Corked Champagne--what is the right recourse?

Had a bottle of 2012 Savart Expression earlier this year that blew my mind. Had no expectations of that bottle, which I had brought as part of a collection of wines I poured blind for our dork group. Following that experience with the Savart, I searched hard for it, but was having no luck. I had been lucky to source 2 bottles of it for $90 each in 2017, FWIW.

Fast forward to last month, I finally found some locally here in LA. However, the price to acquire had jumped and the wine all-in was $175 to get it to my door. For me, it was worth it, as I wanted to try it again and see if the experience was repeatable. Hell, I have it on my WOTY list so it needs to be vetted to see if it can repeat in more than one setting/instance (at least for me).

Opened the bottle on Saturday, it is corked. Frigging TCA of wet cardboard. Ok, so maybe at a smaller tariff, I don’t chase for replacement of the wine or some compensation in exchange for the failed experience. But at $175, I needed to. Sent a note via Facebook to Frederick Savart on Sunday AM, no reply yet. Emailed the retailer, and he is willing to credit me a good portion of the price for a future order. Good on him.

My view? The retailer is not on the hook. Not his product nor his issue. To me, Savart is the moving party, yet they won’t reply. And FWIW, I had sent Frederic Savart a note earlier this year when I had the first wow moment with the Expression bottling, yet no reply either.

So, in your view, who should make good on this for me? Or, am I to just eat the $175? Of note, Savart is a small but increasingly popular winery in Champagne who at some point needs to find a way to at least acknowledge the customer, good or bad.

Love to hear some replies here.

That’s some lofty expectations. Not sure i’d be able to get any french producer to refund me a corked wine. Getting a reply back would be a herculean task.

This topic has been discussed many times re: eating the cost of corked wine - especially non - local producers

I would recommend going through the retailer - certainly not Facebook.

The retailer can get credit from the distributor - the distributor can get it from the winery.

Everybody’s happy champagne.gif

The further you get away from release the more the wine is likely to have been acquired from parties other than the distributor or winery. I think that price bump you endured makes this most likely. Trying to claw back after a while is rough. Especially if you are looking at after market prices.

At some point no one is on the hook anymore. It’s just corked wine. There could be some producers willing to replace with a current release, but seeking the new price or original wine is probably climbing a steep hill.

Correct. There could not be a more perfect illustration of why this is the way it works (and should work) than Frank hopelessly trying to get a refund for one bottle of Champagne 5,000 miles away from a tiny winery in France.

This certainly is a major problem in our industry. Start with the retailer and let them handle it from there. A good retailer should get your money back to you or a credit and then take it from there. If this was a domestic pretty sure, it would be a lot simpler going direct to them that is not the situation here. Keep us posted please.

#Savart #Champagne #France

That’s what I would use on Twitter and Instagram.

Wine Geek speak > this may get their attention.
A guy that grew up in Brooklyn speak > Don’t get mad, get even.

dh

Dan, I don’t use Twitter or Instagram and am really not interested in starting now. I used FB because Savart has an account there that seems to have activity so I thought this could reach him or the winery.

The retailer has told me that he does not believe he can get any recourse from the distributor so I have to trust his belief. But with him being willing to work with me, I appreciated that, especially in line with what a few of you have said about eating a corked purchase, and one that is potentially with some hair on it, i.e. some time has passed.

But let me take issue with the fact that this is France. So what. Why should I accept that because the producer is 9 hours ahead that I should not expect any less from them? A customer relationship to me, in my belief, is country agnostic: I am a customer, whether I speak Hindi or live in Sweden. I recognize the practicality of getting a bottle from “A to B” is not easy given the rules of the different countries and the expanse between them. But, I am not willing to just accept because France is far that it changes the principle of what has happened.

Two words, my friend - screw caps [swearing.gif] [soap.gif] [snort.gif]

This is one part of the industry that I disdain more than any others. That wine was faulty right after bottling and yet no one seems to want to take ownership of that fault. The retailer really should be on the line here as they are the one who sold it to you. A van should be able to go back to the winery or distributor. Period.

If the retailer is unwilling to do that, then they have a big issue with the Importer. I would hold firm on this and see what happens.

Keep us posted please. Cheers!

Are you going to stop buying Savart?

Can you use screw caps for Champagne? that’d be interesting to see.

In Larry’s case, i’d say it’s 100% retailer’s issue…

Technically, absent any legal disclaimer, both the producer and the retailer are on the hook*. It’s (arguably) a defective product.

*That’s based on U.S. contracts law; complicating things here is the fact that one of the involved entities (the winery) is foreign, so jurisdiction would likely be an issue.


Morally, the cork producer is on the hook.

Crown caps work

deadhorse

And good luck trying to get them to own up to that, my friend. They’re starting to now, but none of them are willing and wanting to fully stand up to what’s their products have ruined for decades.

Frank,

Next time you buy Champagne, and especially at this price, try to find out how the wine was stored, storing them on a side, as still wines are, usually results in a corked bottle. I found out the hard way, years ago, with a rare and expensive bottle ($110 back in 1999). Never stored a sparkler on a side since, and all my beer under similar corks is also stored upright.

Also, there was a large scale tasting of Champagne/sparklers in Australia, earlier this year, just to assess natural cork performance, all price points. Roughly 40% of those under natural cork were faulty, TCA, none of those under Diam were. Just a reference point.

This can’t be right can it? How can storing it sideways introduce TCA?

In the UK your complaint is with the retailer.

I’m a bit bemused at idea you’re surprised that after you didn’t get response to your compliment, you didn’t get response to refund request.

Other than explicit repair warranties (autos, appliances, etc) I can’t think of any product where recourse for flaws is through producer. If producer did respond, would you be happy if they refunded what they made off bottle (which was originally $90, after importer/wholesaler/retailer markups- don’t think producer saw much of the $175 you paid).

The correct recourse is the retailer to take care of it, who would return it to distributor, who would return to importer.

If this was bought outside of that line of succession, then the retailer is just building trust with a customer and likely eating the cost.

I suppose more contact with cork could lead to more TCA exposure. Though, I can’t imagine that was worded correctly, since there’s no way that storing champagne on its side “usually results in a corked bottle.”