UC Bankruptcy and bottle blowout (new UC is separate)

@kawichris650 thanks. Wines are now all out in the open for anyone to purchase but are going fast. Higher cost wines (msrp $100+) are going slower it seems but some decent deals even if $4/btl shipping

@deadlyapp @kawichris650 $4/bottle? HA. My case was over $5/bottle and that’s just from Napa to SoCal!

But I did get some good stuff when @rjquillin let me know the sale was finally happening. The trick is to find the wines where you’re allowed to buy singles instead of full cases.

@kawichris650 @klezman @rjquillin i think it was 48 to ship a case to texas, i just did a quick quote earlier so it may vary.

@deadlyapp @kawichris650 @klezman @rjquillin
I paid $93/case shipping/handling to OH but that was for the original buyback. Maybe their shipping prices for the leftovers are more reasonable?

@deadlyapp @kawichris650 @klezman @rjquillin which ones did you find with individual shipping? I can only find cases. Which ones did you buy?

@danidani12 @kawichris650 @klezman @rjquillin i think the single bottles were only valid for those who had cloudcellars that they were trying to fulfill. Phase 3 open purchasing i dont think has anything

@danidani12 @deadlyapp @kawichris650 @rjquillin there were single bottles available for some of the wines in this round. I bet people just grabbed them quickly, is all.
I took a look just now and couldn’t find anything available as a single. Guess I got lucky doing it last week.

@deadlyapp @kawichris650 @klezman @rjquillin I think they are charging case shipping prices for single bottles now sadly. What did you get?

@jmdavidson1 what deals did you get?

@danidani12 I picked up a case of 2017 Buty Cab/syrah at $10/bottle and their Merlot/cab franc, same price. Also a case of 2014 Mazzei Phillip cab at $10@. I was looking for good wine at daily drinker pricing.

@danidani12 @jmdavidson1 the buty is pretty good and was something i was going to recommend, i opened a bottle of the merlot/ cab franc last night. Theres also a bunch of martin ray around the same price that i think is well regarded.

@deadlyapp @jmdavidson1 any other recs?

@danidani12 Depends on your budget, as well as price range. I spent too much on BD, so I didnt want to even consider the $20 and up price range.

@danidani12 @jmdavidson1 the stuff in the $40-50btl is all very good and all mostly below MSRP even at their inflated prices. I saw a lot of beau vigne, lots of beringer, quite a few others. Theres just so many thousands of bottles that scrolling through is exhausting.

@danidani12 @deadlyapp The beau vigne romeo and juliet are favs, and the 40 or 50 dollar pricing is pretty good. The Cult is questionable since you dont know which of possibly 2 versions available they are offering. I’ve picked up one version at costco for $30.

@jmdavidson1 you and me both on BD

@wardad which ones did you get?

@danidani12 Meeker Grenache, Syrah, and PN. A Grenachista. 2010 En Tirage Blanc de Blanc, and some fancy Prosecco. There was some more I was salivating over today. This is reason to pass over good and very good deals. Because the great deals eventually come around. My wine budget was already shot. Now it’s . . . whatever comes after that.

@danidani12 @wardad I was considering that meeker Grenache

@losthighwayz I think they never left the warehouse in Napa

@klezman thank you for enabling me lol

@losthighwayz how on earth was it so little? My shipping and handling and credit card fee were $63 for a single case!

@klezman I’m thinking they might have a sliding scale for shipping charges? Maybe shipping cost based on bottle price or shipping cost is lower the more cases one buys?

I ordered five cases and total shipping and 3% charge was $178

@losthighwayz weird, because obviously that’s not how shipping costs work. I wonder if there’s some sort of dishonesty at work there. I might email them to inquire.

@losthighwayz
Biagi Brothers via FedEx

@hscottk didn’t catch they were on the site. Oh well.

@buffaloroam did you have to buy 12 at a time?

@buffaloroam spendy. What quantities did you have to purchase of the mags?

@buffaloroam same question…do you have to buy 12 of the mags?

@jmdavidson1 no I was able to buy smaller quantities for some wines but I had to play around a bit on the site to get it to the shipping in quantities less then a case. Sometimes it wouldn’t let me. And my shopping may have been more

@CruelMelody $8 per bottle not bad at all

@tskev yes, if you go to the main UC domain it will also redirect you.

