Returning wine with excessive brett

Looking for some feedback from those in the biz on whether it’s OK to return bottles that, in my opinion, have excessive brett. I recently had a bottle and it was undrinkable - smelled like a box of plastic band aids and nothing else. Very little change after a few days.

I returned it. Usually I don’t even get asked what’s wrong from this retailer, they just take it, but because it was a screw cap, they asked. I gave my opinion and they took it back, but with a little bit of a scoff and a roll of the eyes. The salesperson said he’d return it to the distributor and tell him it smelled like band aids… the tone was mocking, but they did take it back.

So am I asking for too much? Or was this guy just being a d-bag with attitude?

Well yeah, he was a douchebag for the attitude. Good customer services is taking the wine back regardless of the flaw and only hesitating if a customer is abusing that policy to return anything that’s not amazing.

To me the question of whether you can expect to return a wine revolves around the issue of whether the wine is flawed or whether it was it damaged by the customer. TCA - flawed wine, nothing to do with storage. Brett on a new wine, similar. On an older wine that the customer’s had a long time… well, the wine is flawed, but sub-55 storage will usually prevent brett from blooming… so there might be customer contribution there. In the retailer’s shoes, I’d take the wine back and explain the relationship of brett to storage conditions so that you could minimize the odds of it blooming.

On the “I’d take it back but really this is your screwup” side are heat damaged wines that the customer caused by, say, not storing it with an temp control and letting it float to 80 over the summer or driving around in the summer with the wine in the trunk. I might take those back, but I’d be very clear that I’m doing so to be nice and they you have a responsibility to not abuse the wine and, if you do, it’s your dime not mine.

I don’t think you were asking too much. We haven’t had many returned bottles but we replace them, if we don’t have the same wine we’ll replace with something comparable and return the bad bottle to the winery/distributor for credit. I’ve yet to have them tell me “Tough Luck”.
I always feel we are in the customer service industry, while we may not always agree with a customer, they are the ones that keep our doors opened and should be happy with the way they are being treated. I’d hate to think anyone of our customers were calling us d.bags

Good customer service would mean replacing the bottle without any attitude.

I recently contacted a wine store in LA about a bottle that was badly flawed and their response was “that can happen with wine”.

Yup, I don’t buy wine from them anymore. Period.

Plus, it wasn’t the first time I had purchased an off bottle from them.

I bought a bottle from a store whose owner is not the most amiable when it comes to complaints and problems, and the bottle was fairly reductive. I didn’t bother to bring it back. It was a cheap bottle and I thought that maybe another bottle of the same wine would have the same issue. I casually mentioned it later and the owner was disappointed that I hadn’t returned the bottle. Anyone with another attitude is not serving their customers well and I would not support such a business. Brett is obviously a bit of a gray area regarding whether or not it is a flaw, but if all you could smell was band aids, it should have been taken back without the attitude. And I am one of the few who does not have the “customer is always right” view.

Hope you let them know. One small step to better policies on their part…

First rule in retail: The customer is always right.
Anything else equals a lost customer.

Cool. Thanks for the replies. I’ll give the salesman the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to him having a bad day. I thought it was a flaw and shouldn’t have to pay for something that was obviously flawed. I had only purchased this bottle about a week before and it was a current release (2006), so my storage was not a factor.

Retailer should contact his rep, who should contact the winery to let them know of the situation and bottles being returned due to brett. Customer should get credit with no questions.

But if the customer tasted it first and brett was apparent (and bought it anyway), then customer needs to eat it.

“The customer is NOT always right, but they are always the customer.”

fixed.

[wink.gif]

No question that should have taken the bottle back - he’d make a customer hapopy and he can almost certainly swap out the bad bottle with the distributor.

By the way, if you were getting a rubbery, band-aid smell then it may have been a volatile sulfur compound (e.g., methyl mercaptans) rather than brett. Brett usually presents with barnyard/sweaty horse saddle aromas.

How about this: The customer is always right until the customer asks you to commit a felony. [grin.gif]

I no longer sell wine at the retail level, and maybe this influences my answer.
But I’d have to say “No, it is not OK to return the wine”.

Two exceptions, here…

  1. You’ve had the exact same wine from the exact same vintage numerous times before and this bottle was undeniably far Brettier than past bottles.
    or,
  2. You purchase the wine because it was recommended by one of the shop’s staff, who also let you know that the wine was an acceptable bottle for those who don’t care much for Brett.

Given that you did return it, though, the shop’s staff should have responded more appropriately than they did. That would mean smiling, and graciously refunding your money, no questions asked.

Cheers,

Richard beat me to that one; I agree. The funny thing is that I’m having a “conversation” with Bernie over on WCWN, who seems to take the position that the wine industry really shouldn’t make a serious effort to educate people on wine flaws…

Anyway, whether it’s brett, mercaptans, TCA, VA/EA, or whatever, if the level of the flaw is enough that it seriously affects your enjoyment of the wine, then I think the wine is defective and should be returned (assuming that you can return it). Of course, if you buy the wine at auction, you’re probably stuck with it.

Bruce

Do you feel the same way about, for instance, wood? Or (non-volatile) acidity?
If you came across a Chard that was too oaky for your tastes would you return it?

Interesting. I’ve been coming across alot of apples and carrots with TCA. Bums me out as I have to pass them up at the store now. But I would never return them.

Neither oak nor acidity are technical flaws in the wine. Brett, mercaptans, TCA and VA are. Nice try though…

I don’t know where the line is drawn myself but it is interesting to note that the things you can control the most directly, oak and acidity, are not “technical flaws” to you but the others are. That’s a bit backwards wouldn’t you agree?

No, I wouldn’t. They’re stylistic choices for the most part. You or I might object to those choices, but they’re not technical flaws. TCA etc are. And, come on Cris, you know the difference and so does everyone else reading this - let’s not drive into the pedantic weeds…

THANK YOU!!!
flirtysmile
I thought I was the only one who’d noticed.