I am not looking to get into a debate about whose fault or whether the retailer should accept a return.
Just venting about what a bummer it is to bring an expensive bottle (that I stored in my cellar for a decade) to a nice BYO restaurant to celebrate an occasion and taste that first sip, expecting an awesome experience and BLECH, obvious TCA wet cardboard. Since I was at a BYO restaurant (very common in NJ), and hadn’t brought a back up (*see below), we had no wine to drink with our meal. So while other threads here get into how the flaw occurred and whose fault it is, last night at dinner, I really didn’t care about that. Whether I received credit for my purchase ($130 wine bought at retail) would not enhance my experience of sitting in a lovely restaurant on a Saturday night sipping water with my meal! Sucked!
*After 2 decades of drinking great wine and living in an area with many high end BYO restaurants, I do often bring a backup bottle. But last night was a warm summer night, and we had plans after dinner and I didn’t want to shlep a bottle of wine with me or leave it in my car.
I am so sorry about your disappointment, Sherri. I’ve had a similar, but different, experience, where we purchased a bottle at a restaurant and after I accepted it and then realized it was an off bottle, the manager argued with me that they don’t take back a bottle once the customer accepts it. It was my anniversary and we also drank no wine. I have learned from that experience, as I am sure you will from yours, but, yes, it sucks!
Sorry to hear about this - hate stories like this. And it sucks to think that you to always consider bringing a back up ‘just in case’ - I’m trying to think of another ‘product’ where folks feel this is necessary . . .
Hopefully you still had a wonderful meal - and had a wonderful celebratory evening despite this set back.
This is so wrong - and I hope you did not return to this place . . . and wrote a note to the owner. When you say ‘off bottle’, do you mean it was corked or something else? What specifically was ‘off’? Just trying to understand better.
Am I the only one who has never had a corked bottle? Have led a blessed life? Or do I not recognize the taste of wet cardboard? How often does corked wine occur?
Phil Jones
Friends organized a cellar cleaning party last night with over 15 bottles. Two of the bottles were terribly corked; luckily plenty of “backup” bottles otherwise opened. But both of the corked bottles were ones they were really looking forward to tasting!
I totally agree with you, Larry. Ridiculous! Unfortunately, many of the wines I enjoy drinking come under cork enclosure. When I buy direct from a winery, I expect them to stand behind the product (and every single one - except Dominus - has). But as the other thread makes clear, it’s more difficult when it’s an older bottle purchased at retail many years prior. I was trying to avoid that issue/argument here, as there are enough other discussions about that. I just was really annoyed and wanted to vent about the “consequence” of bringing a corked bottle to a BYO. In my case, what otherwise was a wonderful evening would have been that much better had we enjoyed a great bottle of wine at dinner.
FWIW, I am more sensitive to TCA than others, but in this case, it was not even a question - very obvious. This was “only” my 4th corked bottle year to date, which is less than 5% of my consumption, but nevertheless, unacceptable.
This was over 10 years ago, and it is a restaurant we had been going to for a few years on our anniversary. We have not gone back since this incident and I did write to the chef/owner who was not there when this happened. He understood my frustration and apologized for his manager’s behavior. He explained his policy because too often customers will drink the wine and then want it replaced. That was not the case. His manager left the bottle on his desk, and he agreed with me that it was off, compared to other bottles of the same wine. I like high acid wines, but in this case it was all acid and alcohol with no fruit to support it. It was a Pinot Noir but I do not remember anything else about the wine except how bad it was. There was no offer to get us another wine.
I was going to say what Chuck just said. Usually easier to bring a back-up bottle, but when that is not an option using your Coravin is a great alternative.
I know it is not always easy/possible, but I usually open the bottle and test it before I leave the house. I also double decant it if there is any chance of sediment.
Sounds like a management that thinks customers taste the wine to see if they like it, not to taste for faults and specifically TCA. TCA isn’t always immediately apparent, but if it’s going to show, it would typically be within a couple of sips, with one of the group asking the question.
If the manager tasted the wine and had learned to spot TCA, then there could be no such debate.
In my experience, at least 3% - 5% of bottles are corked. Corked bottles seem a little more prevalent the older the wine. So, when I say I experience 5%+, it may be a function of the fact that, disproportionately, the wines I drink are a little older.
Funny story: I tasted with a guy for many years. He would invariably (a) not notice corked wine and (b) compliment the nose of corked wine. The table would almost always engage in some level of debate with him about the corkiness of the wine. But, in the end, he would be unmoved. My experience is that different people have different sensitivity to TCA. So, consider yourself blessed…
Open bottle at home, sniff and shove a different cork all the way back in red side down if red wine. Solves lots of problems.
As a distributor I take all bottles back if purchased from us, many times we just eat it.
The side many don’t see is those who buy private cellars or grey market in addition and try to return wines to us with threat of removing all our business if we don’t take it even though they didn’t purchase from us because we sell that producer.
Sherri,
So sorry to hear that. I think those discussing backup bottles are at least partly missing the point. I remember staring at one of my few Grand Cru Burgundies in my cellar for almost 20 years, waiting for the right group to share it. I brought it to a tasting a couple of years ago - horribly corked. Sure, there were plenty of great bottles opened, and the night was fantastic. However, there’s something unique about the letdown of saving a nice bottle for years, only to realize it was tainted from the start. Ah, wine’s alway a crapshoot.
Cheers to our next stunning bottle and great dinner,
Warren