@deadlyapp Thank you!

@danidani12 The confirmation email said 6-8 weeks.

@klezman I saw but I wasn’t sure if people got shipments from the first leg

@klezman was just looking at the shipping faq and didn’t see any numbers. Did they give you any?

@rjquillin you’ll see it on the checkout page

@klezman ~$40/case

@fermentedwisdom I bet this will happen as they approach catching up on shipping previous orders. This would be a way to move more product, without lowering prices. Then after a week or so they can take whatever their next action is (lower prices, lower shipping, sell the rest to Trader Joe’s or whatever)

@wardad Agreed…but wondering if anything on my list will be left at that point

@fermentedwisdom @wardad grocery outlet!
Wine of the month club, lawineco. All potentials.

@ctmariner
Only for some items, unless it changed from last night.

@rjquillin Its changed today - down to 3’s on some of the more expensive items

@ctmariner tnx

@ctmariner @rjquillin So difficult to find anything you might want unless you know it’s there. If they’d spent a few thousand dollars more on proper design they might have sold through everything by now.
Ron, if there’s anything you think I might want, let me know. But the bar is high right now…

@klezman
funny, I waS digging around last night, as I just received a delivery from them.

if there’s anything you think I might want

I could ask you the same…

@rjquillin That would require me to dig through the list. I did it once. Never again!

@klezman it’s WAY shorter now

@ctmariner @rjquillin If they drop it to 3 on the cheaper bottles, my will power will dissolve.

@klezman @rjquillin Did you get a shipping notification? UPS? Fedex?

@jmdavidson1 @klezman
They ship FedEx exclusively

@jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin keep an eye on that.

@jmdavidson1 @rjquillin @Winedavid49 which part?

@jmdavidson1 @klezman @Winedavid49
FedEx is f’ing with me now on a delivery

@jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin
Carriers may be fluid.

@jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49

@InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 Is @winedavid49 Helping to clear a back log of orders?

@InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 Just got notified that my second order placed early Feb under stage 3 is about to ship by UPS. No news on first order placed at end of January yet.

@ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @Winedavid49

Just a H/U on how these may ship…
Could be just me or the FedEx office they got delivered to, but I had one nearly get shipped back to the fulfillment house.

The FedEx office claims it was shipped (coded) where the office had to present identification to receive, which they refused to do, and that required quite a tap dance to get it held at a major freight only distribution center where I was “allowed” to pick it up after they removed it from a trailer that was scheduled to return it to shipper. FedEx, and the office it was shipped to directly, claiming it was not identified as HAL, thus the sig requested/required for it to be left with the FedEx office! Seems the refusal was in response to some recent, ~2~3 month ago, corporate memo directing locations to not accept packages shipped in this manor, lacking the HAL coding. Something corporate was calling a ghost shipment.

Hope none of you have this issue, 'cause it’s difficult to pierce the answering bot veil of denial and get to an escalated carbon unit to converse with in somewhat of an intelligent manner.

@ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @rjquillin @Winedavid49 If you got somebody intelligent on the other end you’re doing better than most!

@ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @Winedavid49
It was either succeed in that or have it returned.

@ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 I saw a post somewhere else that clearly showed these are shipping from WCC.

@CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @Winedavid49
There is nothing on any of my labels that suggest that, and they ship from American Canyon.

@ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49

@CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @Winedavid49

Multiple shippers?
Perhaps WCC for UPS and another for all the FedEx shipments I’ve received?

@CorTot @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 Yep - my UPS shipment is from WCC

@CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49

All 33 of my cases were shipped FedEx by Biagi Brothers. When I suggested that WD might want to get in on the action months ago, he said he wanted no part of it. I guess he changed his mind. WD is the man, but very happy that I got all of my cases before UPS got involved.

@chipgreen @CorTot @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 Wow - that’s impressive - hopefully it did not arrive all together? I got my first case (of 3) today by UPS - it arrived safely although the bottom was sagging a bit!

@chipgreen @CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 Holy FN $hit !! When’s the party ??

@CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @rjquillin @Winedavid49 @klezman
I’ve got to use @chipgreen 's picture to manipulate my wife. I mean, prep my wife for the awesome savings I’ve already gotten, and potentially more savings. Something like:

Wow, check out this crazy guy. Good thing I didn’t get that much, eh? ha ha. I suppose buying that much is actually sorta reasonable, considering the savings. Smart folks are jumping on it. Like your husband. Don’t want to get that much though, right? (see how reasonable your husband is.) But . . . if I got some more etc.

