Comments on Sean Sullivan - Washington Wine Report: How to Return a Corked Bottle of Wine (and Why You...

I've contacted two different wineries in the p...

2012-02-09T12:40:19.493-08:00

I've contacted two different wineries in the past year, one just at the holidays. I didn't even ask for another bottle at their expense I just asked if they had any issues with that year of wine/variety. In both cases they offered to replace the wine at their expense and not they did not want my bottle back.

Neither winery (one oregon, one washington) said they had experienced any other issues with the wine in question. Great customer service in both cases.

Neither winery is a 'goto' favorite winery but I will certainly buy more of their products on occasion.

Tom, excellent points! Thank you for adding them. ...

2012-02-03T12:55:44.587-08:00

Tom, excellent points! Thank you for adding them. The percentage of flawed bottles definitely goes up considerably if you bring in other culprits you mentioned.

Good post Sean, and I would like to see you blow o...

2012-02-01T11:47:28.993-08:00

Good post Sean, and I would like to see you blow out the entire discussion of flawed bottles into a series of articles educating WA wine drinkers.

A few points I think would be helpful for new wine drinkers to understand.

One- TCA tolerance varies from individual to individual. Scientific testing has shown some users can detect this compound in amounts as tiny as 1 or 2 parts per trillion. Your drinking partner may smell nothing, you smell mold... or vice versa!
Second- you touched on this but it bears exploring further, TCA amounts can very from bottle to bottle. When slight, it strips the wine of fruit but does not necessary reveal itself via the traditional wet dog, moldy, mushroom smell... I think this is important because many consumers have experienced a great bottle of wine, shared a new bottle with a friend later and then experienced great disappointment... where is that great wine I just had a short time ago? TCA a likely culprit.
Three- part of this return cycle consumers should be aware is not just TCA. Volatile Acidity (VA), reduction aromas (burnt rubber), mercaptans, heat damage et al. contribute to flawed bottles and ruined evenings!

Good retailers are aware of the dangers lurking in bottle. It takes educated consumers as you point out who have the ability to identify flaws and request an exchange. My personal findings of "flawed bottles" is in the 5-7% range.

Hope to see more in the future!

Tom

pericat, my point was mainly to suggest that many ...

2012-01-29T19:08:49.911-08:00

pericat, my point was mainly to suggest that many producers don't believe they have a problem with cork taint in part because so few consumers return corked bottles of wine (and few systematically track it in their tasting room). I agree wholeheartedly that, as a consumer, contacting a winery to make them aware of the problem and asking for a replacement bottle is going the extra mile. Personally I have rarely have done this for the reasons mentioned in the post, foremost that it's a pain the neck. However, I do feel that if more consumers make it a point to reach out to wineries when a bottle is corked, perhaps more wineries would take additional preventative measures.

tks, that is an extremely discouraging story. I believe you have touched on something of a larger issue here - that some wineries are not particularly responsive, especially to email. I come across this frequently when looking for additional information about wines. No doubt part of this lack of responsiveness is due to so many wineries being extremely small operations. However, this is no excuse, certainly when dealing with customers, as running a winery needs to have a strong customer service component. If you're not going to be responsive via email, don't list an email address!

Many wineries do the customer service aspects extremely well, which makes the ones that don't stand out. As consumers, we vote with our wallets. I'd look to spend my money elsewhere if I were you, as sad as that may be if you truly like the wines.

I recently contacted a Woodinville winery about 2 ...

2012-01-29T14:32:11.476-08:00

I recently contacted a Woodinville winery about 2 corked bottles with no response. I had two previous attempts at contact about buying more wine, no response. I ended up driving up to buy more. Needless to say, although the wine in question has been one of my favorites, I'm opting to buy from others in the future. It's frustrating enough getting no response when inquiring about purchasing, but all the more when stuck with $100 of bad wine after going the extra mile to get it. Not sure what I'm going to do now, but I won't buy from them again.

I would take the mildest form of issue with only o...

2012-01-26T22:09:26.550-08:00

I would take the mildest form of issue with only one part of this excellent write-up: "As consumers, we are actually part of the problem by remaining silent."

