Hi everyone- I found myself in one of those huge Walmart style liquor stores today (Total Wine) and noticed a weird pattern going on with the vintages being offered and I’m hoping someone here can tell me what’s going on. For many wines, all the bottles were of the same recent vintage (current release?) with the exception of a single older bottle right at the front.
I noticed this with three of the wines I was looking at; Shea Vineyards Pinot Noir were all 2018 except for one bottle of 2014, Domaine des Chenevieres Chablis Grand Cru all 2018s except for a single 2015, Flowers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay all 2018 except one bottle of 2017. Once I noticed this, I started digging around in the back of the shelves to see if there were other vintages hidden back there, but every single time there was only that one older bottle right in the front.
A few questions:
1- What’s going on here? Hard to imagine that, in the case of the Shea, all the 2017s, 2016s, 2015s sold out and a single 2014 has just been languishing on the shelf for 4 years.
2- What kind of shape would you imagine that older bottle to be in? Do you think the older bottles have been hanging out in the store for years? Those stores are well cooled and consistent in temperature, probably around 70-72F year round. Those bottles are blasted by fluorescent light though.
3- Which bottle would you buy? Assuming the vintages were of similar quality, would you go for the older or younger one?
Just out of curiosity, I got the older Shea (2014) and the younger Flowers (2018). I didn’t get any Chablis. Kinda thinking I should have gotten the younger Shea. Oh well.
I think you can assume that anything outside their refrigerated cases up front has been sitting at room temp since arriving at the store. Whether that is a real problem is a different question
Agreed. And I think you can assume that these are stray bottles that were lost in the backroom or the back of the shelf as new vintages came in. The average shelf stocker at Total Wine probably doesn’t pay attention to the vintage.
I was at a Total Wine and asked the sales associate if they had any more bottles of a particular wine they had behind the refrigerated glass. He said he’d check. Came back and said he had a half case, which I said I’d take. He brings the bottles out and 5 are room temperature, plus the 1 that was refrigerated. Learned that day that they refrigerated case is mostly for show, but it still makes me feel better.
My guess is the same as John’s, which is that they had a few straggler bottles they want to move, and they deliberately put those up front so they’d sell sooner and then the rest of the bin would be a uniform vintage.
I assume the other vintages are the same price in these instances?
I do see that in Costco occasionally, where they’re selling a 2014 Italian wine, but in the bin there are some 2013s too. In those cases, they’re the same price, and then I guess you just decide which vintage you prefer.
I agree with Neal those older bottles have probably been sitting around the back rooms of Total Wine for a few years. Up to you whether you think that’s a good thing, a bad thing, or neither. I myself would have no probably buying the 2014 Shea like you did.
Heck their inventory system can’t even handle vintage info for a tremendous amount of their wine either.
Not a big deal for a grocery store, but an issue one would think should be dealt with in big wine enterprise like TW.
Putting the older bottles in front is just standard stockist practice to move the older inventory. One can ask TW staff if they have different vintages up in the racks. They don’t love doing this, but if they are going to come around and ask if I need any help, I’ll make that ask… I have definitely found better years hiding up out of sight.
My experience has been different ON ONE FRONT. Every time I have gone to pick up my En Primeur bordeaux orders, ALL have been received/presented/delivered at proper cellar temp. This clearly does not directly address the question above but is a data point.
I would ask the manager at Total Wine. They may not know the answer, but sure as hell nobody on this board does either. In fact, I would ask them for a discount on the older bottles, since it has been potentially sitting around the store for years. Who knows, they might give you a few bucks off.
I know someone that used to work at the one in Laurel, MD. The refrigerated case malfunctioned overnight and by morning the bottles leaked after getting too warm. They cleaned up the ones they could and put them back out for sale.
I have no doubt this story was told to you, but I have a hard time believing it. We’ve all experienced power outages of varying lengths and know not to open our fridges or freezers during said outages unless we absolutely have to. I struggle to imagine the temp. got so bad in these powerless refrigerators over a single night that bottles leaked, but — hey, I wasn’t there — so who knows. Still skeptical, though.
to answer the OP:
I bet those wines have been sitting in the store for awhile; whether you’re willing to accept the risk in buying them is a personal decision, with various factors at play.
Some slow moving items - St Joe blanc’s for example - have been sitting at our location since it opened maybe 6-7 years ago. I actually sent feedback on their website about old BoJo that had been on the shelves forever too, which surprisingly, was gone the next time I was there. I only go a few times a year, despite their proximity, and ‘selection’.
Over the years I’ve tried to get a manager to honor their price matching policy 3 times, each to no avail. Excuses included: Costco doesn’t count, that’s a sale price so it doesn’t count, K&L is an internet seller and doesn’t count.
So is it just a fluke that there happened to be a single bottle of old along with the new bottles? I thought it was strange that it was the exact same pattern, but it’s not like I did a comprehensive overview of the store. I rarely go here, so I have no idea how much variability there is in terms of their offering by vintage.
Gah! I should have asked. Great idea. Maybe next time.
Yikes! I’ve bought a really expensive from a place like this, but I always thought that if I was going to spring for a First Growth or something, that this would be a good place to do it. Given their size, I thought that the storage and provenance would be very good. Maybe not!
I have bought a lot of wine (mostly Bordeaux) at the Manchester CT store. I don’t like to shop inside the store until I’ve done a search on the website. My goal is to get in and out in the minimum time necessary, without getting any “help” from the clerks. Although I will take the time to speak with the wine manager for a few minutes whenever I see him. (That ensures I continue to get the best treatment possible at that store.)
The fact they don’t list vintages for many wines means you have to go in the store if you only want a particular vintage of that wine. That might not be what’s actually on the shelf, and the staff aren’t trained to care.
Their Bordeaux prices are rarely competitive any more, only getting into the range when a 15% off sale is in effect (and futures).
Lets do some critical thinking on this one -
What is the absolute highest temperate at night in Laurel, MD?
How hot does a bottle have to get to leak?
Have you ever left an unopened bottle on a counter overnight?
Are you interested in Oceanfront property in AZ?
aka - The sales associates either A) Broke shit and made excuses or B) drank shit and made excuses.
I went into my local Total Wine last year to see if they had gotten in the 2018 Ridge Pagani Ranch. All they had was the 2017 and I asked when they expected to see the 2018 on the shelves. The sales associate informed me that when the 2017 vintage was sold off the shelves, they would order the next available vintage. So if it took two years to sell the 2017, then I would expect the next vintage on their shelves to be the 2019.
this was what i was told as well. a manager there told me they restock with the currently available vintage (for them) rather than the subsequent vintage when they get close to sold out of whatever is on the shelf.
