Bad Bottle of Cabernet

Definitely. Bad bottles are too common, unfortunately. Return it to the store for a refund or exchange, but don't take it back _empty_ or nearly so.

Tom S

I tried to take it back to smart and final where I purchased it.... I even had the receipt... but the manager said they don`t exhange bad bottles of wine....

I`ve emailed the customer service department of find out the official policy of returning bad bottles of wine....

I will let you know what they write back...

But, one thing is for sure.... I won`t be purchasing any more wine from them...

Does anyone know any places do allow the return of bad bottles of wine??? How often can we afford to lose $10.99 on a bad bottle of wine.... I live in the los angeles county, area....

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (Vizzion) wrote in news:29403-3F984233-136@storefull-

Welcome to wine buying. I am certainly not a snob, but get used to it. How do you think I feel when I keep a bottle 15 years knowing it should be wonderful only to find it's corked. I almost cried when I poured an Opus One down the drink. The rest of the case, (5 bottles) I hope are OK but I read where roughly 10% of wine can be corked. Kinda makes me wonder if screw caps are not all the bad.

If a bottle is corked, does that make the other bottles that came in the same case more likely to be corked as well?

"SJP" wrote in news:ZT_lb.12994$e01.25340@attbi_s02:

NO. Not at all. It's the cork that is bad for what ever reason. I have heard lot's of explanations but the fact is a certain percentage of wine will be bad, corked if you will. It has a very strong musk smell and tastes like a sweaty sock. Much debate has been given on the cork or screw cap issue just recently and I suspect that screw caps,(with the new methodology) will be the winner. Cork is just not that reliable. Saying all this, I find that roughly one bottle out of ten to fifteen I drink is corked, or oxidized. The bad news is for me that I have what I consider a nice collection and won't know what is good or what is not good until I choose to open a bottle and that is rare. However, my every day wines, won't hurt me all that much if they are bad, kinda like errant golf shot, or a stale cigar. Heck, I have had really bad bottles of beer before and knew it wasn't the beer but maybe the cap was loose. Good luck and don't let one bad bottle keep you from what you like.

I tried to take it back to smart and final where I purchased it....

My local wine merchant will accept a return if there is some liquid in the bottle. I have also successfully returned a mostly full bottle of wine to Safeway, no questions asked. I don't know how long you can cellar a wine and still expect a refund, but I'm guessing you're not in that situation.

I'm sure California is much better about return policies than the state of Ohio. It is not up to the retailer to decide that the customer is not satisfied. It must clearly be a tainted bottle, and then, the customer is entitled to a bottle of the same product. No refund. If XYZ winery produced vinegar, we ALL get vinegar. It's only fair. :^)

Tom In CTown

I live here too, and I can assure you that if you press them they will at least let you exchange it for a new bottle. If the manager won't budge, ask to speak to his boss, and his boss' boss too if necessary. Just go up the food chain.

Next time you return a bad bottle they won't give you such a hard time. Just be sure that the bottle really _is_ bad. Just because you don't _like_ it doesn't mean that it's a bad bottle. It has to have a material defect to be considered bad; e.g., corked, vinegary, rotten eggy, sweat soxy, wet dog etc.

Tom S

Being on the retail side of the wine industry, all too often if one bottle is bad then other bottles from that same case are bad as well. This is because not all distributors take care of wine the way that they should. Note that this tends to be more from improper storage that from being corked, but it's not always the case.... remember the problem that BV had with cork taint? But all is not lost. Most reputable wine retailers will gladly exchange a bad bottle of wine (within reason - don't drink 3/4 of the bottle before deciding its bad, or wait until next year). Any retailer that will not exchange a bad bottle should not be dealt with.

Exactly right. If the retail entity wont take it back, don't ever deal with them again and spread the word about them. Here in Ontario, the LCBO takes returns with few or no questions asked; ditto with individual vintners.