Maison Ilan deliveries

I have tried for the past 4 days and 2 emails to get an email response from Maison Ilan, Ray Walker on the shipping of the balance of the wine he owes from 2010 Gevrey Corbeaux and when the 2011’s will be shipping. I tried a fb message too.

I checked with Crush Wines in NY is also waiting for word.“As for the Maison Ilan we’re waiting on word on both the Corbeaux and the 2011’s. Ray seems to be a little slow with the updates. We’re hoping the wines are on Polaner’s container leaving next week, but to be honest we have no idea.”

Does anyone know what is happening with the wines and when they’ll arrive?
Ray are you there?

Can’t speak directly to East Coast distribution, but fwiw I did just hear from Vins Rare out here in Cali that they had spoken to Ray “the other day” and didn’t expect the 11’s to ship from France until after Jan 1.

Hey Suzanne,
great speaking with you just now. I’ve always tried to be quick with emails but this time of year it can be a bit difficult. I have been flooded with emails and honestly have not been feeling too well. I have also been trying to spend more time with my family since during harvest I don’t see much of them. I understand that with my participation here it may seem like I should always be on the quick with responding but it is difficult at times.

For those awaiting 2011s, as I have mentioned on emails as well as on my blog, we have decided to hold our wines for a longer time in barrel. This is partially due to my thoughts on how our wines evolve though also something which was launched with consideration of this year’s weather. In short, the weather was dramatic. Times when I wanted to bottle arrived with rainy or snowy weather. If not for the cold, it was too hot. When tasting the wines and reflecting on releasing within a certain period of time I arrived at the thought that I was hurrying the wines just to make room in my tiny cave. A new vintage was coming so I needed to make room. Folks were rushing to have their wines so I moved quicker.

But here is the thing. At the end of the day, once a wine is taken from barrel and sent off to folks, it is the result of the vintage, the vineyard and my choices. I can’t help but think that rushing the wines out for the benefit of early drinking (or clients physically holding the bottles or making room) is doing a disservice to everyone’s wines. Some folks are in a rush, some don’t care when they arrive and some folks would prefer if I delivered at 10 years time.

The situation is further complicated due to my selling as futures. Folks have paid earlier and are more prone to want their wines as soon as possible…and rightly so, to some degree. I believe that if folks are paying for wines that are being taken care of, the timing of the bottling should be taken seriously.

It is with this thought that I have made the decision to lease more space (at the Abbaye de la Bussiere) to hold wines for a longer period of time. I do this not to keep wines away from my clients but to ensure that I am acting with the best intentions for my wines, their wines.

It is my belief, my understanding that wines of this level respond dramatically differently with more time to mature in barrel. It is of benefit to allow them this time. No one is necessarily rushing for their wines but I hope that my expressing this will help in explaining my point of view.

The 2011s will indeed be bottled shortly and shipped out to the US before the end of November. I make it a point to not speak about my views on my own wines but I can say that I believe they are what they should be and that the time has treated them well.

If anyone has further questions please don’t hesitate to contact me. I don’t have staff to answer emails, never have, so I thank you for your patience in my time responding.

Thank you

Ray Walker

Hey Steve
I haven’t spoken with Vins Rares for a few months now. I apologize for the false news. I forecasting shipping by the end of the month.


The Horse’s Mouth

Ray… how about the ones who are still awaiting our 2010s? I haven’t heard anything yet.

Hey Bud
for folks that haven’t heard on 2010s, they should email me directly or call Crush (they would in this situation forward you to the warehouse).
Rest assured, everyone will be getting their wines soon. It is best to have communication from those expecting wines that have not received word such as yourself as soon as possible. Things happen, folks move, change email addresses, spam folders catch emails or things simply break loose. In any event, the wines will get to you shortly. It is my goal, my priority to make sure that folks aren’t stressed about it and that the wines will be placed into your hands and cellars as quickly as possible.

