My issue with the “other” wines is not so much that I did not want them. I agree, they are very good.
My issue is that they consistently made me pay $20 - $40 more per bottle (with shipping) than I could buy elsewhere. And, you could not delay delivery to combine shipping.
It is a straight tax on the MB futures (which are a great deal… until you factor in the tax.)
Totally get that. Other than an occasional bottle of Three Valleys, we don’t get the Ridge wines in my market. If you have easy access without the shipping at the same price then I’d be upset too. I have had success e-mailing Ridge and asking them to delay shipping, but I have never tried combining shipping. The 2022 Cab was so good, I am thinking about finding some more eventhough I have no space.
Your timing is good, you can always claim ‘hold for weather’ until September or later!
I was told no on combining a shipment of MB with other bottles that were coming. That was my final straw to drop the futures program.
We are also now getting more of the wines in market. They are allocated into the local distributors private program, so you have to be proactive in ordering with a local shop.
That was not the case for me…
the staff were super kind and offered to change all orders to “Pending Pickup locally”, until later when they are ready to ship, she will change it to shipping and the multiple orders will be combined.
But I did not ask them to hold the year worth of the wines though, just few months….