LEDOMDUVIN: SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND PASSION FOR WINE SINCE 1991 -
Tasting everything from everywhere, from the multimillion-dollar Chateaux to that small, unknown cellar ending a dirt path surrounded by vineyards... a wine blog to enjoy till the last drop!
A classic in my selection. I have opened several bottles these past ten months and absolutely love it.
Domaine Ponsot « Clos de La Roche » Grand Cru Cuvée Vieilles Vignes 2019
Another classic in my book. It is the one I opened for today’s private lunch, and damn, that is a gorgeous wine!!! A stunning beauty!
Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2014 Premier Grand Cru Classé Pauillac 2014
From a lesser vintage (a “classic vintage”, as they say in Bordeaux), it was not my choice, but it ended up in the selection. I did not open it this time. And, anyway, it is still too young, and more time will do it good. However, if you want to open it, decant it for about 3 hours before serving it. It should soften the dry, firm, slightly green tannins still in the finish.
Petrus Pomerol 1989
I did not open this one as it was given as a gift to one of the guests. However, I was lucky enough to have opened many bottles in the last 12 years (especially at my previous job for nine years). It is a stunning wine, and this bottle was in pristine condition with a high level. I inspected it carefully, and, for those of you who may wonder, it was a real one. It must have been reconditioned at the property in the past 15 to 20 years; otherwise, it is impossible. It is a rare sight, as there are not many left in the market (real ones, I mean, as many Petrus from the 80s were counterfeited, so there are probably quite a few fake ones still out there).
I posted so many pictures and posts on my social media and blog that some of you might think I have a cult fascination for Petrus. An obsession even. And you're probably right!
Yet, who wouldn't?
Isn't it fascinating that a wine could command such a high price?
Isn't it fascinating that being so sought-after and coveted, it is one of the world's top 10 most counterfeited wines?
Isn't it fascinating that it is so secretive and inconsistent regarding the details of the labels, even on bottles from the same vintage, that you (and even the most experienced of us) may never really know if the bottle you have in your hand is real or fake?
My fascination for Petrus results from all of the above and beyond.
I'm entirely fascinated by Petrus as it is so expensive. I always feel humble and privileged in its presence.
Although I have never been able to afford such wine, it has always been a treat to be able to buy, open, taste and serve as many bottles as I did in my 32 years career as a Sommelier/Wine Buyer working for renowned restaurants, boutique wine retailers and large corporate companies.
Fascinated also as, for 9 years in my previous job, I was a Wine Quality Control Director in charge of inspecting all the bottles we bought, especially those from Auction Houses and private cellars, and inspected so many bottles of Petrus.
Fascinated as this wine is unconventional, famous yet mysterious, traditional yet modern.
Secluded, discreet, old school, restricted, noble and anchored in the history of its terroir as one of the earliest vineyards established in Pomerol in the mid-18th century.
And yet, at the same time, classic, sophisticated, contemporary, world-renowned, adulated, revered, and praised by the whole wine industry, collectors, connoisseurs, amateurs and beyond.
Isn't it fascinating?
Cheers! Santé!
Dom
Photo taken in the cellar of one of our restaurants while inspecting some label and bottle details for a post on my blog.
The problem with Instagram (and other social media) algorithms and AI technology
Unbelievable, Instagram has deleted one of my pictures of a fake Petrus label ("Pacurs" - posted with a post I wrote on fake and counterfeited bottles) from my Instagram account for IP violation, stating that the right owner is S. C. Petrus. I'm sure the Moueix family will be happy to know that Instagram is associating fake labels like "Pacurs" (as seen in China) as part of their wines.
Instagram is associating this fake label of Petrus with Petrus, stating that they are the rightful owners of this label, which is not the case. Petrus has nothing to do with this fake label.
Moreover, if we want to go deeper, what does this IP violation mean?
Does it mean that no one should post pictures of wine labels unless they are the rightful owner of the brand?
That's insane! Millions of wine labels are posted on a regular basis on several social media networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn (and many others).
So the question is: Will Instagram remove every single post with a wine label if not posted by the rightful owner of this label? That's insane!!!
