I emailed them about accumulating wines for free case shipping and here’s their response:
it’s a great idea and one that many customers appreciated with the previous Underground Cellar. While we don’t currently offer the option to accumulate purchases over time, we’ve made some adjustments to shipping to help make orders more flexible:
Shipping is $10 for orders of 3 to 6 bottles.
Orders of 12 or more bottles qualify for free shipping.
All shipping is upgraded to 2-day air at no extra cost through the end of the year.
I’m also not that interested in mystery wines in general after buying a number over the years. The UC model does at least give you a list of all the possible wines and odds of getting each one.
I guess we just have to trust them. The 1st offer that included Screaming Eagle sold out earlier today. Does that mean that 1 customer did get it? I don’t see how they can make a profit giving away a $4,000+ wine with just a couple of days worth of sales at $25 / bottle.
I hesitate to bring it up, but the xChateau interview with the former operators with UC, mentioned that the upgrade process was NOT random. Instead there was some algorithm that determined who would get more value. So I would characterize it more like a casino that has some card / tracking system for determining who get’s comped, and how much.
Not like the college bars that would flip your beer mugs over as you drank them, and after three, you’d get your next free … and often told that it was time to go after that 4th one.
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Handing out ‘free stuff’ to low lifetime value customers, or low propensity to repurchase (i.e. deal driven, promotional, coupon motivated clickers etc.) seems foolish. But the new operators kept the UC name, and 4th rate inventory, so perhaps, the new team will try the tomfoolery again, but this time in a tougher wine peddling environment.
This is something that they have always done for very reasonable rates for both their wine.woot site back in the day and their current casesmates.com sites. Very reasonable rates IMHO
Iirc when I looked on the opening they had 1600+ bottles so if they sold out at $25 per that’s 40k plus so giving away a so called 4k bottle would not hurt profits too much for a 2 day sale.
I have no doubt that most or more than half of previous customers are happy to see them return even if they got burned previously. Underestimating the gullibility of people is a mistake (no offence intended) and the new owners are not a shady group so probably a brilliant move.
I totally agree, but I do get great pleasure out of warning people, and then later on saying “I told you so”. I’m looking forward to years more UC internet drama with UC: The Second Season “Recovery Scam”
Happy one year anniversary of the UC Bankruptcy sale! I know that it began in January last year, but just thinking to post this now. Last year at this time, we were like kids in a candy store!
Actually just had a 2020 Grigich Hills Rose from the UC sale last night and it was pretty darn good for the $10 I probably paid. Lost a little bit of fruit, but still plenty left to make it enjoyable.
And that got me thinking, what have been some of the best UC wines that you have drank over the past year, or biggest surprises? Mine were:
Odonata Syrah
Muscardini Zinfandel
Gamba Zinfandel
Bolt To Syrah
Dusty Nabor Grenache and Syrah
Markus Syrah and Petite Sirah
The Portalupi Shake Ridge wines (Barbera and Zin) and Preston Zins have been great weeknight wines. The Cote West Marianas Cab is stupid good for 11/bottle.
Site Wines Larner Vineyard, the Muscardini Zin, Bolt-To Chard, Ser Pfeffer and Landline Great Circle Pinot have all been very good.
Bought a couple clunkers, too, but overall hits.
