Wines of Kings?

Has anybody purchased from Wines of Kings? They seem like very nice people. That said, they claim everything is shipped refrigerated, but without asking, shipped my wine in the heat of the summer by UPS. I called and they assured me its refrigerated until it arrives in your local city, but I’ve been tracking it on the UPS site, and it’s been on the road for 2 weeks now, from NY to LA and called back to NY after I called to complain. As far as I know UPS does not offer refrigerated shipping. A little, no, a lot unnerving….

I’d be very worried.

UPS does offer Cold Chain services, as described by the retailer. I’ve seen tracking info that looks a bit different for Cold Chain shipments, but I’m not familiar enough to describe how. If you call UPS, they should be able to tell you if it was (since already being returned?) Cold Chain.

The package left NY on July 21, was rerouted by the seller to come back after I complained about shipping cross country during the summer from NY without first contacting me. It arrived back in NY today, August 2nd. It’s been on the truck for 12 days in the heat of summer. I called UPS who confirmed the shipment was sent ground. This, after I was assured it was shipped temperature controlled by a refrigerated carrier. I asked him for a refund and he is now offering to ship in September when it cools. Yeah, I want that wine back. Please. Caveat Emptor…

Seems like UPS’ serious cold chain/refrigerated shipping services are designed for pharmaceuticals and other higher value products. My guess is that their rates would be beyond prohibitive for wine. I’ve never heard of anyone getting truly refrigerated shipping for wine with UPS.

They should go into the fresh chicken business.

UPS offers cold chain services for wine - so does fedex - a number of retailers (and a lot of Napa wineries) use it - but it’s only offered through certain zip codes and I don’t believe NYC is one of them.

Container Arrives! Indeed.

What did you order, so that we can avoid? Thank you.

That would be a major problem for me.

UPS offers overnight air shipping with insulated packaging and ice packs in it. Just used that for a shipment from Napa to LA. Two weeks on the ground in a truck doesn’t sound like something safe and refrigerated.

It was 2018 Tignanello and to their credit, they refunded my purchase. Still, if you’re looking to buy that wine and knowing where those bottles spent their summer vacation, I’d buy it elsewhere.

I’ve received wines from CA wineries shipped via Fed Ex and UPS’s “Cold Chain” shipping programs. It’s my understanding the winery sets up the allowable temp and shipping parameters which can be different from winery to winery (or to pharmaceutical company) which I’m sure impacts price.
The Cold Chain deliveries have all been 2-day or overnight shipping and arriving before 9:30am. The bottles have all arrived chilled with cooling packs inside the packaging. I’ve been impressed and it’s made me feel much more comfortable shipping in the summer if necessary.

I think Matthiasson offered it as a $15 option for their most recent summer release.

I just ordered from them for first time so thanks for the heads up here!

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Was going to post a new thread but saw this one. Aside from the shipping snafu, do Wines of Kings get all their wine from Italy when you order or do these pertain only to pre-arrivals? Not sure how long it takes to get a wine that looks like it is in stock. It does not say in their website that a wine is pre-arrival so it is a bit confusing if I am buying something already stateside or something coming from Italy.

I’ve ordered from them twice and got my wines in great condition. If I remember correctly, the wine was also shipped during the summer.

I thought this thread was going to be about Barolo (The King of Wines and the Wine of Kings).