2012 Maison Ilan

[NickC]

@M. Oharen

Sheesh, Adam, I was just trying to help and all, wasn’t trying to go negative. The thing is, at the grand picture and why I am even here among you considerably superior oenophiles, is that there are 256 pages of posts on this topic. Not posts, pages! And as far as I can tell, none of them have anything to do with how these wines taste. I really enjoyed the one 09 Chambertin, at call it 5 years old. Don’t ask me what kind of pie berry or animal hoof it hinted of, I just enjoyed it. But here’s the thing-- French wine at either side of 100 euros is a luxury, and it is all insignificant in a way (my apologies to the several case guy if it’s material to you) except the human intrigue remains relevant in a post Madoff realm. And we will know by Friday if Hillebrand picks up what looks like French wine to them, in France. Guessing that would be Burgundy, not Nice. Then we’d have other problems. Where the intrigue is, is that a man is saying all this, showing pictures of all this, telling me and others directly–not unpolitely, nor politely–that my wine will be in my hands or at AIW on Friday, and yet AIW still knows nothing about any wines showing up on Friday. So the mystery remains unsolved and yet we shift closer to the edge of our seats. But the real upside is, the positive for young Adam, is if we can pump this up to another 400 pages of posts by Friday, I’m think Steve’s one little 750mm bottle of grape juice is going to be worth thousands! Think of the conversation 10 years from now- Oh, you know Maison Ilan? Sure, I know it. What years? Mostly 2012’s, but I have a few 11’s. Really? Where did you pick up the 11’s? From Ray. What!? Directly? No! You where there! You have the emails showing he lied to you? Oh my, if I could get my hands on a bottle of the 11’s with an original email… I’d pay… Not for sale, the 11’s are mounted on the wall next to my buck horns…

use paragraphs please

[M_Oharen]

See 2011 mi s&m chat forum for update on status of 6 2011’s.

[SteveC]

I emailed Adventures in Wine today regarding the 2012 Maison Ilan shipment and got an immediate response from the President who said that his import manager would be following up with me. Frank Hingley, the important manager followed up within less than an hour and said “Shipments are scheduled to arrive at the end of this month. I’ll keep you updated.”

This is potentially great news. I must say that I am very impressed by the Adventures in Wine folks. They, so far, have been very responsive and open. Ray, on the other hand, seems to have not communicated anything to his clients. I only obtained this info, because I reached out directly to AIW. Let’s hope this timeline holds.

[Sean_G_Harden]

@SteveC

I emailed Adventures in Wine today regarding the 2012 Maison Ilan shipment and got an immediate response from the President who said that his import manager would be following up with me. Frank Hingley, the important manager followed up within less than an hour and said “Shipments are scheduled to arrive at the end of this month. I’ll keep you updated.”

This is potentially great news. I must say that I am very impressed by the Adventures in Wine folks. They, so far, have been very responsive and open. Ray, on the other hand, seems to have not communicated anything to his clients. I only obtained this info, because I reached out directly to AIW. Let’s hope this timeline holds.

Maybe he feels it’s not his job. That that is what AIW are there for.

[Wes_Barton]

@SteveC

I emailed Adventures in Wine today regarding the 2012 Maison Ilan shipment and got an immediate response from the President who said that his import manager would be following up with me. Frank Hingley, the important manager followed up within less than an hour and said “Shipments are scheduled to arrive at the end of this month. I’ll keep you updated.”

This is potentially great news. I must say that I am very impressed by the Adventures in Wine folks. They, so far, have been very responsive and open. Ray, on the other hand, seems to have not communicated anything to his clients. I only obtained this info, because I reached out directly to AIW. Let’s hope this timeline holds.

I think he’s over-reacting to what he did before. Not really “getting” what the problem was. But, who knows. Maybe it is just better for him to keep quiet and let things happen in their course.

[Blair_Ridley]

Steve -

Thank you for the information regarding the delivery and contact info for Frank @ AIW. I e-mailed him yesterday and he responded quickly to note that the 2012s are expected to arrive later this month or early in July. I agree with you - sounds promising!

[Dale_Bowers]

I sure hope there is enough wine to go around this time.

[PaulM]

Thank you to Blair for starting this as a separate thread, and thanks the people who are posting information; no thanks to the people who see another opportunity to rehash the other thread. (For the record, I don’t know or care whether Ray Walker is in fact a good guy in over his head or a scumbag, much less whether you think he’s a good guy or a scumbag.) Has anyone been contacted affirmatively by MI, AIW, or anyone else, or is everyone getting information by chasing AIW (in other words, if you haven’t gotten a note, does that imply that you might not be on the distribution list and need to follow up?).

