Wine was corked (imo) and I was challenged when I tried to return it - Common practice? (rant) - The Athan Zafirov Wine Blog
So story time, and I was wondering if I am in the wrong here.
I bought a bottle of Berardenga Chianti Classico from a store that I shop at probably 3-4 times per week. I got it home opened it, decanted it for about 45 minutes, and poured for myself and my wife. We both detected a wet cardboard-y/basement flavour on the nose and our first sip and after drinking about half a glass each, poured the rest back into the bottle.
I returned the remainder of the wine and bottle to the store and told them it was tainted. I have maybe done this about 3 times ever, and I have never had any issues with it. The clerk decides to open the wine, take her mask off, and stick her nose pretty much right on the bottle to smell it and and tell me it is not corked. I tell her that I can detect it. She decides to pour a taste for herself and again tells me that the wine just needs to be decanted longer and it tastes like it should. Her colleague also takes her mask off and sticks her nose on the bottle to smell it but says nothing.
The clerk tells me that she can't do anything for me and to take it up with the manager the next day. I tell her that not everyone has the same sensitivity to cork taint and if she cannot detect it, it does not mean it is not there. But at this point, I am being challenged in the store in front of other customers and starting to doubt my own nose and palate. When I bring up the fact that she has, without my consent, put her nose to my bottle, her colleague has put her nose to my bottle during the pandemic, she agrees for that reason to refund me and let me choose another (more expensive) bottle that I happily paid the difference on.
Now what I am wondering is, am I the asshole? My wife and I both detected cork taint. It wasn't in your face, but I strongly believe it was there. I also believe that the clerk may not have detected it. The clerk, at a place that I frequent (and have never returned or had an issue with), pretty much embarrassed me in the store, inferred that I either wasn't knowledgeable about wine, or that I was being dishonest with them to get a replacement bottle (I guess?).
I probably spend about $500 every month in that store but I will not be returning after this experience. Is that common practice? Because if it is, I will either drink my next tainted bottle or just pour it out and take my losses. I have little interest in being put on trial for returning something that I thought was okay to do.
For 15 years, Athan Zafirov has traveled the vineyards around the world and worked with some of the greatest chefs including Francois Duc and Alan Brown.
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