The other question is: Is Instagram going to apply this rule to all other brands?
It's totally absurd
Let's talk further about Algorithms and Ai in general...
This situation with algorithms and AI is, unfortunately, a problem we may have to face more and more in the coming years. As excessive rules, digitalization, and zealous cyber security increase, it will become even more difficult to post anything else than AI-generated images that have no soul, no context, and no real meaning, except the one imagined by the one who vocally asked the AI or inputted the text to create that picture.
And, there are already millions of AI-generated pictures posted on a daily basis on most social media and networks. You can easily recognize them by the quality of the image which either looks too perfect to be true or too weird to be real. The most risible to me are the ones with real pictures of the head and fake bodies, too perfect, too symmetrical, while we all know that nothing is symmetrical in the human body. It is so obvious, it is ridiculous.
How sad and depressed can you be to search for such impossible perfection in a fake image of yourself? And what kind of satisfaction does it brings you except more despair and the dislike of your real self?
I know that our society has become one of stereotypes and hopeless souls unable to face their life without hiding behind a screen, but still, one has to accept reality rather than find comfort in this ever-increasing fake digital world.
Personally, I have been posting real pictures of real wine labels on my social media for years without a problem, except maybe for the people taking my pictures to use them for their own social media and websites, the reason why, over the last few years, I have taken the habit of always writing "Ledomduvin" on all my pictures (good or bad) to prevent this from happening.
However, to take another example, recently, these last few months, Instagram has been implementing new rules, one of them being "Monetization & shops" (Branded Content and shopping). Consequently, for some of my pictures, IG is asking me if it is a "branded" post, and, if it is, to state the "brand partner", while my pictures are mostly wine labels of the bottles I open and taste while working during private and corporate events for the company I work for.
Therefore, they have nothing to do with the brands or producers. And I'm not an "influencer", nor a "content creator". I do not "partner" with brands to make money from the content of my posts. But because the algorithms or AI in charge of verifying these things on IG cannot see or make the difference, it pops out the question on regular basis and may refuse the post, which is really annoying.
Anyway, I could talk about it for hours or even days, but I do not want to bore you with this subject that has invaded our everyday life and has become so common that it has already been accepted by most people, as we do NOT have the choice, it has been imposed to us. So, what's the point?
And, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that algorithms and AI are necessarily bad things. On the contrary, for certain things, they both became essential in our daily life, and we wouldn't know what to do without them. Yet, I guess I'm old now (50 years old), and I'm part of a generation that grew up without and witnessed the rapid transition over the last 20 years. And I'm not saying that everything was better before, as I'm not against progress and the use of technologies to ease our life, but still, I preferred many aspects of our life as they were then rather than now.
This photo was taken about a year ago. I found it while sorting through my photos, so I no longer have the bottles or the corks to re-check unfortunately.
I served these two bottles for a dinner, from a private cellar, so probably acquired separately, and no other bottles of Petrus 1995, so no choice. Forced to serve these two, side by side.
The label on the left seems fake to me (paper lines, details, print quality, etc...) and it is placed/positioned too high on the bottle (and Petrus has a specific positioning of its labels on the bottle). On the other hand, the cork seems correct to me (as a whole), but the font of the vintage is the same as on the label, which could make me say that the cork is also fake.
The label on the right is correct and seems to me to be genuine. Its position, (lower on the bottle), seems correct to me too, corresponding more to the usual Petrus label position on the bottle. On the other hand, the cork seems to me to be fake in the details and more especially the font of the vintage and the fact that it is in italics.
Conclusion:
Left: fake label, but real cork (or not?)
Right: true label, but false cap
In the end, both may be fake...
And there was also a noticeable difference in taste between the two.
However, you should understand that I do not want to go too much into all the details, as it would help the counterfeiters. Certain things are better left unsaid. 😁👍🍷🍷🍷
When I posted this post on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages, (prior to posting here on my blog, as I do for most of my posts on this blog), a Bordeaux producer/Negociant, that for him, the vintage in italics could be correct? It seems surprising to me, as I never encountered a Petrus cork with the vintage in italic on it, but after all, why not?