Something like that. Gotta word it carefully.

POPSOCKETS! ROAD ROCKETS! SONNY CROCKETT! AWESOME!

@CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @wardad @Winedavid49
Did not arrive all at once, was over approximately 6 weeks but due to the way they processed orders, I decided to stack them all together and go through them once all cases had arrived. Logging them all into CellarTracker is goung to be a real PITA, especially since many of these are substitute bottles from what I originally ordered, which leads to my response to wardad.

I bought most of these twice, since I was a longtime UC customer with over 400 bottles in my “cloud cellar”. I bought back all but about 50 bottles from before the bankruptcy but then I also bought 3 cases of the leftovers that they are still selling. Your wife will surely be impressed that you only have to pay for the wine once!

Oh, and joed the party starts when you get here!

@chipgreen @CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @wardad @Winedavid49
Me thinks 2 bottle nights are in order for the next year or two

@chipgreen @CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @klezman @rjquillin @ScottW58 @wardad @Winedavid49

Two bottle nights? I’ve never heard of such a thing.

@CorTot @ctmariner @InFrom @jmdavidson1 @karenhynes @klezman @rjquillin @ScottW58 @wardad @Winedavid49

Two bottle nights? I’ve never heard of such a thing.

There is a bevy of 2-D beefcakes who know better.

@Winedavid49 How is the shipping process looking on this? Do you think everything will be delivered by ~mid-may? I know that is probably tough to gauge but starting to worry about the weather warming up. Have yet to received any of the cases I ordered–starting in the first days of February

@ctmariner I’ve never tried it. But I saw a tip for it, and based on a little online research, I got a case coming of the 2017. We’re GSM people. Hope it’s good! They still have plenty of the 2018 left.

@wardad Thanks for the response - will probably do 6 of the 2018

@CruelMelody @winedavid49
I had a straggler bottle that I was not aware of which got shipped via WCC. After 33 consecutive successful deliveries from Biagi Bros. via FedEx, my one and only shipment from WCC/UPS ended up getting sent back.

I was out of town when the first delivery attempt was made. Even though I have paid for UPS “My Choice” (a mistake that I will not make again next year), they would not let me redirect the package without the door tag number. The door tag was in OH, I was in MO. I suppose I could have interrupted my vacation to subject myself to the frustration of dealing with an ESL customer service rep over the phone in order to try to sort it out but I remembered the last time I did that - I had already redirected a WCC/UPS package and it was overdue at the pickup location. The rep decided to change the address back to my residence for some strange reason and the package ended up in a loop of being “Out for Delivery” every day without ever being delivered until it ended up getting stuck at the depot and I got called to pick it up weeks later.

I decided to enjoy my vacation instead while remaining disappointed about WCC’s ongoing decision to boost profits by giving customers an inferior shipping experience and adding insult to injury by putting us in a position where we feel the need to pay for “UPS My Choice” just to successfully receive our packages.

@chipgreen @CruelMelody @Winedavid49 my UPS driver tends to just leave the wine boxes at the door.

@CorTot @CruelMelody @Winedavid49
I have asked/suggested this to multiple UPS drivers but they all said they would get in trouble. Regardless, the fact that UPS makes you pay to join “my choice” in order to redirect packages and then will not redirect them without a door tag number is some serious BS. The original tracking number is no good anymore? Wtf?

FedEx redirects to more locations with more flexibility, less restrictions and NO FEE.

@chipgreen @CorTot @CruelMelody @Winedavid49
Yup for me unless I know I will be home ALL day I have to pay the 4.99 or whatever to hold at a UPS location ugh. I always choose fed-ex when possible.

@CorTot @CruelMelody @ScottW58 @Winedavid49

Looks like it’s going up to $10 per redirect request. I don’t know if they are planning to increase the annual My Choice fee.

"Not home to receive an important package? It’s easy to reschedule your delivery. And when you upgrade to UPS My Choice Premium, it’s free – a savings of $9.99 per request. "
(from an email I just received)

@chipgreen @CorTot @CruelMelody @Winedavid49

@chipgreen @CorTot @CruelMelody @Winedavid49 Likewise, mine. Even if I’m home, he doesn’t bother with knocking, which I appreciate. (I’m fortunate enough to live in an area where porch piracy is unheard of.)

