I guess they believe that people are taking their wines, re-corking them with flawed corks, and putting them into the stream of commerce.
Many retailers do this. They take out the good corks, replace them with bad corks, and sell them to schmucks who don’t know better. They do this because they NEED the good corks for arts and crafts projects. You’re dealing with a winery that knows what’s up!
It’s different in Europe. Whenever I told a winery there was a problem with their corks, they were immediately interested in the cork so they could look up the lot number and supplier. But they probably don’t have that re-corking thing going on.
Ahnfeldt even sent me a hat.
That is so random every winery should do it. Or a mouse pad!
It’s illogical given no matter where you bought the wine from it was corked when it left the winery. I get that they may take a different position if it was heat damaged or something like that. That being said, I’ve never sent a corked bottle back to the winery but given I’m in the UK, I don’t buy a lot of US wines. I’ve heard of people sending back corked wines to Bordeaux Chateaus but I’ve never done so.
I would go above the head of the tasting room manager at this point - if he’s being backed from above, out the winery. If not, hopefully someone whose name is on or more closely related to the bottle has some sanity.
And point out you’re not looking for a refund, but presumably a replacement (or like-kind). Not that it justifies the behavior, but if you paid someone else it could get a little squirelly in their mind to give you the refund.
I agree that it absurd - doesn’t matter where the bottle was purchased - it is their product and it is defective. And, you actually brought it back to them so they didn’t even have to take your word for it. Hopefully this is a boneheaded response from someone who doesn’t have final say and that the winemaker and owners care about this.
If they don’t make it right, please disclose the name of the winery as many around here would prefer not to do business with a winery that has such a policy, particularly when most other wineries understand the issue and take care of their customers.
But the only way our industry will improve its standards is to:
Understand that a corked bottle is the responsibility of the winery, period.
Understand that said bottle became ‘corked’ at bottling, as soon as the cork touched the wine, and did not occur due to storage conditions
Understand that consumers should always try to return corked bottles, regardless of age or cost, because without doing so, the wineries are allowed to continue to get away with using known ‘faulty’ closures and we will never know the ‘true’ percentage of corked wines out there.
No, it was a library wine pruchase directly from the winemaker. He pulled all the bottles from cold storage at the winery as I stood there.
I am in sales. Lots of my product has a lifetime warranty. I have people bring me broken product out of the blue and I replace it for them because the product has a lifetime warranty. They could be buying it for pennies on the dollar on eBay, getting it replaced and the reselling for a profit. That’s none of my business. I still warranty it because the first time I deny warranty word will be spread throughout the industry not to do business with me. Once you have a bad name it takes a generation to shed if ever.
A sample from a winemaker is a shiner. Otherwise it is a commercial bottle.
Wow, that is above and beyond poor service. They know you are a customer. They know who you got the bottle from. Are they asking the winemaker to eat the cost and send you a new one? I wish you would out them as I would never buy from them again.
See the Dominus thread. They won’t replace so i don’t buy from them.
I have had wineries tell me they don’t have the vintage anymore and replace with a newer bottle. For some smaller wineries I believe but others I am a bit skeptical, but that is still ok. They want to keep their library, fine. At least they gave me a current vintage release.
Just gotta say that that truly sucks. It sounds as if you have given them a few opportunities to ‘make things right’ and unless you want to go to the owner about this, what’s done is done.
Poor customer service - you are not a ‘squeaky wheel’ type of guy, and this is a ‘faulty product’, no matter how old, etc.
Now if when you had purchased it, the winemaker had said that you are purchasing this ‘as is’ and that he or she will not ‘guarantee’ it, well, then I guess that would be different . . .
Though usually the preference would be for the replacement to be the same vintage, I understand that there are library issue with that and it may not be possible, particularly a number of years after release, and so I am fine with a replacement from current or recent release of the same wine.
Maybe I’m mistaken, but as appropriate and good business practice don’t wineries build into their business plan/budget/expectations appropriate amounts not only for samples and marketing but also for replacements for corked bottles in particular as well as for shipping issues, breakage and other problems? Not that there isn’t a cost to replacements to the bottom line but it should all be factored into how they run their business and price their wines.
I take it to the purchasing source and not necessary to winery, because of the storage/handling conditions. In the two times I did it, I once got the “well, your problem” and when I pushed back I got 50% refund. In the other I got “we think it is your problem (aka- you are saying the bottles has clear seepage signs and we did not report them? well the seepage was not there) but we will refund you because we don’t want to handle it”.