Good chance he got a sweet deal on renting a warehouse during covid and once it was over the price went through the roof. Maybe the great moving sale was to decrease his inventory because the new place was much smaller.
2 Likes
Good news: Received my 6-pack of n.478 and can confirm, per the visible cork, that the producer is once again the rumored source.
Bad news: The ambient temperature upon delivery was about 103. Iām only 2 counties over from Napa where the shipping originates, and the weather has been a complete scorcher for the last two weeks, so no accident there.
Luckily, I chose the new option of having it shipped to my local UPS store as I figured Iād be out of town for the āmid-Julyā shipment date. Well, it shipped before mid-July and I was here to pick it up from the nicely air-conditioned facility. Bottles were cool when I got them home.
I guess the rule of thumb is that they-will-ship-when-they-ship/it-is-what-it-is/etc.
Onward! Just placed my order for a case of the n.484 chards as that one looks to be right up my stylistic alley.
lol @ all of the conspiracy theories
Itās probably not that complicated. He either got bailed out or made a bunch of money and exited. But itās very likely he got bailed out. There was no reason for him to sell this company and, even if he did, he would have been involved and engaged for a number of years after. The fact he went radio silent is really remarkable, even if bailed out.
The LTS thing wasnāt the problem. He could have ended that at any time. Further, he never charged for it even though he told us he was going to! I find it more amazing that dN is still sourcing wine and the business seems to be chugging along. No, itās not Cam, and itās not remotely the same offering it once was. But the shiners are pretty awesome! And they have tasted amazing.
3 Likes
I have to say, the shiner game has me lured back in. The new owners may very well have better access to name brand wineries.
Iām with you on this. Occams razor, he probably exited with a gag/non compete agreement.
The reason Iām out is they decided not to stand by their wine any more, and thatās definitely a post-Cam maneuver. No more āde Negoce promiseā, and no more āweāll make it rightā.
I trusted Camās taste, now without any ādN promiseā, thereās no reason to stick around.
2 Likes
For the reasons you give and others, Iām not planning on buying dN except for occasional daily drinkers and shiners. Iām going to pay a lot more attention to the wine descriptions than I have and beware of code words and phrases that indicate the wine is inferior. The sweet spot for me is an $80+ wine for $12 - $15. Anything more expensive seems to be too risky now. Although every time I say Iām getting out of dN, they pull me back in.
3 Likes
The withdrawal of the unequivocal guarantee of dN wines became apparent last August when the company began shipping wines in extreme heat, contrary to all previous policies. The shipment of LTS wines occurred shortly after. People had difficulty getting refunds/replacements for heat damaged wine unless there was visible bottle damage, ie, the corks had been pushed, etc. Itās clear that any cooked wines that show poorly in the future will not be covered by any guarantee. Someone on this list actually noted that the guarantee language had been changed.
This year Iām not buying anything that ships between June & September unless itās a wine I want badly enough to pay the $15 summer hold.
1 Like
Mikko,
I agree that there are much better wine options than the current version of dN. I have been an extremely happy dN customer for years but have only purchased lots 385, 400 and 401 since the moving sale. According to dN, 385 was the āexact same 100% Cabernet blend as the original bottlingā and 400/401 were Bevan so it was worth taking a risk. Other than these, who knows what quality of excess juice you are purchasing as there is no reason for me to trust Courtney and his band of merry men. I have been able to find very highly regarded wines for 50-70% off so it makes no sense to buy Courtneyās excess wine for around the same discount.
Replying to self: The 2024 vintage in California - too darn hot and fires already threatening supply, yet growers reporting abysmally low demand for premium wine grapes:
SF Chronicle > A major portion of this yearās California wine harvest could go to waste
Seems like a great time for dN to be ramping up the Eleveur program!
3 Likes
Plenty of 2023 wine in tanks ready to be bulked out already . . .
9 Likes
Hoping prices come down to the $10 - $16 range again on some of the offers.
5 Likes
One other disadvantage of dN is having to age the reds. I do buy age-worthy, non-dN wine that I wait on but Iām also buying a lot of older, ready to drink wine. Thatās 1 of the reasons I bought 468 and 478 (2017 and 2018).
2 Likes
moronic business practice for sure
Great news. I took delayed delivery. Will ship in October in time for Thanksgiving
1 Like
As it relates to Lot 400, Wine Spies has a 2020 Boom Boom made (different brand) Cabernet for sale today and they interestingly enough had this to say about itā¦
4 Likes
So you are saying 400 is made from whatever is leftover after this?
Interesting that they left off the next sentence after the ānot affectedā note which is āYields were dramatically low after we diligently sorted through the clusters and were forced to combine the remaining unimpacted fruit into small lots and individual barrels that we blended to create this triumphant wine.ā I didnāt know you could visually sort based on smoke.
1 Like
I post these things to get help with interpretation. I am not a forensic writer/editor/English major and I donāt play one on TV!
1 Like
Thought I would add another compliment on customer service/shipping. I ordered Lot 478 to ship with ice packs because I wanted that wine in house for an upcoming event with friends (I have 468 on order with summer hold). I asked them to hold off shipping until 7/12 because was traveling. Wine arrived today. Went out to meet the Fedex driver and she asked about the box because it felt cold and she had not experienced that with any other deliveries she had done to me. I told her it was supposed to have ice packs and when opened, it did have them as advertised. I live near Nashville and Fedex got the cross country shipment in Kennesaw, GA yesterday afternoon at 3:30pm and it was delivered to me at 1:15 this afternoon.
7 Likes
any wine paid for by the customer is excluded from inventory (and assets generally) as it no longer belongs to DN.
3 Likes
Official CPA ruling? Welcome @Warner_F!