Bad Wine - can it be returned?

[Random Orbital Bob]

Tesco will definitely take it back. They can't risk their reputation. I bought a chiminea from them last year and it cracked on first firing despite carefully running it in etc

I took literally a pile of ash covered pot shards back with no receipt and they refunded me.

Having a club card account probably helped

But you could see it was a policy decision. As long as the complaint is credible, their more than reasonable. I'm pretty impressed with the modern tesco actually. They're a far cry from the old style shops

 

[Mark A]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I called in to Tesco this evening and explained to the customer service lady that the wine was undrinkable and she let me exchange it, even though I didn't keep the receipt (who does?) I swapped it for Plantagenet The Lioness Pinot Noir as it was the only other red for about the same price. We haven't opened it yet but hopefully it'll be okay.

On the subject of cider, I quite like Henneys and the Tesco Finest Organic Pear variety.

Mark

 

[adidat]

my current favourite!

adidat

 

[Jake]

I bet this is the usual bullshit supermarket trick. Sainsbury's and Tescos are the worst at it. They "sell" wines for silly prices and then do "special offers" which are half-price and ordinary value. If you get caught with a bottle at full price, you get charged twice what it is worth. Saint Vigni is a low end brand which Tescos seem to have picked up (or invented). The Cotes du Rhone is almost drinkable cheapo at a half-price fiver, then they sell it for nearly a tenner at which price it is stupid. It is not a name I have seen on a Chateauneuf bottle, but I would not trust it - as with all the other Rhone crus there are a few great vineyards, and then a whole load of tiny little plots with very variable land stewardship and a whole of load of negociants who like the stand-out price they can get over and above an ordinary Cotes-du-Rhone. Call me cynical, but I reckon if you tallied up the world's annual supply of Chateauneuf, Crozes-Hermitage, Gigondas etc it would probably take quite a lot more of the Rhone valley's vineyards to fill all the bottles than can actually be found in those villages. I bet the Saint Vigni Chateauneuf is sold at 7.99 or something or other soon enough, then rotated, etc.

 

[Sawyer]

Speaking of marketing baloney, what does 'premium' (as an adjective to wine, beer &c) mean? (hammer)
I know what we're supposed to think, but often find that 'premium' products are far from being the best of their type.
In plain English, 'premium' in fact just seems to mean 'pricey'

A bit like 30 years ago when everything was 'luxury' !

 

[Jonzjob]

I'm glad that we can just pop down to our village shop and buy local wines, or stop at a local roundabout and buy and have a chat with the producer, or call into the various chateaux and taste before buying. It gets around all, or most, of the pitfalls, init already :mrgreen:

If any of you are concidering moving over then I would recommend going to Dordoigneshire 'cause we don't want our bit clogged up with ex-pats :twisted: And you can still get some OK wine up there too.

Jake, I have done a search on that Saint Vigni that you mentioned and there isn't any mention of it anywhere on the French sites either? The only place I can find is Tescos. If they are only selling to that place then all I can say is good luck when the plug is pulled by the buyer!

 

[Jacob]

We often intend to return dud bottles of wine but usually find that we have drunk it all. Am empty bottle is so unconvincing!

 

[Jonzjob]

They can't have been that 'dud' then Jacob?? :mrgreen:

 

[Jacob]

That's what they say in the shop! We explain that we had to force it down but it's unconvincing.

 

[Jonzjob]

Unconvincing? The wine, or you :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Jake]

Jake, I have done a search on that Saint Vigni that you mentioned and there isn't any mention of it anywhere on the French sites either? The only place I can find is Tescos. If they are only selling to that place then all I can say is good luck when the plug is pulled by the buyer!

The supermarkets here are increasingly buying by tanker and bottling it themselves. At a guess, this is one of those brands.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Many years ago, the amount of Chianti sold in this country alone was six times Chianti's total output - mind there was possibly even more fraud then. One of the largest thefts ever was something like 2.3 million litres of wine (it may well have been Chianti) stolen..........overnight! It was reckoned that it would have taken about forty tankers working all night to shift it, and no one saw or heard anything. It was a tax fraud.
With regards the C. N. de P. - it wouldn't be one vineyard selling exclusively to Tesco, it would be Tesco's buyers (and the others are no different) buying in bulk here there and everywhere (in that area), shipping in bulk and blending in this country - everything is done to a price. There is a sauv. blanc that is advertised regularly at half price - the stuff isn't worth anything like the full price, and the place of origin doesn't exist. If anything is shipped in bulk, it probably isn't up to too much. They tend to security tag anything over a tenner, so if you see something with a tag on it for £5, £6, £7 - it's probably a more genuine reduction.

 

[doorframe]

What are all these fancy wines you all keep mentioning?

Here in Basildon it's Blue Nun or Black Tower. One bottle each. Innit!

 

[Racers]

Never had a bad bottle of Thunderbird :shock: :wink:

Pete

 

[Jonzjob]

I should think not!

Thunderbirds are GO :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K9rVRuehGU

 

[No skills]

What are all these fancy wines you all keep mentioning?

Here in Basildon it's Blue Nun or Black Tower. One bottle each. Innit!

Or if your feeling very exotic - Liebfraumilch!


Over in my part of hell I'm not sure what they drink - probably methylated spirits with red meat and turpentine for fish.

Joking of course.

:?:

 

[Jake]

They tend to security tag anything over a tenner, so if you see something with a tag on it for £5, £6, £7 - it's probably a more genuine reduction.

In my experience, they are cute to this perception.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

My local one doesn't seem to be - the ones I've seen have only dropped in price once or twice a year. Some of the other "half price"s are marked down every three or four weeks.