Insurance Companies and damaged wine--HELP!

[alan_weinberg]

@Eric_Nelson

there is “some yeast” in wine

since yeast is everywhere—leave a piece of bread out for a day—guess they cover nothing, though happy to take your premium.

[Jim_Clary]

Chris, I had a fairly large claim about 10 years ago when the compressor for my wine cellar failed here in AZ when it was a second home. The compressor blew July hot air into the cellar for days until it was discovered, ruining everything.

Luckily I had Chubb and the Chubb wine policy. I thought the fight would be over the valuation, but their “expert” valued my cellar at 45% higher than CellarTracker’s valuation. I graciously excepted without a fight.

To your point, they then gave me the option of hauling away the bottles, or retaining them. I chose the latter thinking there might be some good ones that survived. A spot inspection confirmed it was a fools errand, and I had them all disposed of.

[Jason_T]

@Michae1_P0wers

Are any of the corks pushed up? Is there seepage on any of the bottles? Was it 80+ degrees or 90+? If it there are no pushed corks, and no seepage, and temps were in the 80s, I suspect you’ll be surprised to find that your aging curve is slightly accelerated at worst. The wine is unlikely to be ruined, IMO. It may be a bottle-by-bottle situation and I’d likely start drinking the more fragile bottles (older wines, dry whites, Champagne, etc.) sooner rather than later. There are some threads here where people have left wines in garages in the summer, etc., to test the effects of heat and often were surprised by how little the wines were impacted. It’s obviously not ideal, but I do think wine is sturdier than we tend to expect. Good luck!

Came here to say this. I’ll provide a recent real world example. I was away from home for three weeks during what was the hottest June in England’s history, highs in the mid to upper 80s for several weeks. My home is poorly insulated.

When I returned home the inside was near 90 at 7am, which implies to me that it had been over 80 inside for a couple weeks. I have about 300 bottles that are daily drinkers or otherwise meant for near-term consumption, and are not refrigerated.

I’ve popped probably 12-18 bottles since then, including grower champagne and burgundy (white and red). I struggled to detect any change other than that maybe, just maybe, a couple bottles were ever so slightly advanced.

Which isn’t to say there wasn’t damage- as @MChang points out above, it could be damage that doesn’t show up for years. Though these bottles will be long gone by then.

[Scott_G_r_u_n_e_r]

Thank you for not sending them to winebid as many unscrupulous assholes do

[Arv_R]

@Jim_Clary

Chris, I had a fairly large claim about 10 years ago when the compressor for my wine cellar failed here in AZ when it was a second home. The compressor blew July hot air into the cellar for days until it was discovered, ruining everything.

Luckily I had Chubb and the Chubb wine policy. I thought the fight would be over the valuation, but their “expert” valued my cellar at 45% higher than CellarTracker’s valuation. I graciously excepted without a fight.

To your point, they then gave me the option of hauling away the bottles, or retaining them. I chose the latter thinking there might be some good ones that survived. A spot inspection confirmed it was a fools errand, and I had them all disposed of.

That’s the important part.

[Chris_Seiber]

@Jim_Clary

Chris, I had a fairly large claim about 10 years ago when the compressor for my wine cellar failed here in AZ when it was a second home. The compressor blew July hot air into the cellar for days until it was discovered, ruining everything.

Luckily I had Chubb and the Chubb wine policy. I thought the fight would be over the valuation, but their “expert” valued my cellar at 45% higher than CellarTracker’s valuation. I graciously excepted without a fight.

To your point, they then gave me the option of hauling away the bottles, or retaining them. I chose the latter thinking there might be some good ones that survived. A spot inspection confirmed it was a fools errand, and I had them all disposed of.

That’s amazing. I would like to ask a few follow up questions for my curiosity:

• how did the Chubb expert determine there was damage to your wines? Was it visible (leakage, corks pushed up)? Did he open some? Or did he just assume they were ruined based on you telling him they had heat blowing on them for X amount of time?

• I find it strange they would pay the claim and then let you keep the bottles, but maybe the answer to the first questions explains that (ie he had confirmed they were indeed ruined so there was no real question or you having gotten away with double dipping by keeping them).

[Dale_Williams]

Initially reading I thought strange that they let him keep wine. But assuming they had confirmed damage, I guess (thankfully) they felt they couldn’t sell it, and it would just cost them more money to retrieve and destroy. My wife cracked a Fetique cello bow , insurance paid but let her keep it (can actually play with it glued, but no resale value). She kept it as a beautiful memento, sound not same.
I thought I had a vague memory of an insurance company auctioning off some Katrina bottles, but uncertain. Unfortunately I know insurance companies auction off flooded or other totalled vehicles, which are sometimes “title washed” through states that don’t record salvage titles. I remember some talk of fixing that, but unsure if anything happened.

[Jim_Clary]

When the adjuster arrived, he could see leaking bottles and protruding corks. He literally looked at it for 3 minutes and asked if I had an inventory, which of course I did. I asked him if he wanted to spot check my inventory because there was a lot of high end expensive wine there, but he said because I was a Chubb customer it wasn’t necessary.

Pretty sure they were willing to leave the bottles after seeing their condition.

[Chris_Seiber]

@Jim_Clary

When the adjuster arrived, he could see leaking bottles and protruding corks. He literally looked at it for 3 minutes and asked if I had an inventory, which of course I did. I asked him if he wanted to spot check my inventory because there was a lot of high end expensive wine there, but he said because I was a Chubb customer it wasn’t necessary.

Pretty sure they were willing to leave the bottles after seeing their condition.

That makes sense.

It would be interesting to know what they would do in @Eric_Nelson 's case, when there isn’t visible damage. Would they deny it, or maybe taste some wines to see if they can confirm damage, or just take his word for the possibility they have been compromised?