Steve
I knew the joke
“You be pretty smart.”
- Jessie Jackson
Jake: what is the physical relation of the store to the bottles that are listed as available in 4-6 weeks? Does this indicate wines in a distributor’s catalog or just a commitment from you to source them in one way or another? Or something else entirely?
Hmmmm,
There’s always some limitation on wines, esp wine that are older and which the seller didn’t buy on release and cellar. I’ve seen people like Hart Davis Hart note that older wines which they’re selling on consignment are bought at your risk since, while they tried to vet the wines via inspection etc, they simply can’t know for sure how the wines were stored.
Myself, I think that a clear delivery date and a refund if that date’s not met is fine if the date is a few weeks away. It’s a bit more of an issue if you buy a bottle to be delivered in the future and the wine store fails to get the allocation they were promised. For many wines that’s not a big deal, but for some there’s not just a cost differential, but the wine might not be available at all since small amounts are made (grand cru Burgs for example). In those cases I think you need to look at the remedy, think about the risk of the store not delivering and decide if the risk is worth it.
When the consumer is charged is an issue too - if you charge me upfront on the promise of a future deliver you have a more serious burden in my eyes than if you take an order and only charge me when the wine comes in.
Thanks, Daniel.