Corked Wine Question For Owners & Winemakers

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

Say a bottle of your wine is discovered to be corked by the end consumer…would you want a sample and/or the cork to be sent back to the winery for lab analysis and confirmation?

TIA

2

Yes. In a perfect world, I would like to confirm that it is corked and how badly.

Those of us who use >1 cork supplier would also be interested in recording from which supplier it came.

3

For us the answer is no. It’s a hassle for the consumer to send the cork back to us. And if they did send it back, I guess we could just sniff it to see if we smell TCA, but sometimes corks don’t really smell corked to me when the wine is obviously affected. So we’d have to actually test the cork in some number of cases, which is time consuming and expensive. And what if after all that we determine that the cork wasn’t at fault? Do we tell the consumer “too bad”? That’s going to just piss them off - and that’s the last thing I want to do.

So we never ask for the cork (or wine) to be returned. We take the person’s word for it and offer a replacement or refund. And before anyone points out that we bottle under screw cap, we did use cork for our first 3 vintages, and then synthetics (which have their own set of problems) for two years after that.

Aside from figuring out which cork supplier is at fault more often, I’d say there’s little use getting the cork back since you already know TCA is going to occur. And telling some one they’re wrong about the wine being corked seems worse than living with a few refunds when there might not have been anything wrong with the wine.

4

Brian, I wasn’t suggesting that the winery would respond in a negative manner if no cork taint was actually found. I was just curious, as Nate and you pointed out, if there is any interest in tracking it for the sake of cork sources or other reasons.

I personally have never reported a corked wine to a producer.

5

A friend and fellow board member (and vineyard owner) Doug Ackerman had a corked bottle of Dehlinger syrah several years ago. The winery demanded that he return the bottle (opened, mind you) for “evaluation”, despite the fact he’d been on their mailing list for several years. Their response? “We are issuing you a credit for your slightly corked bottle of syrah.”

Slightly? Isn’t corked like being pregnant?

6

to clarify, I want the wine, not the cork. although the cork itself would be necessary to track vendors. and it’s not about determining whether the person is wrong or right, but about determining how corked the wine is and other uses like training your people to recognize it, specifically in your wine.

being corked might be like being pregnant, but it is important to me to know whether I am getting wines that are 20 ppt or 3 ppt (and, honestly, it is debatable which is worse from a relations standpoint). I can look at the data collected on the corks throughout the process and make some guesses and assumptions about how to improve my QC with that vendor.

And what if after all that we determine that the cork wasn’t at fault? Do we tell the consumer “too bad”?

No, absolutely not. If they take the time to notify you, and damn well if they take the time to ship you the bottle/cork, they should be compensated above and beyond.

I’m always of the mind that more info is better. I wish more people would call to tell us about this sort of stuff. A good question to follow up would not just would you prefer people call, but how many actually do? One per year? Five? There is even a pretty surprising lack of feedback from wholesalers about corked wines.

7

I would imagine by the time you got the bottle returned, it would be so oxidized that, from a sensory standpoint it would not be a good reference.

8

Tell that to Domaine Chandon. A few years ago I had a terribly corked bottle of theirs. What made things worse was that it was the second bottle, and I had topped up some perfectly good glasses with the corked wine.

I sent both corks back to Chandon with a letter explaining what had happened. They ignored it.

9

Honestly, my experience has been (with Cabernet, mind you), that is not the case (to my surprise, too). When someone is savvy enough to recognize corked bottles and geeky enough to call the winery, they usually didn’t drink it, or even a significant portion of it. If we were really lucky, they had poured the wine from the glass back into the bottle, leaving very little ullage.

Have 'em gas it if they had some, push the cork in as far as it would go, and ship it back on our account, ASAP…open 3-4 days if things went right.

Again, this happened very, very rarely. Part of my problem with the entire system…it is difficult to make improvements if you have no basis. It’s like trying to reduce water use without knowing how much you initially used…a fart in the wind.

10

Dominus asked me to ship the remaining wine to them for analysis when one of my maggies of '94 was discovered corked at an offline.
I told them it was illegal for me to ship wine (corked or not) out of MA and never heard back.
Oh well.

11

that. [welldone.gif]

12

I had a corked Ridge Petite Syrah one time. They asked for the bottle but said they would replace it. It got to be a hassle as they had to change which bottle would be replaced. First, they no longer had the vintage (understandable as it was about 12 years old). Then, they didn’t want to send me a bottle that was not available at retail in Ohio (?). Whatever, they eventually sent me one of the least expensive Ridge offerings as a “replacement”. They said they wanted the corked bottle back and sent me a label. Then they never had UPS pick it up despite a few e-mails and calls. After a few months, I finally took the UPS package off my front porch. At least it was good to know a package could sit on my front porch for that long and not be stolen. It gave the UPS guys a laugh as well.

I still buy Ridge at retail though. I like the wines. Funny, I always thought they had a lower than normal incidence of TCA.

13

If a wine of mine disappoints, I want to know about it and will replace with the same wine if possible and if not available, the current vintage. Perhaps it’s a bit of hubris, but I’m just proud enough and confident enough in our wine to believe that if someone doesn’t like a bottle, it is either corked or in some other way damaged. No questions asked and I don’t want to hassle the customer further by making them mess with a return shipment. I ship a replacement right away.

Yes, there is potential for abuse of such a policy but hey, if I didn’t trust my customers, why should they trust me?

14

Randy - over the past few months I’ve had 24 bottles of corked Match.
Please replace immediately.

neener [wink.gif] [berserker.gif] [shock.gif]



Needless to say… just kidding. [bow.gif]

15

Wow … that is shameful.

16

And disappointing…

17

They issued a credit. What’s the problem? That they said “slightly”? I have had one corked Dehlinger wine in the last 24 years, and they did not ask for the bottle back and gave a credit. Dehlinger is one of the class acts in the wine business. I don’t see a reason to bash them for this.

18

Not really bashing the winery. Sure this is one indecent but them taking the time to write the ignorant note of "“We are issuing you a credit for your slightly corked bottle of syrah.” is shameful. I would hope that he contacted Dehlinger so that they could educate the person that wrote the note on both wine science and customer service. Had they just sent the bottle they would have been a hero. Instead they behaved like a child.

BTW: I am a Dehlinger customer and don’t damn them for this one action.

Jason

19

Ya, not trying to start anything here. I’m amazed as I’ve never had anything but incredible customer service and class from Dehlinger. That’s all. I reckon there are instances of poor customer service with anyone at one time or another.

Cheers.

20

This is a very difficult situation for most wineries, especially small ones that have non-existent customer service departments . . .

I think we can all agree that we have been somewhere where someone said a wine was ‘corked’ simply because either a) they didn’t like it or b) something was ‘off’ but they couldn’t tell what . . .

From a winery perspective, you kind of want to know WTF, right?!?!? The bummer, of course, is that even if it IS a corked wine, the winery will be out the bottle of wine (and all of the time and energy they put into creating that wine) while the real culprit, the cork producer, is essentially free and clear . . . Fair?!?!? I think not!

Bottom line - as a small producer, I would not want the wine back, but would like to track the incidences as best as possible - vintage, bottling, etc . . . purchased direct from me or a retailer . . . Provenance, etc.

Cheers!