Ordering wine online.

After the topic I just posted I wondered how common it is among those on the board to order a wine online that they have never tasted. What are your experiences?

I am very reluctant to do so. But it is tempting.

I order wine that I haven't tasted all the time, Ronica.

It's fairly unusual for me to taste a wine before I buy it, whether I purchase in a wine store or over the internet. In the simpliest case, I rely on a recco from the wine merchant.

My experience with online wine purchases -- my first order was in 1997 from WineX I think -- have invariably been positive. Haven't always liked the wine sometimes, but that's the luck of hte draw -- maybe a spoiled bottle, maybe a poorly described wine, whatever.

A strong vote of encouragement here based on fairly broad experience.

Regards, Bob

[Jenise]

Ronica, I do it every week. In fact, the purpose of buying on line isn't to get a better deal on wines I can by locally, it's to buy wines I want to try that I can't get locally. Or to buy older vintages that I don't have to wait to drink.

I agree, most of my online buying is because its at a store I can't drop by easily. I will say that if I haven't tasted myself, I tend to order single bottles first time.

Wines I order on-line are usually wines I am familiar with because of prior vintages, but cannot purchase locally. Occasionally I have them throw in a bottle each of several wines I have not tasted but have read about or heard about but cannot get locally, but that is always a single bottle of each until I taste it. And my experience has been quite positive.

Always. Though I stick to merchants who've served me well in the past .
My current darlings are Chambers Street Wines and Kermit Lynch - they've not steered me wrong yet.

[Jenise]

Always. Though I stick to merchants who've served me well in the past .
My current darlings are Chambers Street Wines and Kermit Lynch - they've not steered me wrong yet.

Good point, John. If one selects the right kind of online retailer, you can get the same kind of one-on-one attention you do from a walk-in retailer and that makes finding and trying new discoveries fun and relatively risk-free.

This is a timely post for me, because I just bit the bullet and ordered something (actually, three bottles of something) from Wine Access, from whom I receive emails all the time but never order because they're a bit on the pricey side, and I have no knowledge of their reliability or most of their selections (they tout themselves as specializing in "small production wines, straight from the source".

I've ordered online from other vendors before (Chambers Street, Italian Wine Merchants, and one or two miscellaneous vendors I can't recall) and have generally had decent experiences (bottles arrived in decent shape, timely delivery, etc.). However, I would only do this for something I can't find locally because why pay shipping if you don't have to?

After the topic I just posted I wondered how common it is among those on the board to order a wine online that they have never tasted. What are your experiences?

I am very reluctant to do so. But it is tempting.

If you're thinking about ordering from a store in, say, Houston, or Austin, then I'd say that the most important factor in determining the outcome of the experience will be the possibility of heat damage.

It only takes an hour or so, in the back of an un-air-conditioned truck, in the height of the summer heat, to ruin almost any wine.

I don't know what temperatures are like in Texas at this time of year, but to be absolutely sure about "provenance" [i.e whether the wine will be "cooked" by UPS or FedEx], I'd wait until about November 1 before I had any merchant ship my purchases.

And if they try to ship in hot weather, then tell them "No!" and hold your ground and demand that they keep the wine until cool weather arrives. [On the other hand, if you encounter a merchant who insists on shipping in hot weather, then that's probably a pretty good indication that they don't care about the condition of their wines in the first place.]

Note that you can always watch the weather at a site like weather.com, and get a pretty good idea of whether any particular cool spell will hold long enough to insure that a shipment will arrive unscathed.

PS: The other thing to remember about wine shipping is that if the shipment can't arrive by Friday evening, then it sits in a warehouse over the weekend, until Monday morning, and there is very little chance that that warehouse will be air-conditioned.

So if you're expecting a shipment on a Friday, and if you're looking at a hot weekend, then make sure you're there to receive it.

I buy wine online for the variety. I don't have a vast cellar, so I tend to want variety and to want the wine I want to drink or taste rather than a similar wine that happens to be stocked by a local merchant. I do buy from them, but it tends to be in 1-3 bottle lots, as generally they're not too price competitive.

Maybe if my local merchant had a great range and regular tasting evenings, then I'd see a big difference between online and local. Taste before you buy is a concept o be encouraged.

regards

Ian

Wow! I am very encouraged to start shopping online. It is very difficult for me to get to a nice wine store regularly. I usually buy wine at the grocery store or World Market. Then on a less than regular basis I will shop at Whole Foods or Central Market or some other cool shop.

I will start shopping soon.

Let us know how it goes.

We tend to do our online ordering from either retailers or wineries that offer things not available locally. Retailers we order from usually specialize in something; Southern Hemisphere Wine Center for you guessed it, or Chambers Street for Loire.

We usually order unkowns in twos. This way if we like it, we have another, and if we don't like it, we have a gift to give!

I order wine that I haven't tasted all the time, Ronica.

It's fairly unusual for me to taste a wine before I buy it, whether I purchase in a wine store or over the internet. In the simpliest case, I rely on a recco from the wine merchant.

My experience with online wine purchases -- my first order was in 1997 from WineX I think -- have invariably been positive. Haven't always liked the wine sometimes, but that's the luck of hte draw -- maybe a spoiled bottle, maybe a poorly described wine, whatever.

A strong vote of encouragement here based on fairly broad experience.

Regards, Bob

Bob, you are very fortunate to have retailers who hire personnel who know their craft. In Lexington, I have two largish wine/beer/liquor/party stores. Both are operated by the same owner/management. I would venture to say that among the entire staff of both stores there are two employees who even care about wine, much less understand it and are able to advise a shopper to any degree at all. You are a lucky guy Bob Ross!

"You are a lucky guy Bob Ross!"

In so many ways, Bob, in so many, many ways.

Regards, Bob

Don't just shop for the unique wine, shop for the shipping charges. They can vary. Always buy at least two bottles. I buy wine recommended @ winelovers.com online...Gee these people have very different tastes than I do.

Ha