Even after 31 years of buying, selling, and serving Petrus, including the last 10 years as a Wine Quality Control Director, detecting fake bottles during physical inspections amongst all the bottles we purchased as my primary role, I thought that I had seen it all, but apparently not, as there are still things I don't understand about their labels and corks.
The problem of finding different labels and corks, for the same vintage of Petrus, lies in the fact that:
1. The market is filled with really good fake bottles that more difficult to spot, which is not surprising when you realize the price speculation on some of these bottles in specific vintages, as well as the growing market of full and empty bottles sold on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Carousell, and other websites.
PS: I personally always make sure to deface the labels and break the bottles of all the expensive bottles I served and used, more especially the ones with the name engraved on the bottle, like Petrus, Haut-Brion, etc... (watch my video on YouTube here)
2. And, the known fact that Petrus has used (and maybe still uses) different printers and labels and corks, depending on the vintages and time of the release of the different batches of the same vintage. Otherwise, I don't see how to explain all these differences between genuine bottles of the same vintage, coming from the property and/or from the Bordeaux Negociants directly.
This could come as a surprise for some of you, but it is true. Chateaux in Bordeaux, like most wine producers, keep a stash of bottles, each vintage: some to be kept within the Chateau's wine library for records and historical purposes; the rest to be released in batches, later on, a few years later (2, 5, 10, 15 years later or more) understandably to ensure public interest, supply, and demand, releasing their wine usually at a much-increased price than the original "En-Primeur" release.
If the various releases of their wine spawn over 2 or 3 decades, the problem is that they may not necessarily use the original printer, label, or cork design. More especially, if the chateau has changed ownership, and/or has changed the label and cork design. And, despite being one of the most famous and expensive wines in the world, Petrus does not escape this reality either.
For example, for the 1995 vintage, in the picture above, the wine may have been released "En Primeur" in 1997, then 5 or 10 years later in small batches with a slightly different label and/or cork design. It is said that label and cork design may also occur depending on which market the bottles are destinated to (i.e. Europe, US, Asia, etc...).
All these factors make for bad inconsistency depending mostly on the Chateau team's internal management and decisions, and obviously the time of the release of the batches, and it is a real "casse-tête" for wine buyers and wine quality control directors who have difficulties figuring out which bottle is real or not sometimes.
Fortunately, most Chateaux in Bordeaux (and elsewhere) are more consistent with their label and cork design, making it less difficult to understand, yet easier for counterfeiters to create fake ones.
And fortunately again, over my 31 years of career in the wine business, buying, selling, and serving most of the top wines in the world, including Petrus (which is one of my favorite wines), I have learned how to differentiate and spot the fakes from the real ones. Which is a good thing as, despite my profound respect for the Moueix Family and Olivier Berouet, all my emails to the estate (as Petrus is not a "Chateau"), over the last 10-15 years, have remained unanswered.
Fight the grey market and the counterfeiters by
always buying genuine bottles, in good condition and from good provenance, either directly at the property (when possible) and/or via official wine merchants, like the "Place de Bordeaux" (courtiers/négociants), which predominantly sell "Ex-Chateau" wines.
defacing the label and/or breaking the bottles of all expensive and well-known brands that have a certain value in both the regular and the grey market.
Meanwhile, as always, take good care of yourself and your loved ones, and drink responsibly.
Recently, a person I follow on Instagram asked me some questions about Petrus.
I answered to the best of my knowledge, yet, to back up the info I gave her, I went to one of our restaurants and gave a closer look at these 2 bottles of Petrus 2007, I found in the cellar.
Nothing wrong with these 2 bottles, fortunately. Yet, it was a good opportunity to do what I used to do best, prior to taking my current position about a year ago.
In my previous job, aside from being a Sommelier, I was also the Wine Quality Control Director for the entire company, for about 9 years, and, thus, spent a great part of my time checking and managing the company stock's quantities, as well as the storage conditions, quality, and security, including doing thorough inspections for all the wines we bought, stored and sold (quantity, quality, conditions, and genuineness).
