Generically true of all ‘used’ NV. When I was much younger I sometimes used to round out cases with NV at various auction houses or places like the old HDH retail which had older wines. A crazy high percentage were bad, so I’ve finally learned that lesson. Buy your NV at local places with high turnover so the stock is fresh/sound.
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Long term buyer. Never a problem and a source of some gems over the years.
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“Removed from a professional wine storage facility” is your best friend.
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Another happy customer here. I’ve bought a couple dozen bottles and haven’t had any problems. I don’t bid on bottles that anyone would want to counterfeit so I can’t speak to that. I also pick up from the Napa warehouse so I don’t know anything about the quality of the shipping service. But yeah, some great deals to be found for sure.
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Another happy customer here, bought a lot over the years from Winebid. Lots of good advice here, but I’d add: While condition reports are very accurate, don’t expect magic on very old bottles (> 20 years). Many will in fact be in good condition, but some will be duds (and not due to anything Winebid’s actions). I’ve had a failure rate of 2-5% on older bottles, as high as 10% on Italian wines. My guess is that this reflects generally poor storage conditions back in the 90s (or before that if you buy really old bottles) in Italy. I’ve had the most consistent results with Bordeaux - which reflects its very long history of storage and wine lover fanaticism.
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I have been very pleased with WineBid.
To answer your questions
- The bottle condition has been excellent!
2.never had a counterfeit . That said I have never bid on really expensive bottles. - My experience is only excellent! Russ (ceo)
My only caution is make sure you understand the bidding rules for multiple bottle lots.
There is a thread on on how it works.
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I can only answer your first question, but I’m sure an extra data point wouldn’t hurt.
Buying since 2016. 8 bottles purchased (vintages 1986-2013). Opened 6 with 1 dud. I generally only buy bottles with decent ullage and cork conditions (don’t mind label or capsule damage as much). The condition descriptions and pictures were both accurate when comparing to the received product.
Cheers
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Good advice. And starting to get granular. And I also suspect that your advice is more generally applicable than WineBid. I’ll add some other similar observations and things I look for.
I’ve been buying there since 1999 and have bought over 200 bottles. Ranking success on bottle conditions for items I’ve bought most of:
Bordeaux (very successful and some epic bottles back to 1966 although of course some duds also due to storage)
Red Burg
White Burgundy (actually generally good hit rate but some premox having nothing to do with Wine Bid)
German Riesling (higher percentage of bottles that seem to have some heat damage compared, e.g., to White Burg, but a lot of great bottles; never bought anything too old from Germany)
Older Barolo (very low success rate on 60s and 70s Barolo so I’m done)
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In addition, I look for import labels. If there is none, bottle fill and condition look good, and it at least purports to be from a temp controlled cellar, I’ll usually assume it’s a hand schlep or similar from someone who cares. I also am good if the import label is from a Northern state or the Bay Area. If a bottle has an import label from anywhere in Florida (Boca is a big one for Bordeaux), Texas, Louisiana, S Cal, or anywhere else in the South, I avoid it. It may be less of an issue now than in the past, but is a big issue for me for 1960s-1980s Bordeaux. It’s not worth the risk.
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Aw shucks folks. I am going to print this thread and frame it, and read it any time anyone goes Berserk or if I am just having a bad day. Really, really appreciate all the nice comments.
Noah, as folks mention, I participate on Berserkers from time to time, but we really try and let this board be for appreciation of wine, and not customer service or marketing. You are always welcome to contact me directly or our customer service team through email, phone or chat to answer any questions you may have. Happy bidding, winning, tasting and sharing.
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He’s RMann for whenever we have questions about WineBid.
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Yes, for sure. The failure rates and storage condition feedback is general, not specifically about Winebid. And pretty much everything else Jayson said is really good food for thought if you’re hunting older bottles.
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I’ve bought a few bottles and found the process to be quite smooth.
In case it’s helpful, we did an interview w/ Russ on XChateau - https://www.xchateau.com/episodes/putting-trust-in-data-w-russ-mann-winebid
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I’ve bought several hundred bottles and sold a handful. Nothing but good things to say about the site and people.
To echo what Robert said above, lately the wines I follow are listed at prices equal to, and in many cases exceeding, retail. I don’t fault them for getting the highest possible prices for their sellers, but I’m not a buyer at those prices.
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