How bad of an idea is winebid?

R

Rahsaan

Rahsaan
Inspired by Jayson's post about 1993 Burgundy, and going the other way from Nathan's post about focus-focus-focus, I got inspired to seek out the variety of older wines and looked at winebid for the first time.

Then, curious about the likelihood of getting a good bottle, I did a search on the WD archives. I found post after post of reports of bad/ho-hum/not-quite-what-they-could-be winebid bottles. I did not see a single glowing report!

So should I continue my practice of avoiding winebid? Is there any way to make it worthwhile?
 
when buying older wine, provenance is everything. does winebid give you this information? can it be trusted? without this, you are in a crap shoot.
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
How bad of an idea is winebid?Inspired by Jayson's post about 1993 Burgundy, and going the other way from Nathan's post about focus-focus-focus, I got inspired to seek out the variety of older wines and looked at winebid for the first time.

Then, curious about the likelihood of getting a good bottle, I did a search on the WD archives. I found post after post of reports of bad/ho-hum/not-quite-what-they-could-be winebid bottles. I did not see a single glowing report!

So should I continue my practice of avoiding winebid? Is there any way to make it worthwhile?
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Personally, I don't buy anything from Winebid. I sold some wine on Winebid 10 years ago or something and all of my wine is well cellared as I'm sure some other wines on there are, but I just don't know. That's not really a definitive answer, sorry.

I've bought older wine from Chambers St., mostly but not solely nebbiolo, with generally happy results. I've also bought some wines from Flatiron where I generally deal with Susannah.
 
I have had a very high rate of excellent bottles from winebid. Particularly old Bordeaux. Not every bottle. But most over the last 17 or so years.

For foreign wine I tend not to buy anything that doesn’t have an import label unless the bottle conditions reflect very good provenance. And I avoid bottles imported through Florida or Texas or Southern California.

Recent Burgundy purchase was a 1993 Jobard Blagny (rouge). I’m sure there will be a report here sometime soon....
 
I had some good experiences with Winebid, mostly with older nebbiolo. And then I had a string of terrible experiences with older riesling.

Now, I avoid. Wine dollars are too precious to gamble with.
 
originally posted by Jayson Cohen:
I have had a very high rate of excellent bottles from winebid. Particularly old Bordeaux. Not every bottle. But most over the last 17 or so years.

For foreign wine I tend not to buy anything that doesn’t have an import label unless the bottle conditions reflect very good provenance. And I avoid bottles imported through Florida or Texas or Southern California.

Recent Burgundy purchase was a 1993 Jobard Blagny (rouge). I’m sure there will be a report here sometime soon....
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I rarely buy older Burgundy because I really think that any heat damage really degrades the wine and have been burned in the past. Bordeaux is a bit more forgiving.

I absolutely agree with your areas of avoidance, I'd add Louisiana to that as well. There is a such a wild west Burgundy market in Southern California and lots of price competition, but I've been disappointed more of ten than not by the provenance of those wines. Stuff that I buy on release from trusted sources never has any wine up the side of the cork. Ever. And it stays that way until I open it.

originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I had some good experiences with Winebid, mostly with older nebbiolo. And then I had a string of terrible experiences with older riesling.

Now, I avoid. Wine dollars are too precious to gamble with.
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Nebbiolo is seemingly indestructible. According to fatboy, most German riesling in the US is already heat damaged when it gets here. Who knows.
 
Thanks for the thoughts. Chambers is already a fine source of nebbiolo and I'm unlikely to look for Bordeaux or cabernet (of any kind). I guess my initial instincts hold up.
 
originally posted by MarkS:
Don't you have a cellar? What have you been doing all these (drinking) years?!
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Small collection, needs time to age. Typical story. I have been drinking wine seriously for over 15 years but life has lots of competing priorities and square footage/wine storage has been low on the list.
 
I've had generally good results, probably 85% or so good. As prices have escalated that ratio has seemed less attractive but I still bid occasionally.

But avoiding winebid has been one of my major wine buying downsizing strategies.
 
I've done very well with K&L. Except for one bottle which was badly corked, all bottles I've tried have been in excellent condition. One advantage for me with K&L is I'm only a 15 min. drive from the Redwood City store so I don't have to factor in shipping costs.
 
I would pass, given the risks and the less than stellar ways in which they examine provenance before listing anything for sale.

If you're going to look on the secondary market for aged wines, I've found HDH, Sotheby's, Zachy's, and Heritage considerably better in terms of the number of old bottles purchased that didn't raise flags about their storage.
 
I buy a lot from winebid with very few bottles in bad shape. But it helps to have a nose for the kind of wines nobody would buy in the first place who didn't have proper storage for them.

The best thing about winebid is that it's the only auction site that's good for single bottles of wine so you can really find a lot of interesting things you will get nowhere else.

I sell there too.
 
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