the last case of pre-arrival 2005 Burgundy has arrived!
Purchased in early july 07. Sourced grey by the retailer (not made clear to me). A shop currently in the process of concluding business and closing. While it took regular periodic phone calls for a long time (container consolidation…) and phone tag with the former manager to reach final resolution of all unfinished business, it’s now done.
Considering how onerously regulated alcohol is, I’m amazed that the prearrival selling of grey sourced wines is perfectly legal. This could easily have been a bad outcome. I view prearrival as a short term process, not to exceed 180 days MAX, at the most but generally being more like 60-90 days. Of course the Bordeaux term “futures” often gets thrown around and mixed up with a prearrival offers of wines from other regions, but that term should be strictly reserved for Bordeaux.
This ended up as being a nailbiter of sorts, I’m glad it finally made it.