@hscottk All of mine have come by UPS.

@jmdavidson1 Yep, UPS….arrived safe and sound, no signature needed!

@jmdavidson1
-2017 Kelley & Young Alexander Valley Zinfandel - the 2015 was recently offered on here
-2016 Elsom Cellars Isabella - appears to be a Red Mountain (WA) Bordeaux blend
-2015 William Gordon Estate Alexander Valley Petite Sirah
-2017 Seven Oxen Estate Wines Cassidy Paso Robles - recommended on WineBerserkers
-Ocelli Grenache (WA) - they’ve been a Berserker Day participant
-Bodega de Edgar (Paso)
-Meeker

@warcraft82 Thanks for the recommendations.

@jmdavidson1 don’t sleep on the Ocelli insane value imo

@losthighwayz Thanks for the nudge - been looking at these for awhile and this has pushed me over the edge. For those interested, here is how the winemaker described the wines on WB:

Here’s a quick rundown of my wines still available at UC. All of my wines are 100% Grenache aged in neutral French oak barrels.

'14 Columbia Valley: A blend of two vineyards. This is going to be the earthiest of the wines available and least fruity.
'15 Yakima Valley: A single vineyard, Art Den Hoed Vineyard. Darker fruit, in a good place.
'15 Snipes Mountain (Upland Vineyard): A single vineyard. Red fruit, a very pretty/elegant wine.
'16 Columbia Valley: A blend of two vineyards. Med amount of fruit, definitely in a good place for an aged wine.
'16 Upland Vineyard: All Upland Vineyard fruit, red fruit, maybe a touch more fruit than '15s.
'16 Art Den Hoed Vineyard: All ADH vineyard fruit, darker fruit, again, a touch more fruit than '16s.

Overall, I’d call the '14s earthy, the '15s pretty/elegant, and the '16s more fruit forward.

@losthighwayz I love Ocelli wines, I finally caved today to get a case - what a steal. I feel bad for John getting screwed like this, so much that I bought a six pack direct a few months ago instead of making this buy.

@losthighwayz Just grabbed a mixed case of the ocelli. I was overwhelmed months ago and didn’t bite. $53 shipping for the case to ny, 12.5 average, shipping included.

Thanks for pushing me over the edge! Hopefully the bottles are coming in without problem.

@losthighwayz huh? None of those showed up when I checked a few hours ago.

@klezman @losthighwayz It was a feeding frenzy - small quantities - came and went very quickly.

@ctmariner @klezman @losthighwayz I had some Suzor in my cart the other night, as I was filling the rest of the cart it disappeared.

@ctmariner @InFrom @klezman same here with two bottles of Muscardini Tesoro. Had them in my cart and disappeared at checkout
I spent over an hour scrolling down but was worth it when I can across one bottle.

@ctmariner @klezman @losthighwayz I got tired of scrolling, I ended up just searching the names of wineries that people mentioned or that I’d seen when I first perused the site. Ultimately didn’t pull the trigger on any of it.

@ctmariner @InFrom @losthighwayz yeah, I saw the email and by then all the good stuff was gone. Could have filled a case but I’m not supposed to do such things right now.

@ctmariner @InFrom @klezman @losthighwayz
They have several different Merlo Family wines. I have enjoyed the Pinot and Syrah from them. I didn’t see the Pinot but they have the Syrah, a Zinfandel and a Red Blend from Merlo Family. Maybe more, that’s just what I noticed while scrolling.

@deadlyapp That must have been one hell of a feeding frenzy

@deadlyapp @rjquillin fascinating to watch.

@deadlyapp @Winedavid49
Humm, working. Likely best to have missed it.

@ScottW58 damn, they are just putting stuff up there randomly. Not a single champagne when I looked yesterday!

Yeah, very cool. And excited to see what he brings us. Really looking forward to seeing what the first white wine offers are, since that’s what I’ll be needing to replenish. Got plenty of reds for now.
Now if he could only also bring me the couple hundred dollars of wine I lost out on from the bankruptcy. Heh

@HitAnyKey42 You never know!

@HitAnyKey42 As long as you don’t mind paying a second time!

@rjquillin Thanks for the bump/rename.

@InFrom @rjquillin
I would have preferred a new thread.

