My best corked wine retailer story was about three or four years ago I bought a wood 6-pack of mixed 2001 Domaine Faiveley Grand Crus from a local wine shop. Several months later, I brought the bottle of Clos Vougeot from the set to an informal tasting at the same shop. The owner of the shop agreed that the bottle was badly corked, but said he could not do anything because he did not think the distributor would credit him for the bottle since it was part of the mixed case, and it was already a few years old. I was kind of shocked but I didn’t really want to argue about it. Needless to say, I don’t go to that wine shop much anymore.
I believe taking back alcohol is illegal in CA unless it’s defective. Otherwise it’s called ‘consignment selling.’
You can do it in NJ. The local Canal’s takes back unopened bottles, and IIRC even advertises that it does. (Haven’t tried with a bad bottle).
I can see a problem with returning alcohol that the retailer can turn around and re-sell, without knowing the whereabouts in the mean time, but with an opened, corked (or otherwise flawed) wine with presumably a little missing from the bottle, I don’t imagine any retailer would even try to resell that. Even if the retailer couldn’t take it back, some may eat the cost (for a regular customer) and offer a credit of some sort, no?
I truly find this such a difficult situation from a number of angles, forgetting about the ‘legality’ issues altogether.
a) As some have pointed out, there is no guarantee a retailer will get their money back from the distributor or winery when accepting back these bottles, and therefore may be left ‘paying’ for someone else’s problem. Is this fair?
b) A distributor may not get their money back from the winery and therefore they are left footing the bill . . .is this fair?
c) Even if a winery does take responsibility and gives your money back, guess what - THEY are not getting their money back from the cork producer because it’s ‘buyer beware’ . . . is this fair?
From a customer service standpoint, I do believe a good retailer should take the wine back, especially if there is a good relationship with the customer. But PLEASE understand that they may be doing so knowing they are simply ‘eating’ this money, and any profits that were made during the original sale.
Cheers.
Also note that there are many instances where the retailer cannot take the wine back to the distributor, as they purchased the wine from auction or bought a consignment outright… even with very recent vintages.
We had a raging hour long debate about this once with some Barolo producers in a wine bar during VinItaly. They could not BELIEVE that anyone would return a defective bottle of wine looking for credit or replacement. They insisted that was just part of the risk of buying wine.
I told them about the article on Australia I had read in, I think, Decanter and they were just dumfounded.
The only case where I as a retailer would not take back a bottle (and yet still did) is where it is a clear cut case of negligence and abuse by the customer.
A customer came into a big box discount retail shop where I was working in NJ and purchased a magnum of Caymus Special Selection in the early part of the afternoon. He returned to the store with the bottle a few hours later complaining it was leaking. He had left the bottle in his car (it being late August) and of course the result was that the bottle was “cooked”. We did take the bottle back in exchange for another.
At one point I know the State of New Jersey was trying to stop retailers’ ability to return “breakage”, but it was still happening on the sly.
Regardless to put the price of a bottle, even a GC Burg, against what a satisfied customer will spend over the course of a few years or longer is simply shortsighted on the part of the retailer.
Mark we once had a customer come here from the dealership in a nice new convertible and buy a case of Asti Spumante for a party. He then left the wine in the trunk of his snazzy new BLACK car while he parked it in the sun, in the Valley on what turned out to be one of the hottest day of the year.
Needless to say the bottles literally exploded leaving shards of glass and sticky citrus scented residue everywhere. He came back and wanted not just the wine replaced but for us to pay to clean his car.
We politely refused. It took him a while but he eventually came back having evidently told the story to folks who schooled him on physics and agreed with us.
I can understand all aspects of this argument, but it comes down to customer service. In my town, there are about 12 mom and pop wine shops with excellent selections, and half a dozen high end grocery stores with stocked cellars. . . . competition is high to say the least. Except rare-ish/cult-ish wines, everyone charges “state minimum” markup of 50% over wholesale. The customer service and knowledge of the staff are really the only things the retailer can use to stand out from the crowd.
When a product goes through half a dozen hands and is sold before a defect can be found, the opportunity for finger pointing pops up when it comes to who pays. The truth is though, that the consumer is dealing with the retailer when their day turns sour (no buybacks or exchanges) and will blame them, even if it is the cork producer, winery, or distributor.
So I’m certain all of the retailers in my area will take back bad bottles, because the marketplace basically demands it. . . . there are just too many other places to go for your wine fix.