Bud, I’ll make a call over to Crush right now and see if I can get some answers. Thank you for letting me know about the break in communication.

Cheers

Ray

no rush Ray–send them when they’re ready

Ray

You are storing some wines at Abbaye de la Bussiere?? We stayed there last year and it was really a great spot. We saw the press they have but didn’t see any cellar space. The buildings are in amazing condition and the grounds are beautiful.

Hey Jerry!
We will be moving the 2013s over to the Abbaye de la Bussiere next week. The cellier is directly beneath the room with the pressoir.

Here is a photo of the 12th century (!) cellier where my wines will be. The room is more cleaned up now. I’m quite happy with it!


cellierAbbaye by maisonilan

That’s the sexiest basement I’ve seen a long time. (Or is it cellier? An “ie” instead of “a”? Those French…)

I emailed Crush and they sent my wines this week, your 2010’s are now resting on the lowest shelf in my cellar. I wouldn’t mind if you held the 2011’s for ten more years.

I guess you didn’t buy the 2010 Gevrey Corbeaux [snort.gif]
I would mind if Ray held the 2011’s another month. I would hate to lose the chance to taste before they close.

Hello again Suzanne
the 11s are still in barrel at present. They are in no way near being closed, trust me.

when do you sleep?
the 2009’s were late
the 2010’s were late
the 2011’s are going to be late

Well, I try to be on top of things such as this. Hard to sleep.
Suzanne, I’m not sure how else you’d like me to respond. I am doing the best I can, which is the best for the wines and for my clients. Yes, the wines have been late. The wines (and therefore the client) have benefited with this additional time. This falls in line with what I believe to be the focus of what I do, provide the best for my clients. Timelines of those more anxious for their wines have been altered, however the alternative would be an incomplete package.

To respond to your initial post, I have been busy this entire week placing the 2013s in barrel. It takes a bit of time. In the future, I will mainly respond to email as I believe the ability to communicate exclusively on a website to be quite limited which is why I call clients directly, holiday (All Saints), weekend, or early morning hours (in my timezone) included.

I would prefer to either speak with you on the phone (as we did earlier this evening), or by email. It is now 4am in the morning. This should serve as somewhat of an example of how dedicated I am to my wines and my clients, of which you are one. That should be worth more than any other reassurance I could provide. This is one of those proof is in the pudding type of moments…

for those dealing with crush, they were a bit disorganized on the logistics of getting the 2010 ilan wines from their warehouse. it took a bunch of back and forth emails, but everything worked out in the end for me. as ray mentioned earlier, the corbeaux had a longer fermentation (stuck?) and was therefore not included in the initial 2010 shipment. so my corbeaux isn’t in either. i think they’re charging $7 per bottle to clear and then shipping/delivery charge.

I don’t understand Suzanne’s post that the wines are ‘late’. Ray’s job is to do the best job he can producing these wines. He’s not on a ‘clock’, on an assembly line. He’s a producer of an artisinal product that’s ready when he says it’s ready. There are many variables and people pay more than Yellow Tail prices for both the raw product but also Ray’s expertise in turning this raw product into a finished good. Or am I wrong?

To speed up deliveries for the 2013 vintage Ray will be direct mailing you the grapes, bottle, cork, and label, so you can have immediate gratification.

That was my thought-process as well. You are buying an artisanal product from an artist; if you trust him/her enough to buy the wines, then trust him/her to make the determination regarding when to bottle, deliver, etc. Didn’t Gonon just do this with their VV, convinced that they had been released them too early? The '09 VV is not due until 2014 even though we already have the '11 base domaine bottling.

Thanks for the straight dope Ray. I don’t have enough experience with VR to judge their accuracy when making statements like that, but I wasn’t entirely convinced (hence the “fwiw”). I am surprised they apparently felt the need to say anything other than “we don’t know” since my query to them was entirely the result of what looked like a mass email announcing the return of shipping season and asking for customers to set their shipping parameters, I had no expectation of getting the wine before next year and am in no hurry.