grrr.... missed this.

I am in NYC and would be most grateful if anyone could spare a bottle or two.... or more!

bsevern wrote:From the wine.woot advert:

Aging potential of several years at the least.

If that is the case, why does the CT entry say drinking window is 2011-2013?

You know shipping on woot appears to be getting longer and longer...

time2testit wrote:If that is the case, why does the CT entry say drinking window is 2011-2013?

As it says in CT: based on 1 user opinion.. So that's the opinion of 1 person who tasted it. We don't even know who that person is. What does it prove?

OTOH, we do have this from the horse's mouth, along the same lines as what's posted on CT:

SonomaBouliste wrote:For my taste, it is more of a drink now wine. It can age, but I don't think there's a lot to be gained by doing so. Enjoy it young for its intensely concentrated fruit.

OK, that's one person's taste as well, albeit a person whose opinion I listen to very, very closely!

I just received it today, looking forward to trying it.

I completely missed that this was a dessert wine. I hate 375mL bottles.

I dislike how the 375mL size was only mentioned once. The title of the product simple says "Zin", and I assume all zinfandel's to be a real 750mL size. Oh well, lesson learned.

I was also surprised and disappointed at the 375ml size. That little tidbit of information was NOT prominently displayed.

Boo, Woot!

Drez143 wrote:I completely missed that this was a dessert wine. I hate 375mL bottles.

I dislike how the 375mL size was only mentioned once. The title of the product simple says "Zin", and I assume all zinfandel's to be a real 750mL size. Oh well, lesson learned.

picciano wrote:I was also surprised and disappointed at the 375ml size. That little tidbit of information was NOT prominently displayed.

Boo, Woot!

You two are seriously complaining because you didn't even look at what you were buying? This one is totally on you..

a) It SAID 375ml
b) Late Harvest is desert wine
c) Desert wine is usually not in 750ml bottles
d) Did you even look at the picture? It's pretty obvious...

Now back to drinking my bottle of desert

mother wrote:You two are seriously complaining because you didn't even look at what you were buying? This one is totally on you..

a) It SAID 375ml
b) Late Harvest is desert wine
c) Desert wine is usually not in 750ml bottles
d) Did you even look at the picture? It's pretty obvious...

Now back to drinking my bottle of desert

A) It only had the size stated once, near the bottom. I am not a wine expert so I usually don't even look at the wine stats because its all greek.
B) Again, I am not a wine expert so how should I know that a Late Harvest means dessert.
C) I do know that, but if I don't know it's a dessert wine to begin with.... well that answer is obvious.
D) Please tell me why the picture is obvious! No where on the label does it say dessert or it's size. Because of the glass in the background? Well this could be a giant's house. How do I know?

For me, a wine cellar is an automatic buy. This was my 6th different wine cellar purchase, and probably my 8th all together (I bought Albino Rhino at 3 separate times). I would have just liked woot to have labeled such a change in wine offering better. To me, wine cellar automatically means a 750mL wine purchase.

Drez143 wrote:tl;dr

Srsly..

Just got these today in the mail.

On all four bottles, it appears the foil has been cut! Did someone tamper with my wine, or did these ship this way for some strange reason?

ojiikun wrote:Just got these today in the mail.

On all four bottles, it appears the foil has been cut! Did someone tamper with my wine, or did these ship this way for some strange reason?

3 of 4 of mine had the foil cut and clearly manipulated (e.g., creases do not line up.)

I am not drinking this. I'm frankly scared to drink it.

Edit- they don't appear to have been opened, but the foil is cut and something is clearly wrong. I don't understand what cutting all these bottles was supposed to accomplish or how it could have happened in a systematic way. This is really bizarre, I have never seen something like this.

Winedavid39 wrote:hi, you are ok here. black foils show EVERYTHING... most every foil has imperfections, black just happens to show every one of them. that's not to say your issue isn't more severe. just giving you scope.

thanks,

I drink wine. I know foil. These are cut, and like I said, the seams don't line up on 2 of 4 so it's not just weak easily torn scuffed broken foil. At least in my case...

