Amazon - corked DP

J

Justin Willott

Location
London
Back in December 2015 I bought a couple of bottles of DP04 in an Amazon one day sale, having been impressed by it at the previous day’s Xmas WIMPS. I open a bottle this evening to experience my first ever corked Champagne
What do I do? What do you think, is there any point writing to Amazon about this?
 
Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher

Location
Manchester
I've always found Amazon very responsive to refund requests, and it is absolutely worth trying. But where you might come unstuck is the 7 year gap since you bought it.

I'm not sure how most "proper" wine merchants would respond either in such a case, even if the wine must have been faulty on purchase.
 
Mark Carrington

Mark Carrington

Location
Dorset, England
Having battled with vendors over the years with regards corked wines, I now take the Keith Peckover/Omar 'it's all in the game' approach. Less stressful, though doesn't lessen the initial annoyance.
 
Steve Slatcher

Steve Slatcher

Location
Manchester
Mark Carrington said:
Having battled with vendors over the years with regards corked wines, I now take the Keith Peckover/Omar 'it's all in the game' approach. Less stressful, though doesn't lessen the initial annoyance.
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I'd usually at least ask.

But if refused I don't think I'd fight - just never give them any more business, and let others know who might be interested. (Actually I can't remember the last time that happened - if ever.)
 
K

kevin Byrne

Location
Brighton
The idea of buying wine from Amazon is anathema to me as I shudder to think what they will do to the sector if they come to dominate. That said, if you bought from them directly I think they will refund you - I once bought a Fitbit for a friends son who smashed it in the playground, his dad rang them told them what happened and to my amazement they sent him another.
 
Mark Carrington

Mark Carrington

Location
Dorset, England
Steve Slatcher said:
I'd usually at least ask.

But if refused I don't think I'd fight - just never give them any more business, and let others know who might be interested. (Actually I can't remember the last time that happened - if ever.)
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Agreed. If you don't ask, you don't get.
If I opened a corked wine recently purchased then I might be inclined to ask for a refund/replacement.
 
J

Justin Willott

Location
London
It’s the unusual set of circumstances that prompted me to post: Amazon - 7 yrs - Champagne.
Most of the time I accept corked bottles are part of the round but when they’re more expensive I’m more likely to take action. It looks like the purchase was from Amazon itself so I wonder what they’ll make of my claim.
 
K

Kevin Courtney

Location
Marlborough
Justin Willott said:
It’s the unusual set of circumstances that prompted me to post: Amazon - 7 yrs - Champagne.
Most of the time I accept corked bottles are part of the round but when they’re more expensive I’m more likely to take action. It looks like the purchase was from Amazon itself so I wonder what they’ll make of my claim.
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I always understood Champagne was very prone to being corked, so certainly nothing unusual about that aspect of it.
 
Chris Hambleton

Chris Hambleton

Location
London
Aha, I think the answer to that one is that tca is even more obvious on champagne. That may or may not have to do with the bubbles popping. It may also have to do with the make up of the champagne cork, tge two discs of proper cork over the chopped and reformed. So champagne is not more prone to taint, but it is more readily obvious. The champenoise realised this hence the complex cork construction.
 
Nayan Gowda

Nayan Gowda

Location
Tarija, Bolivia
Chris Hambleton said:
Aha, I think the answer to that one is that tca is even more obvious on champagne. That may or may not have to do with the bubbles popping. It may also have to do with the make up of the champagne cork, tge two discs of proper cork over the chopped and reformed.
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Both of these reasons are correct.

Corks have gotten massively better in recent years (though I'd still choose to seal any sparkling I made with a synthetic, or crown cap (which I've used for our new bubbles)).
 
Raymond Tilney

Raymond Tilney

Location
Northampton
Corked champagne in my experience runs at the rate of 3-4 bottles per hundred.
This is I understand in line with the findings of Tom Stevenson who of course over the years and competitions has a very large sample to rely upon.
Sadly the run rate for corked DP is 2-3 times the average:(
 
Mark Palmer

Mark Palmer

Location
London
David Mansfield said:
I have had only two corked champagnes in over 35 years. Indeed the first was only 5 years ago.I was a bit thrown at first.
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I’m quite similar. Probably 100+ bottles of champagne per year opened over thirty years and five corked. Two of those were DP.

My run rate is possibly better than average because the vast majority of my cellar (and therefore bottles opened) over the last twenty years have been sealed with Mytik. Zero cork so far with this enclosure.
 
J

Justin Willott

Location
London
Despite some of the optimism above, the outcome is what I expected. Amazon's response is that they cannot help if the order is >3 years old. I see that gov.uk states that "customers have up to 6 years to make a claim for an item they’ve bought" (but Amazon is a Lux company). As this was 7 years ago, I just have to swallow this one!
 
I

Ian Shaw

Location
Havant, Hampshire
I don't drink as much fizz as Mark P and can only remember one corked example, a Bolly RD 1988 from Magnum.

Bought for my son's 18th and was shockingly corked, but that didn't seem to stop him and his mates knocking it back pronto!
 
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