Frankly, no, we're not. As consumers, our obligation begins and ends with paying for the product. If the thing we pay for turns out to be faulty in any way, and we choose to inform the producer, we're going above and beyond any duty.

It is not our job, merely because we have chosen to purchase a given product, to then act as beta-testers. We may choose to do so, and it may be in our own immediate best interests to do so, but we are not obliged to do so, and quality issues should not be laid to our account should we choose not to bring the matter to the winery's attention.

That said, a most useful post that clearly describes what corked wine is and how to discern it.

I recently had a bottle of wine that was corked. T...

2012-01-26T21:06:59.721-08:00

I recently had a bottle of wine that was corked. The saran wrap worked, at least I think it did as the wine was drinkable after an hour. I told the my friend at the winery that it worked and yesterday I received a replacement bottle. I was not expecting anything as I drank the wine. Wineries like that I will forever remain loyal to. They get it.

Interestingly I contacted Garagiste, who I'd a...

2012-01-26T19:43:50.073-08:00

Interestingly I contacted Garagiste, who I'd actually bought the Oregon wine through, they credited me back the price of the wine in about 14 minutes. No need to bring them the wine etc. I've been a customer for about 8 yrs and this was my first complaint.

Just one more argument for alternative closures, I...

2012-01-26T16:38:30.611-08:00

Just one more argument for alternative closures, IMHO. I really do not understand any manufacturer that thinks 3% is an acceptable rate of failure for their product. There is nothing romantic or up-market about corked wine... time to move forward with closure technology.

Jameson, most of the people I spoke with were actu...

2012-01-26T14:00:04.202-08:00

Jameson, most of the people I spoke with were actually vintners, and I was quite surprised that some felt 3% was acceptable. I don't. I think about it this way. That's 3 customers out of 100 that might be having a bad experience. Let's say you make 400 cases of a wine. At 3%, that's 144 corked bottles of wine. Wow!

John, I agree with you. I've found two general approaches at wineries to corked wines. Some don't think they have an issue because they never see returned bottles. Some of these people take it as some sort of affront (!) to suggest a wine was corked. Others know they must have the problem (everyone does to a greater or lesser extent) and live in fear that customers are thinking they make bad wine when they have corked bottles. In my experience, most wineries would much rather have you return a bottle of corked wine than think their wine stinks and go around saying the same.

Clive, that 20% off story is one of the more preposterous things I've heard. Reminds me of a restaurant I got food poisoning at once (everyone got sick). They offered the next meal free which was not too appealing somehow. In the interests of good business, a winery should replace the bottle for you *at their own expense* as in not saying, "If you drive hundreds of miles out here...". If they don't, I'd take the business elsewhere. There's over 1,200 wineries in the Pacific Northwest and many who'd appreciate the business.

John, you clearly don't know the people at Rob...

2012-01-26T13:19:40.719-08:00

John, you clearly don't know the people at Robert Biale, I contacted them about a corked bottle of Black Chicken Zin, which I think is about a $50 bottle and they told me that they'd give me 20% off my next purchase. Here's the thing dawg, your wine has a 100% corked rate with me, why would I buy your wine again? Even for a discount. I've approached 2 WA and one OR winery in the last 3 months about the wine being corked and haved received a decent response on replacing the wine, although requiring me to come to their tasting room, which I may never do for convenience sake.

Another aspect from the winery's point of view...

2012-01-26T11:01:42.167-08:00

Another aspect from the winery's point of view, is that they would like to replace that bottle to ensure the customer has a great experience with their wine. Most consumers don't know what flaws taste/smell like, so they just think that the wine isn't any good, and won't buy wine from that winery again. If the customers would instead contact the winery if they don't think the bottle is right, every winery I know of would gladly replace the bottle to give the customer the right kind of experience.

I would like to see you take up the issue of what ...

2012-01-26T10:29:42.255-08:00

I would like to see you take up the issue of what level of cork taint is acceptable. Were the people you spoke with consumers or vintners? I'm not sure any manufacturer would be happy with a 3% product failure rate.