I would make it a point to bring all wines I’m interested in purchasing to the till, and ask one-by-one if they’re willing to replace/refund it if corked ---- if the answer is “No.” then kick it to the side and don’t buy it. That would make it pretty clear, I would think/hope, what exactly is going on.
As any retailer will tell you, at least 75% of all wine returned to a retail store is NOT bad - because the people purchasing the wines have no idea what they are purchasing - and unfortunately, the people who do know good wine from bad wine are the ones who suffer…
I’ll never forget the time I fell in total love with a Washington Merlot, and sold a bottle to a woman who promptly brought the bottle back that following Saturday telling me it was one of the worst Merlots she had ever tasted. While we were looking for a replacement for her, a very knowledgable customer walks in, grabs a glass and samples the wine and shouts out “Wow! This is amazing! Do you have a case?” - Both customers walked out with a case of that Washington Merlot…
Thomas, go here: http://www.behance.net/gallery/S_F_-PACIFIC-WINE-COMPANY-Wine-Cartoons/686573
and scroll down to the fourth cartoon!
Most wineries in Australia will replace defective wines. In the case of older ones they will usually replace with a current vintage. You don’t even need to go back to the store you bought it from or even return the faulty bottle (up to a point). Most want you to taste their wines in the best possible light and have a good experience - and hopefully buy more!
I had a corked 1999 Petaluma merlot the other week, emailed them about it, Petaluma were very apologetic about it and said they would send out a replacement. Week later the box arrived I was expecting a current release and was very pleasantly surprised to see they had replaced it with an absolutely pristine bottle of 1999 with a fill level above the bottom of the capsule. So massive kudos to them.
I worked at home this morning and stopped at Gus’s for lunch on my way into the office:
You can see it is not fancy. While I was there, they got a phone call. Guy says he picked up an order of 24 dogs yesterday. He had asked for no onions, but there were onions on it. Gus said he could come in and get 24 more without onions today. Gus’s mom and several customers said “How do you know it is even true?” “Don’t do it!” Gus said “He is probably a good customer and I could lose $100 a year in business. It’s the right thing to do.” I said you’re right, but write down his name so he can’t do it twice.
I think Gus could teach some of these wine shop owners a thing or too about customer service.
Dave, re wineries wanting you to taste their wares in the best possible light, we often slip this into our newsletters:
So, What’s the deal with Corks & Bad BOTTLES
You may wonder why we capitalized the word bottles in the headline above. Well, we spend a lot of time explaining to folks who got a bad bottle of wine that it is just that: THAT individual bottle is bad due to cork failure and that is NOT evidence of a grand conspiracy in which the winemaker made crappy wine which we then heartily recommended just because we hate you. And, OF COURSE we will replace it or credit you for it. But, in very nearly every case the next bottle of the same wine will be just as the winemaker intended and we described it to you: delicious. The X factor is that piece of tree bark in the neck of the bottle, 3-5% of which are faulty, not the wine. This is why screwcaps are the coming wave of the future. Really.
Yep most will qualify their response with ‘you’ll be happy to know we now use screwcaps’. Which is kind of what I was expecting to get to replace the corked one. But am happy as the proverbial pig.
We examined some of the other bottles we have and noticed there is considerable sediment present. This is normal with older wines. This is why it is essential to stand an older wine for a considerable amount of time (3 to 7 days). Before serving it should be decanted.
Slight thread drift: you know those cards that producers like Williams Selyem include in your shipment, saying how the wine needs months to rest from travel shock and should be stored at 55 degrees sideways in a cool, damp place? Does anyone agree with me that the main or sole purpose of those cards is to discourage the recipient from seeking a refund for bad bottles?
I might say that part of the reason is to prevent people seeking refunds/replacement on bottles that aren’t actually flawed, but I don’t expect that if I had a problem and contacted them they would go through said list, “Well, did you store them on their sides for 2 months at 55°F like we instructed? Because if not, we can’t help you.”
I always took those instructions as the winery not really knowing exactly what the wine went through on its way to me and, out of an over-abundance of caution, saying I should give the wine the very best chance of being delicious when I drink it. So far so good on the Williams-Selyem. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I think that they mostly do this because the majority of their clients do not know how to store wine and have never heard of bottle shock or travel shock. You would be astounded at how many people have no clue that wine needs to be in temperature control. I also get a ton of people who are very happy to tell me that they have been turning their wines every month! I feel bad that they have wasted so much of their time!