Ever stored a wine shipment and been surprised

It dawned on me the other day that i receive so many shipments that a lot of them i just label and store in the offsite without opening or inspecting.

Is that unusual and has it ever gone wrong for anyone

I’ve walked from a Tasting Room with the wrong wine once or twice, due to an employee’s mistake and my failure to double-check the bottle before leaving. But that’s a rare occurrence, as opposed to getting what you ordered in Taco Bell drive-thru.

I have had several times where the shipment included incorrect bottles.

Years ago I was sent an extra magnum of estate cab by Araujo. I promptly notify them and returned the bottle. I was “rewarded” some time later by being taken off their mailing list (without notice) when I failed to buy one time after years of purchases. I have too much wine anyway so this was probably a favor to me in the long run.

Along those lines, about four years ago, I found bottles of 1999 Haut-Brion marked at $59.99 on the shelf at Astor Wines in Noo Yawk.
After I notified the manager, he accused me to trying to rip off the store, even though I did not try to buy any at that erroneous price.
If I had known that he would be so “rewarding”, I would have emptied the shelf instead.

I guess if you don’t care what you are buying, then sure, ignore what you receive and box it away into your little cubicle. I like to see if anything came to me damaged or was shipped the wrong thing, because it happens.

Some years back, I pointed out some Copain Hawks Butte Syrah there that was mismarked at $22 instead of $45-$50. The staff person insisted it was the correct price, so I happily bought it at that price.

Uggh. What a bunch of jerks.

Two comments on the noted jerks above. Was with a friend in a Minnesnowta wine shop. He pointed out incorrectly marked (too low) bottles to the manager. For his reward, the manager refused to take his check on a purchase.

Here’s a positive one from Loring Wine Co. I ordered some single vineyard SLH chards and received the corresponding SLH pinots. I informed them of the mistake and was told they’d send out the chards right away…and just keep the pinots. How’s that for customer service?

I would check your boxes. I have had the retailer ship me incorrect amounts before.

When I worked in auctions, we found this happens fairly often. Check your shipments…mistakes happen.

had a friend order his mom a half case of a white one time and when she opened the box, she saw red wine, so assumed they shipped her the wrong wine. he informed the retailer who told her to keep it and they’d ship what he’d actually ordered right away. Long story short, the mom drank the 6 bottles of red and only then noticed that there were the 6 bottles of white “hiding” underneath!

Short answer to the original question, “No.”

I have received incorrect shipments. Usually, these are resolved very quickly via e-mail. I’m OK with that, mistakes happen, and the only person who doesn’t make mistakes is the one who isn’t doing anything. There was one instance, though, where an owner/winemaker started whining about how he was just a small winery, and this was going to cost money.

Not my problem, buddy.

I rewarded him by taking his winery off my “buy from” list.

Back in 2016, I ordered a 3L bottle of Henri Boillot Corton Charlemagne from Flickingers in Chicago. When I finally opened the package it turned out to be a 3L of 2011 Boillot Montrachet. Needless to say I called Alastair at Flickingers and told him of the error. I wanted the 3L and the 3L of Corton Charlemagne that wasn’t shipped. Talk about a great company…Nothing but good to say about Flickinger.

I paid for both and were donated to Hospice Off the Vine Auction.

I have involved my son in the checkin process. Sometimes, I give him the checklist and he does it all, sometimes one of us reads off the items and the other checks them off. Often, the wine stays in the shipper and goes into a staging area (polite way of saying giant unorgainzed pile in the aisle of the cellar) prior to being packed for storage or placed in racks for consumption.

Misspacks happen infrequently. I’ve had a couple of damage situations where a defective bottle cracks in shipment. I’ve also had two instances where I got missfills. Those surprised me, but I suppose it happens.

Cheers,
fred

The one very happy surprise in my favor that the wine merchant allowed me to keep without issue was a case of 2000 Vieille Julienne Châteauneuf-du-Pape long ago that turned out to be wither their “Vieilles Vignes”, not the basic bottling - much to my favor.

Alan - I usually wait until the bulk of my (winery) orders arrive each season, which used to take months and happen each fall and spring when I lived and stored my wine in NJ. Lots of boxes would pile up in my cellar. Then I would open every box and check in each bottle under Pending Deliveries in CT. It was painfully slow and tedious. In all the years of doing this, I found ONE mistake in terms of the wrong bottles shipped. However, often the shipments didn’t match up exactly with CT, and I would go back and check the email orders, and time after time, I found errors on MY end - often omitting an order or entering the wrong quantity etc. So my advice is to be methodical and diligent in entering your orders, and rest easy that the wineries you order from most likely will send what you ordered. (But I would also recommend doing a physical inventory at least once a year.)

I’m surprised. I’ve never had a mistake on my end. Always the retailer end…

I had a cousin pick up at a winery a few years ago and just threw the boxes in the cellar. 6 months later I realized there was a mistake in the order pickup. Was simply a matter of wines of same value being switched so decided not worth the effort to address.


(edit for spelling)