Flawed bottles...do you inform the winery?

WINE TALK
1

I am a long time subscriber/customer to a domestic wineries mailing list and recently opened a bottle of their latest 2011 release that was tainted. As it stands right now it appears to be a single bottle issue and I won’t know until I pop the next one. First bottle I cracked was excellent, second was flawed and had to be poured out, and have 4 remaining. Like I said, long time customer (10 years plus)and this was the first flawed bottle I have received and is a current release so it wasn’t due to poor storage over time. Just wondering what most do when they open a wine that is flawed from a current mailer? Do you inform the winery? I am not looking for a replacement as I have enjoyed plenty of their wine over the years without an issue. If worded properly, would the info be helpful or would it still come across like a consumer looking for a remedy? Thx.

2

Absolutely report it to the maker.

3

I would report it. I often do. Most times I get a replacement no questions asked. Occasionally they ask for the bottle to test it. Ive heard stories of wineries saying “tough shit” or some version of that but that has never happened to me and I buy from a lot of them. One time I did have a winery employee say to me “we use the highest quality corks so we have no corked bottles.” I stopped buying from them. On the opposite side of the spectrum of customer service, two or three times I have posted notes here and in CT that included a domestic tainted bottle that I did not bother to report to the winery and have been surprised to get a replacement bottle with an apology note. Now that is good CS.

4

Wineries would most likely appreciate being informed so they know the % of taint from the lot of corks. Quality control is something everyone strives for. Most will replace the bottle without flinching.

5

If I’m still buying their wines, I’ll report it. If I’ve dropped them, no.

6

exactly that.

7

Yes and I would expect a refund or replacement. I don’t know why so many people settle and dump it out and don’t expect a refund. They must have too much money and don’t care. The consumer should never be the one that eats the cost on flawed wines. The average person will return a bad watermelon but not a bottle of wine that costs five times that.

8

Here’s an honest question for you - how do you defined ‘flawed’? Not trying to be ‘snarky’ but is a bottle that has brett ‘flawed’? How about high VA? AND who determines what is ‘high’ and what is not.

As a winery owner, I certainly want to know if my wines are not as they should be. IF I did corks, I would certainly want to know if a customer got a corked bottle for the reasons mentioned above.

What about oxidation? What if it’s a 5 year old bottle? Might it be due to a bad cork Storage? Bottling with low SO2 levels? Bottling with high dissolved oxygen levels?

And what about wines that are ‘funky’ due to them being unfiltered? Most of the time, this is chocked up to ‘bottle variation’ but should it be?

I wish there was a way that ‘everyone’ could agree what a ‘faulty’ wine is, but I just don’t see it happening . . .

9

Report it. You can at least have conversation with them about the bottle and together come to some understanding as to what happened. If they are a customer focused winery, they should listen to you and then make it right if the bottle is messed up. BTW, if the bottle is not right, why would you not seek a remedy?

10

If Phil is a long time customer and has a bottle that to him is obviously flawed then I don’t think it matters about the whys, after ten years with a winery you get to know the style.

Phil should contact the winery and expect a replacement, anything less after ten years on a list to me would not be good service especially as its such an infrequent occurance

11

Unfortunately, “flawed” is a subjective matter. While I consider Brett, VA, EA, pre-mox and the like to be flaws, I consider them to be winery/winemaker in origin. For me, it becomes more of a caveat emptor about the brand, but I wouldn’t complain about the wine to the w/m or send it back. OTOH, flaws like TCA or secondary fermentation are definitely worthy of reaching out to the maker.

12

I agree. I end up calling all over the world and since we’re in vastly different time zones, I sometimes end up talking to confused, sleepy people who don’t speak English. I don’t care. I give them the old what-for regardless!

They should have learned English by now anyway.

[cheers.gif]

13

Agreed - and this should be at any price level IMHO, NOT just higher priced wines . . .

Cheers!

14

I report it, but only if I am absolutely certain that the wine is flawed to the point of undrinkability. I have been at this for over 20 years, and had a lot of very good teachers wih tons more experience than I have, so I am very confident that I know what I am talking about.

And I have never had a flawed bottle from Tercero, so Larry can relax for a minute.

15

Isn’t an allowance for returns built into the price? I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t.

16

Brian,

By whom? The larger wineries? I think it is when they work with distributors, etc . . .

But smaller wineries like myself? No, not at all . . .

Cheers!

17

Thanks Larry. I assumed the wineries built it into their prices either wholesale or DtC. Seems odd to me. We account for it in a product line that las a much lower rate of returns than wine so assumed it would be normal business.

18

Brian,

I assume that I will have no flawed bottles and I price my wines as such. I use screw caps to help eliminate some of the ‘issues’ that can and do happen with corks. (Just an aside - I am NOT anti-cork but choose to use screwcaps to further minimize ‘issues’). I cross flow filter all of my wines to further eliminate what I consider to be a huge part of ‘bottle variation’ in wines these days. I SO2 my wines at bottling to help preserve those wines so they are ‘drinkable’ for a considerable period of time.

Yep, I do believe that a lot of the ‘faults’ that exist in the biz can be reduced considerably, but hey, perhaps that’s just me :slight_smile:

Cheers!

19

All thanks for the feedback. I will send them a note. But to clear up a couple of things:

  1. I knew when I popped the cork the bottle was off. It did not have the nose that I am familiar with after consuming many bottles of this particular Cabernet. Initial taste by both my wife and myself was…oh this is a bad bottle (corked/tainted). Decanted and retasted several times through out the evening and it progressively got worse and was undrinkable. It was definitely a spoiled and u drinkable bottle and we poured it out.

  2. while I would definitley welcome a replacement, when i said I would not ask for a remedy, i was referring to the fact that we have enjoyed so many bottles, attended tastings, and been afforded discounts over the years that I could live with one bad bottle over ten years.

20

Yes, absolutely inform the winery. It happened to me this past week and I contacted the winery and they will be sending me a replacement bottle.