I never thought it would happen to me, but the unthinkable has happened. I just received a shipment of wine, and one of the bottles was broken.
I would appreciate your thoughts during this difficult time.
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Where did you get the wine from? In many cases, the shipping is insured. When buying from most wineries and retailers, this is included in your shipping costs. Never have had this happen in shipping, so have not explored this, but I think this is generally true.
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I agree with Howard. The shipping should be insured. Ask for a refund 
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It’s all good. The silver lining is the winemaker kindly sent some extra bottles for me to try, so it all worked out in the end. Plus I am reminded what TCA smells like. 
Still though, that corrugated box was sturdier than most. It had to have taken quite a blow for something to break.
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It lived a short life, but a good one. RIP.
In my experiences, despite being better for the environment and recycling process, those pulp shippers are very inferior to styrofoam. The disposal is a bit of a headache but the protection that you get from styrofoam is worth it.
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I[quote=“Patrick_Taylor, post:4, topic:298874, full:true”]
Plus I am reminded what TCA smells like.
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The bottle was broken and corked??? Wow, poor wine.
Enzo
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I took it as wet cardboard smell, not a corked wine
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I’m more of a tots and pears guy.
Yup
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Oh man, that reminds me of this classic WB thread/rant on styrofoam.
I’ve probably had 1,000 bottles delivered in cardboard and this was the first one with a broken bottle. I thought it was mildly interesting.
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I’d burry the box with the broken bottle - out of respect for the recently deceased . . . .
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Well, since there’s no capsule, was it even a wine worth drinking anyway?!
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I’m surprised the carrier didn’t throw the box out. Probably because it was just one bottle that broke.
But, the “wet cardboard” smell is a reference to a common experience finding TCA in the wild, not cardboard merely being wet. It’s usually a damp outdoor environment where the necessary mold was introduced and grew and reacted with chlorine.
While probably not cost effective, nowadays they make recycled cardboard cover for bottles.
Better for the environment and for disposal.
I’ll post a picture when i come back home.
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Yes. Well aged wet cardboard would be what we consider a corked wine to smell like. In this case just an analogy as a whiff of newly wet cardboard can give a hint of what we are thinking of but unlikely to be the full blown experience. It’s probably more a trigger based on a semblance of similarity.
A couple of retailers here in Switzerland use this flexi-hex. I find them very convenient, and use them again when i travel with wine.
Styrofoam is so annoying…
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Too often the couriers are just in such a rush, so I have had my share of breakages.
Had a case of wine a year ago including some nice Burgs where they managed to smash two bottles! Amongst the balance were some red wine label damaged 1er Crus that the shippers were unable to replace as all stock had been allocated which I managed to intercept at the courier depot. The shipper replaced the broken ones and would have refunded me for the damaged ones but I was happy to keep them as I bought them to drink them.
Those really fine shards of glass can be a pain to deal with!
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It was my regular guy, but he didn’t even notice. He was carrying the box holding the bottom corners 1 and 3. Corner 2 was the soggy one, which was the first thing I touched as he handed off the case. C’est la vino.