here against winebid. There are Logical statements made as to finding the best provenance one can in order to reduce risk. It’s not the first time he chimes in to “ask” the community not to publicly comment On Winebid.

I was pretty confused as well that I was named in the post.