Hi, I recently received an order of older vintage wines from what I thought was a reputable store I’ve seen advertised here. Two of the bottles showed up with stickers that said they were reconditioned at the chateau. This wasn’t listed on the website so I was expecting original bottles. Is this something worth complaining to the store about? Not sure it’s worth trying to ship them back, but a discount would be appreciated.
interesting situation.
what was the store’s response when you asked them about this?
Haven’t reached out yet. Part of the reason for this thread was to see how big of negative this is or if I’m overreacting. Probably going to call tomorrow.
need more info. such as the wine, age, when it was reconditioned, price, retailer. the details and facts matter.
Anything that is not disclosed that could be viewed as a negative gives me reason to pause and frankly complain. I would at least ask for a discount.
1985 la Gaffeliere. Reconditioned in 2022 at the chateau per the sticker. Didn’t want to drag the store if I’m overreactin, but they seem well known online and on wine searcher. Paid about $150 for the bottles.
Wouldn’t this be a good thing?
They wouldn’t recondition them if they were not sound. So with that confidence and a new cork you can age them further without worry?
(But yes they should have disclosed it)
Do you want a new iPhone or a reconditioned iPhone?
If I’m buying a theoretical iPhone from someone’s basement since 1985 I’ll take the Apple certified one thanks.
A 40 year old iPhone? I would want a reconditioned one to guarantee cork/battery quality.
Assuming of course they disclosed that it was reconditioned. The wine was not. I would complain and ask at least for a discount.
What implied warranty comes with a reconditioned wine? Rhetorical question.
I’ll say my piece anyways just for discussion.
There’s never a warranty on a wine that old, but you now know the wine was at least sound two years ago. Plus now it has a better seal than even when new.
Why would anyone take or pay for a wine to be reconditioned?
Maybe I would if I bought the wine 20 years ago from auction and wasn’t sure about provenance? Maybe then I’d pay a fee to have the chateau open it up and confirm it’s as it should be?
Would I do it if I bought and stored the bottle under my own eye for 40 years? Well I don’t think I’d have to…
No argument here just discussing as it’s an interesting exercise that I don’t think I’ve seen before (a rarity here!)
Agree with others that reconditioned is a good thing.
They definitely should have disclosed this, but this way you know (a) it was sound and not corked(!) two years ago and (b) has a fresh cork. Knowing it wasn’t corked alone is worth something, particularly with a Bordeaux from the 80s.
As for a discount, I’d say $150 was already a very good price.
(One exception to this general thinking: As I recall, unreconditioned Borgogno Barolo sells for than the reconditioned bottles the winery offers for some reason.)
My experience is limited, but it can take several years for reconditioned wines to recover from the process. I’ve had reconditioned 30 y/o Borgogno that tasted painfully young, for example. I’ve also had Giroud that showed younger than its age but was much more enjoyable.
I guess it depends on the variety & what you are looking for in your wine (to drink or to cellar).
You ended up with something with better provenance that what you thought- be thankful?
I think you should offer to pay more.
i guess it kinda depends on the producer - for some burgundian producers the reconditioned wines just taste really weird to me but it’s very producer specific on their process. I just had a swath of reconditioned Domaine Bouchards that were pretty incredible.
Reconditioning in Bordeaux isn’t a bad sign, on the contrary! You could always write to the château asking exactly what they did, but normally it just means they opened the wine, checked it was sound, then refilled with the same vintage and recorked. It’s a practice that has become increasingly rare because of the number of counterfeit bottles presented for reconditioning, I believe. So your wines are probably worth quite a lot more than you paid, not less.