@chipgreen @InFrom
The bump was a response to an exchange.
It does make sense to have a fresh thread for the WCC/WD version.
Have at it!
Before this one gets heavily populated.

@chipgreen @rjquillin Just copy over the various convos into the new thread?

@InFrom @rjquillin
Could provide a link at the top, like in the How much are you saving thread? I will let the moderator decide how to proceed.

@chipgreen @InFrom
I’m good with whatever you would like, within my capabilities; which are rather limited. I do rather like the idea of a new thread to divorce the old and new.
I cannot copy posts and retain the OP handle for instance.

@InFrom @rjquillin
Did I do ok?

@chipgreen @InFrom
Looks good to me but what do I know.
Likely a title refresh here is in order as well.
Think we should lock this thread to push further discussion to the new one?

@chipgreen @rjquillin Looks good to me as well. Though why is there no image on the page header? Aren’t those things generated automagically?

Yeah, maybe revert the title back to where it was originally, just referencing the blowout sale. Not sure whether it should be locked – what if someone wants to post something about a bottle they bought in the sale?

@klezman Yeah, that’s my assessment after making one order. I went for that first bubbly offer they ran, the one that was $45 per. All of the “upgraded” bottles I received were valued well below $45 on CT, which makes the purported $65-70 value UC claimed for them rather farfetched. To add insult to injury, a couple of the bottles had meh community reviews. I haven’t had a chance to form my own opinion of any of them yet.

Of course, if I’d scored a topnotch bottle, I’d be singing a different tune.

@InFrom @klezman good input. we are learning.

@InFrom @klezman @Winedavid59 As the “lucky bastard” referred to on the Deals thread, the top notch bottle I got was advertised as a $400 value. CT has a community value (if you care, see my rant about CT community values in the Pub on 8/9/24) of about $220. The 5 other bottles averaged $41 per. So while I am extremely pleased with that purchase, I would feel differently if all the bottles were of that average value. As it stands I am open to future UC offers, but I understand InFrom’s POV.

@davirom @InFrom @Winedavid59 It’s hard. We’re deal-seeking wine buyers. We all know that winery SRP is the cost for about 20-25% of the wine that any winery sells and that most sales are for a lot less. I think calling it “winery SRP” is more transparent than calling it “value” given the above examples and what we all know to be true.

I took one of the recent deals and checked the median value - it was about 50% higher than the “base” value. Seems reasonable. But then enter the above considerations and you’re probably paying something at or above the CT average value. (And yes, there are plenty of issues with that number!)

WD, maybe you could also increase the transparency by adding a decimal place to the percentage of bottles and by listing the total number of bottles at the start of the offer?

We want your reboot to be successful, and that’s the spirit in which the feedback is offered. And if you recall the lawsuits that hit WTSO several years back, you don’t want to be hauled into court to defend claims that you’re lying about pricing.

@InFrom @klezman @Winedavid59
“It’s deja vu all over again”. I gave that same input to UC many years ago. That was the first they had heard of Cellar Tracker.

Had the exact same experience. Bought some wines, entered into CT, only to find that the CT Community Value was often far less than the stated MSRP. Yet, I would see occasional bottles of Iron Horse or Scott Harvey and realize the MSRPs were accurate, even though I always got them for less through WD or winery deals.

I do question the listed MSRP of top bottles such as saying that a Screaming Eagle is valued at $3,500 when its release price (for those who have the coveted allocations) is more like $2,000. If you are going to use MSRP for the bottles with lower value, then it’s not fair to use actual value when that number is higher than the initial MSRP. Pick a lane!

The other issue for some bottles (on the old site, at least) is that they were never released to the general public. Restaurant only wines. Probably some failed private venture wines as well. How were those MSRPs determined?

Regardless, I came around to being mostly fine with the MSRP valuations. When retailers put items on sale, they don’t advertise the discount versus “community value”, they advertise the discount versus MSRP. It’s important to understand the difference.

@InFrom @klezman @Winedavid59
…and I didn’t even catch that they are listed as “value” instead of “MSRP”. Fully agree that it should say MSRP or at least “Retail Value”.

@InFrom @klezman this is why with the original UC I only ordered when they offered very large coupon deals. You have to recognize that the SRP is generally overinflated for many wines and bring down the purchase price as much as possible and then hope you get a few good upgrades.