Shipping states and timing

Cellar Rats (ITB)
1

I realize how hard it is to satisfy every customer. Some want their wine “right now”, even though it is July. Some of us will wait a long time to get our wine in perfect condition.

I’m speaking for those of us who want to enjoy your wine/product in its best possible condition. This is great for you, we’ll love it and buy more, and great for us, we will love it.

I cannot tell you how many mailers say something to the effect of we ship to everyone in October but will ship to Texas and Florida in Nov/Dec. Basically saying “Florida and Texas are hot and we understand”.

Well ALMOST understand.

UPS shipments to NM go through Phoenix. FedEx through El Paso. Wait just a minute. That’s AZ and TX. Plus NM can have it’s own heat (we’re not Phoenix, Tucson or Las Vegas being at 6,000’ elevation but still).

WHY WHY take any risk. If Oct is ok, chances are Nov is ok. Even December. Yes you probably cannot ship comfortably to Minneapolis in December, so you’re doing tiered shipping. Definitely a problem. BUT you promised tiered shipping anyways by saying “Everyone but FL and TX gets wine in October”. Why TX is singled out but not NM, NV, LA or AZ boggles the mind but I digress…

Look at shipping routes. I can tell you the exact path of a UPS box (through Phoenix) and a FedEx box (through El Paso) that gets to me. FedEx overnight goes through Memphis, UPS overnight through Louisville. FedEx ground normally through Colorado. If I can know this, I think you can as they each only have a few hubs and advertise them.

Are you shipping out of Southern Calif? So through Death Valley? Through Yuma or through Phoenix via ground (I10, I40 type routing)? Think about it. Yes it may be cool in Santa Barbara, and Santa Fe may also be cool. But it spends less than a few hours at the endpoints, it may be driving across Arizona for the majority of the trip.

For the wineries that really annoy me (I won’t mention names to protect the guilty) that wait 18 months or so from payment to delivery, WHY WHY WHY WHY deliver in April/May, it’s been bottled for at least 12 months, when you could do February or early March to guarantee no heat related issues. You’ve had my money for more than a year, sometimes 2. And we’re talking $5k sometimes. The time value of my money is enough for you to respect the concept I want my wine in perfect condition and give it to me 45 days “early” to guarantee no heat issues.

I want to enjoy your wines in the best possible condition, please let me.
[soap.gif]

2

While I agree with everything you wrote, the quoted part is what really gets me. I have no idea why some places want to wait so late to ship, again especially to the south. Very few places in the north are too cold in March and if they are, just hold those states until May. Too many wineries seem to think that their job ends with the bottling of the wine and that shipping issues are outside their bailiwick. That might be the case for places that have distributors do that for them, as a cost of giving up a large part of the revenue. But it is not okay for mailing list wineries.