[NickC]

@Paul Marquardt

Thank you to Blair for starting this as a separate thread, and thanks the people who are posting information; no thanks to the people who see another opportunity to rehash the other thread. (For the record, I don’t know or care whether Ray Walker is in fact a good guy in over his head or a scumbag, much less whether you think he’s a good guy or a scumbag.)

hey guess what all you’re doing is rehashing the other thread by bringing it up!

Has anyone been contacted affirmatively by MI, AIW, or anyone else, or is everyone getting information by chasing AIW (in other words, if you haven’t gotten a note, does that imply that you might not be on the distribution list and need to follow up?).

I emailed AIW earlier this week, got a same-day response saying they should have the 12s in about a month.

[Dale_Bowers]

Does AIW have a list of people owed 2012?

[Dale_Bowers]

Also, isn’t this an odd time to be shipping wines? Even if they come across the pond in a refer, don’t they then still have to get to AIW in the middle of the summer?

[SteveC]

Absolutely no communication post the empty promises (that turned into veiled threats) about fedexing my wine directly to me back in April. AIW has been good at responding to questions that I directed to them, but they never have reached out on their own.

[Rainer_Guntermann]

Got all my 2012s today, if this helps.
Cheers
Rainer

[Wes_Barton]

Some customers got an email with the link below yesterday, others didn’t. Don’t yet know what was in the email itself.

http://blog.maison-ilan.com/shipping-news/

Presumably AIW knows what they’re doing re receiving wine, so we can hope Ray is complying with their standards.

I wouldn’t be expecting AIW to reach out until they have the wines. Who knows if they have the list yet. I’d expect them to want to cross check what they actually receive and compare that to the list before reaching out. So, um, cross your fingers…

I think it would be a fair assumption that Ray intended to get the '12s here so they could ship before summer. So, um, yeah. At least he didn’t actually make that promise.

[Nick_Gangas]

Wine ships a across the ocean all the time in June.

[M_Oharen]

Okay, I promised myself never to return here but still wanting and hoping that it all it works out for everyone.

Backing up Nick’s post, my last conversation inside AIW’s warehouse is that the 2012’s would be flown. If anyone worries about time of year and heat, you should be more concerned that they freeze and shatter if left outside. SF airport is 10 mins from AIW and at 12 pm most of the days lately have been colder than your wine cellar.

Use paragraphs.

[SteveC]

Since this includes info on the 2012s from MI, I will repost it here …

Got an email and a phone call from Ray Walker today (after months of silence. Here is the email:

Hello S Coyle
this email is to inform you of your 1 bottle of 2011 Chambertin having been sent from our winery, en route to the US via SeaFreight. Your 2012s, as I indicated moments ago via a voicemail that your 2012s have been packed and are awaiting pickup next Monday. These wines will arrive Stateside via AirFreight. In both cases, you will be contacted by Adventures in Wine regarding their reception of the wines. You will have the ability to have the wines held for cooler shipping conditions.

Thank you again for your support!

Ray Walker
MAISON ILAN
Grands Vins De Terroirs
+33 (0)6 47 37 03 83 Mobile (France)

The call said the same thing, effectively that the 2011 left several weeks ago and is going to AIW via sea/boat and that the 2012s will be going out any day now via plane and “will get there really fast.”

I wonder who is paying for the airfreight from FR to CA? It was supposed to be on MI’s nickle until it hit US shores, but somehow, I think that the customers will end up paying for this option. Why send one bottle of a missing 2011 (and presumably only a few others – if Ray is to be believed) via sea and the whole 2012 shipment, which contains everyone’s’ orders) differently via plane? It makes no sense to me.

[Nick_Gangas]

I was was never under the impression that freight to the USA was covered by the winery. In fact I thought it was just 09.

[Russ_Williams]

What is a ball park figure of the cost to airfreight a case of wine from France?

[Craig_G]

@Nick Gangas

I was was never under the impression that freight to the USA was covered by the winery. In fact I thought it was just 09.

I thought it was covered for the 2011s. It’s difficult to tell exactly what we paid for in shipping as the costs were high from Amedeo, but my impression was that we were paying shipping from Amedeo plus their profit, but not for the transatlantic shipping. I believe the same would be true for 2012 at AIW.