Liquid farm arrived with a nice corkscrew and the usual handwritten note.
Not sure what many of you consider customer service. I find most wineries I deal with take my money and give me wine. Most are easy enough to order from, and most I never have a problem with. I would consider that the normal course of business.
Good or great to me comes from personal experience with the winery where I had some sort of issue or need.
In that line I only have phobe at ceritas. Every single time I have interacted with her she has gone out of her way to make me feel like I was her only customer. Over the years she has arranged tastings for me and friends, and even helped me backfill my collection when I foolishly drank my last bottle Ina vertical.
Rhys wins for ease of ordering.
I have only had a few bad or less than positive experiences in wine. One was with wine store in Oregon, and the other has been communication with arcadian. If their wine wasn’t so darn good, I would have left them on two separate occasions. So I put up with the less than positive customer service for the exceptional wine.
Many wineries today recognize the need to treat their customers (those on their lists) as valuable assets. (This wasn’t always the case. There was one winemaker’s wife who was legendary for being difficult to deal with.) I tend to feel that the quality of the person behind the brand is, or will be, represented in the quality of the wine they produce. So I expand my assessment to include how they treat those trying to get on their list as well. I have, in the past, been on all of the major lists - except two, Marcassin and Bryant Family who dropped the ball (and couldn’t care less). Due to health issues I couldn’t drink for several years and dropped off all lists except for Bevan Cellars as Russell and Victoria were old friends from the mid-90s. The best wineries were also always gracious to those waiting to get on their lists - to various degrees. Most of those mentioned are in that category, as well as being accommodating and helpful to their customers.
On the retail side unpleasant experiences are few. Pleasant interactions, or at least non-problematic experiences are many. There are so many choices, particularly when it comes to wine, that anyone treating their customers without the utmost respect are not worth my time or money. Yes, stuff happens, but 99.9% of the time “stuff” and the negative effect thereof, can be erased or at least mitigated with minimal effort.
The story changes on the wholesale side where unpleasant experiences are common and “Gold Standard” service is not. On a good day non-problematic is the best you can hope for.
My all time best over the top, “Gold Standard” experiences would be Loring’s no hassle replacement of bottles with questionable closures, Paul Gordon personally delivering my bottles of Halcon and Joe Davis offering to deliver a case of Arcadian to my home.
What about Sierra at Saxum ? She and Justin are at the top of my list. ![[thankyou.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/d/df165fe9c1593d19166ae7e1ffe5e272089cc07b.gif "thankyou"){kind=small}
I second many of the wineries mentioned above, but for truly “gold standard” I have to mention (again) Bedrock and add August West and Sandler. Ed has gone “above and beyond” many times.
I would like to add to the list:
Stony Hill
I live in the area and they are always accommodating in holding my shipments until we can come up to visit them and pick them up. They always treat you like royalty when you’re at the winery visiting, and it really is one of the more picturesque settings in the valley.
Having just visited a couple of weeks ago, I totally agree. The genuineness of the place really puts things in perspective.
Ojai has done a great job since I started buying from them again in 2013. Very happy with the outcomes of my email conversions conversations with them.
+1
Hi,
I’m based in France and used to import directly from California some time ago. Outstanding customer service from Donelan, Copain and Saxum which will not surprise anybody here.
Given this thread was started in connection with the MI thread, and all wineries quoted here are US based I’m curious to know if any of you experienced such gold customer services from European wineries?
Leaving Maison Ilan aside (is it really a “French winery”?)…
I’ve had solid and professional experiences with each of the few French wineries I’ve dealt with except Foreau. The most welcome I’ve felt was actually at Baumard.
I’m a little hesitant to post some “great customer service” experiences since, as Berserkers, we have some inside connections that lurkers might feel slighted if they feel they don’t enjoy the same access.
Some experiences however I believe are standard operating procedure and deserve mention:
Hardy preemptively send an e-mail when a Dirty & Rowdy shipment was sent on a very hot day, offering a replacement no questions asked. Luckily our UPS delivers in the early morning and the bottles were cool to the touch. First bottle I cracked was corked, which Hardy cheerfully replaced.
Both Nikki “Wine Nerd” of Liquid Farm and Jasmine Hirsch of Hirsch Vineyards sent e-mails to welcome me to their respective mailing lists, and opened a dialog on my taste in wine. Part sales for sure, but also part wine geeks talking wine, and for me Gold Standard because it’s not standard at all.
Bedrock goes without saying: hand-written thank you notes from Morgan in the early days, though I can understand why that’s not practical anymore. Still a great personal touch that didn’t lose a beat with Chris coming on board. They’ve replaced corked bottles without asking, just from seeing the note on CT.
Paul Luckin at Enkidu will take care of you big time, if you give him the secret Berserker handshake ![[berserker.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/8600bbd4810d342b8fbd4ffb62b4f0026275fd37.gif "berserker"){kind=small}
I also consider Ridge, Ravenswood, and Tablas Creek exceptional to deal with for larger wineries, and the people at Biale and Turley are fantastic to deal with, even if I’ve never had to test the customer service with them.
I had great experiences with Tablas Creek and Alban going above and beyond for me including an instance where I traded a bottle with someone and it turned out to be corked. They replaced it no questions asked after verifying the person I traded with had purchased off their list.
Soliste
Saxum
Fairchild