W.E. pod cast
What difference does it make whether a random CT user scores the wine as 60 or marks the wine as flawed? As long as they enter a tasting note, I find it helpful either way.
Prob because it draws down the overall score, and as much as folks here bemoan ratings it still influences peoples decisions to buy wines.
I recently had this experience with a recent release and let the winery know. It seemed all the more important because I noticed a “corked” post from another CT user. The winery seemed pleased to be told and offered to replace it. I agree that TCA comes with the territory…
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Yep. It’s part of users’ documenting their wines. Other users should be able to see an anomaly for what it is - though a pattern may appear if there was an unusually bad batch of corks. As far as TNs - sometimes there’s no point, sometimes you get a good idea of how good the wine should have been and have some useful things to say.
What difference does it make whether a random CT user scores the wine as 60 or marks the wine as flawed? As long as they enter a tasting note, I find it helpful either way.
If the wine is flawed you need to select the flawed feature. I would hope everyone would know this. If it is not flawed and someone wants to give it 60 I would hope they write about what they dislike about the wine.
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Prob because it draws down the overall score, and as much as folks here bemoan ratings it still influences peoples decisions to buy wines.
The ignore author feature is nice. Always love someone with a 71 score while the average is 91. Usually no note included.
Worse yet, giving a 91 point average wine a 71 without note, but clicking the “likes this wine” button.
I usually think of going back to where I bought the wine if there’s an issue with it, not necessarily back to the winery.
WRT flawed notes on CT, I’ve actually had wineries get in touch with me when I’ve had a bad bottle. Cabot and Bedrock are two that stuck out in my head. Even on the Ravenswood library offer that Joel sold last summer I had a bottle arrive with a weird cork and emailed to ask about it. He sent me a replacement. (And in all those cases I decided to add a few bottles to offset the cost of them shipping me said replacement…seems the right thing to do.)
Michael, have you thought about using the TCA-free “sniffed” corks from Lafitte? Yeah, they’re kinda pricy at almost 60cents/bottle an up, but all it takes is 1 bottle out of a 100 that you have to ship a replacement for on your dime, and you’ve eaten up any cost saving you might have had. For me, it was an easy decision. Now, this doesn’t 100% guarantee non-corked wine, but they will replace it on their dime at full price if one is found. So far, not a single one has been found out of about 500 cases I shipped last year.
More importantly, why would anyone post a note on a corked bottle in CT? Unless there is some known problem, and folks are trying to document it. Reminds me of people who write bad Amazon reviews because a product arrived broken.
To keep track for my own records, for which I use CT and have done since 2008. It’s a great centralised place to keep my notes, cellar and purchasing info, very user friendly and searchable. Including corked wines is just a part of that documentation. I do this for all flawed wines: mark as flawed and use the note to describe the flaw. And the utility extends beyond my own personal documentation. If a lot of people find a wine to be corked or overly bretty or prematurely oxidized, that’s something I want to know because it will inform my buying decisions. I’ve seen an entire case of wine before where every single bottle was corked. No matter how good a winery or store’s return policy is, that’s a hassle I’d rather avoid.
This (although 2010 for me). That way I can see which wines I’ve drunk and from which producer. It would be stupid not to mark the corked wines because later you couldn’t check out which wines were drunk in a certain vertical if corked wines were dropped.
It might not offer any value to other users, but it most certainly is of value to me. I apologize if I have offended somebody with my notes on corked bottles in CT, but I primarily use the site for myself, not for others.
Great policy - Michael, please sell up your winery, move to France and buy a couple of Bordeaux châteaux - and if you have any spare change, something in Burgundy too!
Corked wines are thankfully rare but not as rare as French producers, especially in Bordeaux, who are willing to replace them. As for premoxed Burgundy…ho ho ho!
Can’t you contact the note writer via their profile Message Board on the “New CellarTracker”
I’m a “Classic” CellarTracker guy, but this feature could have some value.
I rarely ask, just accepting it as part of the cost of the hobby. Often more hassle than it is worth, but great to see a winemaker so open about it and willing to fix something that I assume was difficult for even them to control. I think the only time I recall asking for a replacement was when I bought a rather expensive and mature Italian wine from Chambers. They replaced it immediately. I made the request because like the OP they are open about their replacement policy and I have been buying lots from them for 15+ years. Oh, had another local retailer replace some Raffault when I popped 3 bottles in one night that were all corked. There I exchanged the whole case as the odds were, this lot was spoiled.
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Have you ever commented on the note to say “contact me”?
A few weeks ago I popped a very high-end Napa cab that was corked with TCA. I contacted the winery and since I didn’t purchase directly from them, they deferred replacing it and suggested contacting the retailer. Very disappointing.
I hope all Berserkers are aware that their local retailer they buy from should almost always be willing to credit or swap flawed bottles as long as the bottle is brought back with some level of wine left in it and the wine is indeed flawed. It puts us in an odd position when we’re told “this wine I bought from you two weeks ago is flawed, but I poured it out and tossed the bottle and would have to dig in the recycle bin to find it”. We deal with a good chunk of customers thinking that an old cork breaking on them is an indicator that they deserve a refund and that the wine has issues. We don’t want to treat everyone as if they’re misinformed, but more often than not they unfortunately are. If in doubt please call the bottle shop you purchased from sooner rather than later. We want you to be happy with your purchase, we want you to come back, and we also think you deserve your money back if there’s an issue. That being said, there are some customers out there that abuse this scenario to return bottles they don’t like and a line has to be drawn somewhere.
Ugh. You should tell the retailer that this winery wants to stick the cost of corked bottles on its retailers. If it didn’t then it wouldn’t reject the idea of handling it directly.