An article by Victoria Moore in last Saturday’s Guardian newspaper has sparked an interesting conversation on Tom Cannavan’s popular Wine Pages forum surrounding returns of faulty bottles, particularly in the fine wine sector. It centres on whether we, as a retailer, should be held responsible for faulty bottles of fine wine, bought and then stored for some time by the customer before being opened.
This is an area we have already been thinking about, and will address very soon. In the meantime read the various responses, which shine a light on this interesting debate.
I loved the bit about ‘some people drink the wine and then top it up with something else’! I have some Penfolds Grange 1981 which I purchased from Majestic in 1985, any chance I can open it and bring it back now Jeremy? Might taste a bit like Jean D’Armes Rouge circa 1984 though!
Fair play to Jeremy for monitoring forums and giving a reasoned response and heading off any undue criticism. Most of my corked/faulty bottles end up being poured down the sink due to my sloth in returning them to the shop. When I have returned bottles to Majestic there’s never been a problem but have yet to encounter a faulty expensive botle from there as I am cheap. Top marks go to one of your competitors whose name sounds a little like “pine stack” who said I could take anything from the shop. I took the till. The “pine sorority” just take your word for it!
Further to the above, this is how it should be done, by a competitor, with a response within 24 hours.
Hi, I recently opened a bottle of [name withheld] but there was a hole in the cork, the wine had leaked and the wine was oxidised, although the capsule was unbroken. Please can my account be credited? Thanks.
Dear Mr. King,
Thank you for your email.
Please accept our apologies for the faulty bottle you have encountered and for any disappointment caused. We have applied a credit to your account in respect of this and will post the credit note to you shortly.
If you should require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.
This is certainly an issue i have written to Decanter about, after buying Torbreck Juveniles wine from Tesco online and then trying to return them a couple of years later, as they were undrinkable due to secondary fermentation. A problem more due to the winemaking than the storage, but no one was willing to exchange or credit these faulty bottles. Tesco’s 100% guarantee is only valid for 30 days i believe, so if you do buy anything good, you must drink it very quickly!!
The wine can be returned and surely can be tested, and at the price we may be paying, there must be some sort of guarantee that the consumer can rely on.