The best part of a 375 is when you drink it all yourself, you're still human in the morning.

The capsules on mine don't seem to be on properly- but it's just weird and creased, not cut.

Problems with the bottling line?

Just inspected all 12 of mine. 2 bottles the foil seems to not be lined up properly, but aside from that, the rest are fine.

Okay, now that's it light, here's a picture for those who are curious.

3 of the 4 foil caps are completely cut thru to the glass; the 4th I can't quite tell. One was so completely removed, it easily slipped off (and I pulled it up to inspect the cork). One other looks like the foil might have been taken off and then pushed back on.

The cork looks fine, though, and I honestly don't see any other signs of tampering. The cuts are extremely precise - better than I can do with a knife, anyways.

Guess I'll wait to see if everyone else has this and it's just a packing error, or if it's suspicious and we should burn the money to send it back . . .

Total bummer!

Same here. Have 2 that are cut, but not as much as your picture. The other 2 are "smashed" at the top, like the foil wasn't all the way on, and was crunched at the top.

I have a flour-less chocolate cake that is screaming to be paired with this...

To open..or not to open...that is the question!?

I'm sure it's just an issue with one of the machines involved in the process - not some evil plot to speed up your consumption by pre-cutting the foil for you.

clawrence05 wrote:Total bummer!

Same here. Have 2 that are cut, but not as much as your picture. The other 2 are "smashed" at the top, like the foil wasn't all the way on, and was crunched at the top.

I have a flour-less chocolate cake that is screaming to be paired with this...

To open..or not to open...that is the question!?

FedEx delivered mine this morning. The capsules on four of my bottles are cleanly split, just like the second bottle in the picture linked by ojiikun, and the seams on the foil on those four bottles are not aligned between the top portion and the remainder. Even though the foil on those bottles are split, each individual piece is securely fixed to the bottle.

The capsules on another six are intact, but mis-aligned vertically, with excess foil crunched up at the very top, and the bottom of the foil noticeably higher than on the other bottles. The remaining two bottles look pristine. The shipping box showed no signs of having been opened before I received it.

Mine arrived yesterday and the foil was fine on all of them... Guess I was just lucky?

All eight of my bottles were undamaged. Now on to the tasting!

WoooHooooo
waited till 6:58 to be delivered.
tonight is spoken for, tomorrow gets one of these and something chocolate

clawrence05 wrote:Total bummer!

Same here. Have 2 that are cut, but not as much as your picture. The other 2 are "smashed" at the top, like the foil wasn't all the way on, and was crunched at the top.

I have a flour-less chocolate cake that is screaming to be paired with this...

To open..or not to open...that is the question!?

I wouldn't, just because I'm not sure this is really sweet enough to stand up to a flourless chocolate cake. It's really good, and definitely sweet, but one of the first things out of Tom's mouth was "This really isn't sweet enough to stand up to brownies, but it would be great with a dessert cheese course."

Just opened the box and mine look ok, a couple look like the foil got a little uneven and smushed at the top. BTW, excellent packaging, box looks perfect, nice styrofoam, bottles are still cold even after sitting in the house for a day.

It looks like the foil problem is the fact the bottle has a sharp edge and the ship a little loose in the styrofoam.
I am sure the cut foil is just from the rattling around in shipment.
I have two cut and two that are obviously "almost" cut.

All 4 of mine are cut or partially cut too- oh well, bottoms up!

When I opened my box and I also found the dreaded cut foil! Well, two are cut through completely and the other two seem to be almost cut through. I had intended on gifting most of them but don't feel right about gifting a bottle that appears to be previously opened or tampered with. And now, after reading the last several posts, it appears to have been a problem in the bottling line.... bummer.

