Did anyone who got their money refunded for ruined wine have to return the wine? High costs to ship back back wine so not sure SMV would require you to return it as long as you provided proof of the issue.
I did not have to return my ruined wine.
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Youāve opened them?
I tried a sip of the bottle that looked least impacted. It was still muted/stewed in my opinion.
I confirmed with the Last Bottle team that these are definitely not bottles returned to SMV but all the remaining unsold Elivette from the sale. They also hinted that the prices will be ridiculous which I assume means better than the winery sale prices.
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Well . . . how would the Last Bottle folks know with certainty that they were not returned bottles? Curious to hear . . .
Cheers
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Someone made a pinky promise?
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Depending on pricing, may be worth the flyer
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They arent going to sell cooked wine. If they do they will have egg on their face and issue refund. Would kill their reputation if they did. Not worth the risk to them.
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Funny, we would have all said that about SMV a few months ago. 
This presents an interesting situation.
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Would Last Bottle have any idea whether wines they buy from SMV had been returned, that is unless the bottles had protruding corks and seepage?
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Does SMV even know which ones are which, given how scattered and inexperienced they are under this private equity or whatever current transitional ownership?
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SMV buyers knew there was possibly a problem because their bottles arrived during hot weather. Sometimes with outward signs of heat damage, sometimes not. But Last Bottle buyers are not going to have circumstances like that to tell them what happened earlier in the life of that bottle.
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Likely many buyers of these wines will wait years before opening them.
I guess to me, Iād go into it with at least a bit of a question mark and a bit of uncertainty, which doesnāt necessarily mean I wouldnāt consider buying provided the price discount is enough to compensate for the risk.
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I dont disagree with what you wrote, but i think LB has way more to lose than SMV on a botched deal. This was a one-time liquidation for SMV and they had no clue what they were doing. Buyers on their list will likely give grace, after being made whole. LB deals with this sort of thing all the time and they make their money by selling volume. Once buyer confidence is lost in LB, they likely wont buy any more and will look for alternative sources.
Iāll let others be skeptical, so they hesitate when the offer pops up, and gives me a chance to buy, if price is right 
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You and I should run a āshort and distortā campaign to make sure we get more cheap bottles.
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So I bought some of the 2015 Elivette directly from SMV during their sale, but no other vintages. I have never had an Elivette before, and the 2015 got good reviews on CT, and I like the 2015 Napa vintage as a whole. But I have them holding the wine until October for shipping, and I havenāt tried it yet. So for this upcoming LastBottle Elivette sale, what other vintages have you all tried and liked?
I had the 2016 last weekend, it was delicious. Was bought in the first sale, shipped in the hottest part of the summer. No protruding cork, buy had signs the wine pushed up to almost the top of the cork. However, wine tasted fine. Iāll be a buyer again if the price is right
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I got three vintages, '10, '15 and '16, but all I have opened thus far was a mag of '10. Splash decant and gave it 3-3.5 hours before serving, checking on it as I went. Was very pleased, but still young and probably needed another 90-120 minutes to fully unfold.
I wonāt be opening the other bottles for some time, but will certainly look at the LB sale and if I see any more '10 will likely pull the trigger. After my experience Iām also interested in a few of the earlier years.
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I guess thinking about this more, were many of the bottles incorrectly shipped in the heat actually returned? Or did SMV just let the customer keep the bottles plus get a refund?
If itās all or mostly the latter, as I am thinking it would have been, then I guess there should not be any issue with the upcoming offer. At least not any that results specifically from their shipping errors in the sale that is the subject of this thread.
They could barely manage shipping them. Doubt they went through the logistics of having people return them. In one case I know of, the customer disputed the charge (after several unanswered emails about heat damaged bottles), and it was refunded without any hassle.
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I havenāt bought from last bottle in years but I did really enjoy the Elivette that I bought, so will probably dip my toes in if the price is right again.
Get that last bottle referral code as well
Can you explain / share? Thanks.