That’s a fair point. I could’ve indicated a desire to hold until the fall/winter.
That being said, I’m not sure how consistent mid-80s temps is considered an appropriate time to ship. There wasn’t an unexpected heatwave from the time of shipping until receipt. Some wineries I purchase from, for instance, indicate they will not ship unless the temp is 76-78 or below in the receiving area. I’m not ITB so I’m not sure what industry standard is.
So, the lesson on my end is to be more specific. Ultimately, the first opened bottle was great, so no issue so far!
Glad to hear. Btw I don’t think they should have shipped it then. But sometimes I wonder if customers say “where’s my wine” so the wineries want to avoid those issues .
Winery emailed me back . Package has been recalled . We will touch base in October.
But this still seems odd to me. From the most recent email:
“My shipping company has a good handle on all of the temps and the shipping protection for our wines”.
I did previously ask and there was no response regarding protection taken. And temperatures were pretty hot (near 100) during the day when the wine was in California .
I just got a bottle of wine re-shipped by Alquimista Cellars that had been MIA for a while. The situation could have been a real headache, but the staff (particularly the delightful Ms Lisa Gower) remedied the issue.
The two-bottle styro-shipper’s “Jessie’s Grove” Zin/Field Blend had a still-cool rectangular ice pack accompanying it when it was received.
Hmm, it’s Rose, something you will probably drink this summer, so not a wine to age. If the bottles arrive, look OK (i.e., no seepage, pushed corks, etc.), they are almost certainly just fine. Try one and see, and if there’s a problem you can get in touch with the winery and ask for a credit on your next order. That’s what I’d do, anyway.
Most of the time, wineries give the benefit of the doubt to those who feel a shipment has been damaged by heat. What I mean is that they don’t want the wine back (as they pay for return freight), they ship replacements either expedited or wait until temps are moderate. All of the imagined conspiracies of wineries lying, recipients needing to cleverly deface bottles before returning. or theories of damaged wines being resold are not real world problems. Pragmatically, if a wine is received and shows no signs of damage, leakage or cork expansion but the only data point the recipient has is “it was hot outside.” that is a pretty flimsy claim. A claim of damage needs to be verifiable - If it is indistinguishable from a ‘control’ bottle, then likely it is a bias you create in your head. We place temperature strips in all of our boxes sent by temp control that bleed out at 68 degrees. Generally if wine does come back as undelivered, it is coravined or possibly opened and tasted by the staff to determine if damaged. If not it likely will get poured in the Tasting Room.
Bruce, that statement could apply to any bottle carried home directly from retail, auction or out of a cellar. Short of tangible signs of damage, appearance proves nothing and anything you ‘compare’ it with would need to have been tasted at the winery to assure perfect provenance.
But I wasn’t going to drink it this summer. Wanted to let it sit until next summer . So I wouldn’t know if the wine was “cooked”.
Before my purchase I asked if they would hold until the fall and was told yes.
After my purchase:, in the email corespondenxe from the winery they stated : “… definitely looking into the fall for shipping with this weather this summer”. … “look forward to chatting again in the fall.”
It was over 100 degrees during a portion of the trip.
When I asked if the wine was packed with anything to keep it cool(er), I never got an answer.
So for all of the above reasons I asked them to please recall the shipment.
In this case, I don’t think it matters what the wine was - whether it was rose or not. The winery did not follow through with what the customer wanted - or just disregarded it.
As I mentioned above, and to be fair, the shipping game has become much more complex, especially when you’re dealing with multiple orders being held for long periods of time from multiple regions around the US. It is nearly impossible to ‘get it right’, and then if you take into account 3rd party shippers who sometimes work ‘independently’ of what the winery has instructed them to do, you get situations like this.
The other thing that very well may have happened - other customers called or emailed and said ‘ship away’ and they felt that was a ‘green light’ to ship yours as well. They were wrong - but there are always potential ‘reasons’.
The wine came in a styrofoam shipper . When I first asked the winery if it was shipped in a styrofoam shipper, I never got an answer. Had I known it would have , I probably would have kept it . But this reshipment bugs me.