I am assuming the wine is fine, so maybe the kind folks at Woot can send out some sort of replacement foils that those of us with problem bottles can replace ourselves??? I suppose I should contact customer service directly and inquire.... oh well, stuff happens once in a blue moon.

Out of the 12 bottles I ordered only 2 have a non smashed and or cut foil. It doesn't really bother me though. Just saves me time when I open them. The Get Your Último Drincón on the back of the bottle was an enjoyable read too.

Well, since it looks like not one, or two, or a few, or several - but *most* folks have the cut foil, I popped one of these tonight.

What a delight! So much fruit, and the sweetness only changes the dimensions of the flavour without being cloying or sticky. Lots of bitter almond, unripe strawberry, and mossy, piney forest.

I normally prefer 65% chocolate (most 'dark' chocolate is 45-55%), but for this I found a bar of 80%. The insanely bitter, savoury taste of the pairing really opened up the fruit of the wine and let the spice take a break.

Very glad I got this. The flavours are unmistakably zin, and very aggressive, but just as deep and broody as something aged 20 times as long.

I am so envious. Fed Ex says mine will be delivered on Friday, which I know from experience means some time next week.

Corrado wrote:For next-to-nothing you buy PVC "foils" at almost any homebrew store. They'll shrink-wrap pretty nicely when held & rotated in the steam coming out of a boiling kettle or pot. For a bit more, you could wax-cap them for a more impressive (and annoying for the giftee to remove) finish.

THANKS Corrado! Excellent suggestion... why didn't I think of that!

I just read this so I opened my box. I hadn't opened the box as I was planning on saving these for Christmas gifts. 7 of 12 are cut or mangled. Too bad.

Ya there was a little torsion on the foil. No worries though, the juice inside is absolutely sublime.

For a bit more, you could wax-cap them for a more impressive (and annoying for the giftee to remove) finish.

Annoyance, the gift that keeps on giving. Just as an FYI, I opened one of my 2 little bottles this evening (split my order with another local) and am enjoying it completely! It isn't as sweet as I thought it would be, but I'm not even missing that. I'm going to save the other one for the winter holidays to enjoy.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy this again. Also, my bottles arrived without foil issues, so yay!

Well, I have sampled and been very pleased, but noticed tonight when I brought a bottle to share with my folks that the top was smushed and the foil look cut. I checked the remainder of my case (also gifted a bottle before I noticed this) and five out of those left behind are completely cut. Since the cork seems to be firmly in place, I'm not going to worry about quality control and I'll have to scroll back to Corrado's advice if I decide to gift any. Still, just a bubble off plumb.

Drez143 wrote:A) It only had the size stated once, near the bottom. I am not a wine expert so I usually don't even look at the wine stats because its all greek.
B) Again, I am not a wine expert so how should I know that a Late Harvest means dessert.
C) I do know that, but if I don't know it's a dessert wine to begin with.... well that answer is obvious.
D) Please tell me why the picture is obvious! No where on the label does it say dessert or it's size. Because of the glass in the background? Well this could be a giant's house. How do I know?

For me, a wine cellar is an automatic buy. This was my 6th different wine cellar purchase, and probably my 8th all together (I bought Albino Rhino at 3 separate times). I would have just liked woot to have labeled such a change in wine offering better. To me, wine cellar automatically means a 750mL wine purchase.

A) Failure to read on your part.
B) Time to educate yourself about what you're buying. Don't you want to know what you're spending money on? I wish I had cash to throw around like that. "I'll buy it even though I don't know what it is!"
C) Same as B
D) You would know by READING the page.

As to the last paragraph, you assume that all wine is 750ml. Well, that's a mistaken assumption on your part. Seriously, it's all due to either your failure to educate yourself about what you're buying or a failed assumption on your part.

And I quote: "I don't even look at the wine stats." Well, there's your problem right there.

I'll bet money that the "cut" foils are simply torn cleanly along the glass edge when crimping the foil. I very much doubt it was tampered with, more likely the foiling was just done carelessly or by machine.