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Reserves Mix Up

Drinks Chat
#1

Maybe a slightly strange situation.

Ordered a case of Rapsani Terra Petra Thymiopoulos 2017 in May 2020.

Went to withdraw some the other day and 2018s turned up. Queried this and MS said:

Unfortunately they have now advised that the incorrect vintage was picked when your original order of 6 x GR1601 was invoiced. We no longer have stock of the 2017 but we do have more stock of 2018 (GR1941). We therefore have the option of replacing the remaining bottles with the GR1941 (2018).

Does that sound right? Would the 2018s even have been availible to incorrectly pick in May 2020?

And how does Reserves work? Do I have my own little corner of a warehouse somewhere where all my wines sit or do they put all the Rapsani’s placed into reserves in the same spot and then just pick from those as and when a withdrawal is made?

And obviously bit disappointing that errors like this are made since vintages for wines are so important.

Basically, are my 2017s now lost for ever and I just have to lump the mistake or should I be pressing this a bit further in case they can be found in a different corner of the warehouse?

The plot further thickens when they say they have stock of the 2018 Rapsani’s although website says out of stock.

Any thoughts?

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#2

Sorry to hear this, sounds rather frustrating

Maybe, but I’d suggest it’s incredibly unlikely. It’s now four years later and they’re still on the same vintage…

I purchased a bottle of Rapsani in January 2020 and it was the 2017 vintage. I also bought a bottle of the 2016 vintage in September 2019, so the switch to 2017 must have been fairly soon after that.

Appears a standard response has been deployed when a comprehensive apology might have been more appropriate. I’d say you’ve got no chance of seeing your 2017s unless they are found in a deep dark corner of reserves.

#3

For what it’s worth I read the message as saying that they picked something else (not Rapsani 2018) in place of what you ordered, and since they had the 2018 in stock had substituted that instead of sending whatever had been picked. I would think whether you want to accept that is up to you - it would have been nice if they’d queried it in advance, but perhaps there wasn’t time.

#4

I’m a bit confused by your post. Are all the dates correct?

#5

This is interesting . I also ordered a case of 2017’s for reserves and when I went to check about a week later,I saw that they had put 2018’s in .
I emailed at that point and was told That the 2017’s were not available even though that’s what I had purchased . I accepted a case of 2018’s to go to reserves .
Fast forward to 6 weeks ago when I pulled the case out only to discover that in fact they HAD placed the 2017’s in reserves after all .

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#6

Yes, apologies. Fixed now.

Ordered in May 2020, withdraw June 2022 which is when it seems the mistake was discovered.

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#7

Interesting.

My reserves page says it is the 2017s but the 2018s turned up when I requested a withdrawal.

It sounds like I’ll have to accept the 2017s are lost, I was trying to build a vertical vintage of the Rapsanis which is a shame.

I’m still a bit confused what happened. You’d hope, since vintages are essentially entirely separate products, that when they go to pick the wines there is a process in place to stop someone selecting the wrong vintage.

I guess it is an issue with Reserves, if you order direct to home you quickly find out if there is a stock picking error, reserves you just find out several years (and paying storage fees) down the line that there was an initial mess up. Bit concerning if you are relying on reserves to age a particular vintage.

#8

My other suspicion, and I did tell MS this, is that I also do have 2018 Rapsani’s stored away in reserves and could it just be a simple mistake of taking some of the 18s instead of some of my 17s. There reply seems to indicate that it is not that and I just have two duplicate lots of 2018s stored.

Hence why I was curious how reserves work. Is it a specific section set aside for my wines or do they just lump all the 2017 rapsanis in one area and go to that area to pick them as and when a withdrawal request is made.

It’s also a but weird how it was left to me to sort this out. My reserves pick list says 2017 but 2018s in the box. You’d have thought the issue might have been escalated internally when the picker couldn’t find any 2017s to pick.

Basically it seems, currently, that in 2020 that 18s were picked instead of 17s. In 2022 I requested to withdraw 17s but obviously the picker couldn’t find them so just selected 2018s instead and didn’t flag the problem. I was just lucky in this occasion that I checked the wines received against the pick list. Bit disappointing that the problem was not flagged internally either in 2020 or on withdrawal in 2022.

#9

Similar questions have been raised on the Society Champagne and it does seem they know which ones you bought when; I bought some three years ago, retrieved it from reserves this month, and it was disgorged in 2018 (if memory serves - definitely not in the 20s)

#10

Interesting. I have champagne in reserves too, how do you tell when they were disgorged?

#11

From what I recall you don’t have a specific location in the warehouse where your reserves are kept rather the wines are barcoded with your details (name, share number and purchase date) and keep with other reserves. The location is held on computer and when you withdraw the wine then it is located and delivered to you. Not to sure how this works with single bottles or bottles not prepackaged in 3, 6 or 12 bottle cases.

I have had a half case going missing once before but after me badgering member services for a while it mysteriously turned up and when delivered had the correct purchase date and member details on it.

#12

There’s a stamped date on the foil (year, month I think). Other’s more knowledgeable will know more.

but there’s more details here

#13

I only clocked it because in my confirmation email
They mentioned the 2018’s and then I checked what was in my reserves , they apologised, I told them they shouldn’t have sold me the 2017’s if there were none in stock , they apologised again and then I accepted the case of 2018’s …… only to finally discover they had put the 2017’s in after all …. I’m not sure what went on tbh .

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#14

This to me seems to be the strangest aspect. I have had experiences where I have ordered something with low stock and something similar, but not so similar they could be confused, has turned up. It seemed very likely to me that the picker hadn’t been able to find what they were looking for, so just put in something else instead, knowing that it wasn’t quite right.

#15

This has happen to me twice with wines I have with BBR storage.
Vintages don’t play a massive role for everyday wines but for the good stuff I would never accept say a Lynch Bages 2011 instead of the 2010.
BBR on both occasions supplied a free case of said wine as an apology.

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#16

Sounds like that’s where my case of 2017s disappeared to.

:rofl:

I might push the point with MS a bit more. Its not exactly a life or death issue but it is annoying. And for a company which speclises in selling wines they don’t seem to be that concerned with the consequences of the mistake.

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#17

I’ve had similar issues in the past with both L&W and BBR – in both cases it took a lot of arguing to reach an acceptable solution. I would think TWS would be much more amenable to finding a solution you’re happy with, albeit the 2017s are probably gone. May be best to speak to MS – your choice whether to accept 18s or not. Either way, you might want to suggest that any storage fees should be refunded since you should not pay storage on wines you didn’t order (or on non-existent wines).

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#18

@CL1904 @Brocklehurstj @leah I’m sorry to hear of the mix up you’ve experienced! Our Reserves team have picked this up and are looking into it, they will get back to you directly about this!

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#19

It’s alright, I’ve not had a mix up, I was just commenting on the dates of the vintages I bought.

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#20

I’m fine Kelly as I ended up with the 2017’s in the end but thank you :pray:

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