I finally got around to opening the box of my 2014 Rhys Pinot sampler 500ml bottles. Below is an example of what they mostly look like. Should be fun (mostly) blind tasting. I at least know the one on the left is either Horseshoe or Alpine because some of the appellation info is still visible. Most of the rest are a blank slate!
I wonder what the heck happened. There are no label shards in the shipper.
Better stand the table upright or they may fall on the floor.
Not sure why the photo add didn’t work. Usually does. At least any sediment will collect on one side!
Point taken!
UV-light reveals everything!
Need to have a UV light.
Anyway, Kevin “Class Act” Harvey has already reached out. I am going to do a detailed review to see what I can sleuth out from what’s left of the labels.
These wines may become extremely rare due to the label misprint!
Awesome!
Kudos for the innovative use of invisible ink! Were these specially made for blind tastings?
Heh!
Anyway, I opened one, and of course the cork is branded. It’s Horseshoe. It’s not one I would have opened now, but what the hell.
Rudy and John must be missing a shipment of labels.
Remember, we’re drinking wine here, not labels! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
Heretic!
I’ve had a couple experiences where condensation formed on bottles in a styro shipper (cardboard also). Maybe some moisture got in there, condensed when it got cold during shipment, and allowed the labels to rub off as they jostled?
In the upside down pic, it sorta looks like a layer was mostly pealed off. Weird. Maybe some odd defect at the end of a roll that wasn’t noticed at bottling?
It’s random Some are peeled looking and some look like they have been nearly scrubbed off. I wasn’t paying much attention to the shipper when I opened it, but wonder if someone opened it and messed with things.
Kevin is being a great guy as usual and swapping them out.
Probably just good old fashioned hiccup in the printing process. Skipped a label or two somehow (wrong tension on the spool, computer glitch that caused the press to momentarily slow down or speed up, etc.) Happens less often these days and is usually isolated to a “part” of the labels printing process such as a foil,or,specific ink color. Someone then didn’t have their heads up on the QC aspect of the bottling line to pull those off.
I actually think Alan nailed it above. There are four different bottling runs together in this mixed case. When the box was packed it seems nearly impossible that all 4 bottlings could be a rare blank label. Instead this has to be shipping related and Alan’s theory of condensation is probably correct.
Agree. Alan’s answer seems most likely except for the completely missing back label on one. Bizarro-world.