So what’s the deal with bottles that have seepage costing only slightly less that better bottles. Should these be super cheap? I was looking to acquire some older CA wines and I was blown away by the cost of some the bottles which I would normally think would be utterly flawed and undrinkable. What is the method to this pricing madness? Does anyone here actually but these?
Sucker born every minute is what they think.
Definitely a greater risk with leakers, and the pricing should match accordingly.
-Sometimes these sticky capsules/corks mysteriously protects a perfect wine… But as a thumb rule, avoid, and get the good lookers.
-Soren.
What amazes me is not that the wines are offered at those prices but that people buy them. The latter results in the former.
Do these wines you are referring to actually have bids?
Keep in mind that just because a wine is put up with a given reserve, doesn’t mean it will sell. Like others said, maybe there’s a sucker out there that will buy it. But more likely it will sit unsold.
I was just checking prices, not if anyone had actually bid yet. I just sat there in shock and then decided not to buy anything as such practices seems sketchy to me.
I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve consigned bottles with “evidence of past seepage” to Winebid. I don’t find anything sketchy about it as long as it is disclosed, and for me at least, I’m as confident in those bottles as any that I consign. In my case, I’m talking about CA Cabs from the 70s and 80s, and the seepage occurred when I picked up the wines on release. I lived a couple of hours from Napa, and even in the winter, the interior of the car would heat up enough to cause a bit of seepage in some bottles (it doesn’t take much of a temp increase to cause some seepage, as I see it regularly when I bring in a magnum from the cellar and leave it at room temp for a hour or so). Yes, the seal was compromised and there was undoubtedly some oxygen admitted when the volume contracted, but I believe the “young” corks were resilient enough to reseal the bottle well and I’ve found the wine in fine shape when opening it 30 or 40 years later. Is it diminished in some fashion ? Possibly, but unless you’re tasting side by side with a bottle that hasn’t left the winery, it would be difficult to tell, and that’s ignoring the possibility of bottle variation.
Of course, as a potential bidder, you have no way of knowing this history and I understand your caution. The prices are often cheaper than pristine bottles, though, and the “sucker” may be getting an amazing bottle of wine at a price that can’t be matched.
People that don’t offer returns should not sell ‘previous signs of seepage’ bottles. Period.
They’re not wrong. $5 off for 4cm ullage and a sticky capsule? Sold!
Mike and Ted, I agree 100%.
Some wines were notorious for seepage on release from overfilling, such as some of the Domaine Leroy wines from the early nineties before Mme. Bize-Leroy apparently changed the bottling line instructions. I have had some of them and they were all fine. It was odd though to see a bottle without even the tiniest bubble of air in it and long sticky drips of wine on the outside.
Keep an eye on those bottles and you’ll find every couple weeks the price lowers by $5 or $10. They’ll keep dropping until they hit the price that triggers some sap to snag it.