And, I must say, I was very lucky to have a big boss who was a real wine lover, buying a lot of the top wines in the world, which allowed me to have access to (and even open, prepare, taste, and serve quite often), such beautiful, old and rare ladies (as I liked to call them).
Moreover, while, I gave them all the time and attention they deserved, I have learned a lot about fake and counterfeit wines, increasing my interest, broadening my experience, and perfecting my skills and knowledge in this particular field of the wine industry, which remains rather unknown and obscure, and is only practiced by a handful of people around the world.
I miss those days, sometimes, so, meticulously scrutinizing these 2 bottles of Petrus 2007 made me feel as if I was back in my old shoes as Wine QC Director, inspecting every detail to make sure of their genuineness and authenticity.
To prevent educating the counterfeiters, I cannot reveal everything I know, or, at least, not more than what I have revealed already in the many posts I wrote on the subject on my blog. It is like being a wine investigator or a wine detective, certain things are better left unsaid or to your interpretation. 😁👍🍷
Not the first time I post pictures of that particular bottle, but I like that bottle. It is a valuable piece of history. It is also a remnant of a time long gone, when the Châteaux were still selling entire barrels of their wine to Negociants and other wine merchants (in Britain, Belgium, Netherlands, etc...), who in turn aged the wine in their own cellar, prior to bottle it and dress the bottle with their own labels and capsules.
People may say "it is fake", but no, it is real. I had many opportunities to inspect it properly, and it is not a counterfeit. Moreover, it is a bottle that was bought, back in 2013, as a part of a series of J. Vandermeulen-Decannière bottled wines offered at a Christie's wine auction.
Interestingly the colour of the bottle is red/amber, instead of the usual green (antique or darker), which is not unheard-of, but still quite rare.
Another interesting detail is the mention of "1er Grand Crû Pomerol" on the label, which on the Chateau label occasionally also appeared as "1er des Grands Crus Pomerol" and sometimes even "Cru exceptionnel" on certain labels from certain vintages.
As Petrus label constantly changed with each vintage, even sometimes for the same vintage, as they used different printers and different fonts (yes, even for the same vintage), Petrus label is perhaps one of the easiest labels to counterfeit, making it one of the most difficult wine label to inspect and verify its authenticity.
Always very privileged and humbled to be in the presence of such an old lady, a gem of a bottle, and take care of her.
Cheers! Santé!
LeDomduVin (a.k.a Dominique Noel)
PS: Just a reminder that these bottles are not mine and they do not belong to me. They belong to a private cellar I take care of occasionally. And I probably will never get the chance to taste them.
A few days ago, my colleague and I cleaned up the wine cellar from all the empty bottles consumed within the company over the last few weeks (as we do monthly).
And, as usual, I put some empty bottles of the oldest vintages and most expensive wines aside for 3 main reasons:
First, because, even if empty, these old ladies deserve a second life as a trophy on a shelf in an office or in a cellar (or anywhere else), as, after all, they are pieces of history that have resisted the passage of time when they were corked and will continue even without their content.
Secondly, because there is always a sense of pride for a Sommelier (like me) to keep old vintages of top-tears bottles around, more especially when I have had the pleasure to open, prepare, taste, decant (if necessary) and serve them (even drunk a part of them in some occasions), for memory's sake.
Thirdly, and more importantly, it is very useful to keep them as they can contribute to constituting a library of references for genuine bottles and fake or counterfeit bottles.
In fact, they can come in very handy for a Wine Quality Control Director (like me) when in doubt while doing an inspection or authentication of some bottles prior to purchasing them or receiving them at the warehouse to compare them and check/verify the authenticity of the bottles, labels, capsules, corks, etc...
While putting these empty bottles aside, I noticed two magnums of Petrus 1961 (in the picture above), and I suddenly doubted the authenticity of these 2 mags, especially the magnum on the left-hand side of the picture. It presented too many obvious faults and defaults to my liking to be genuine.
This prompted me to make a video about it (and logically, this post afterward) to try to explain the reasons why I believe it is not a genuine magnum of Petrus 1961 by comparing it to other bottles of Petrus 1961 I also kept in the cellar for that purpose.
I tried to keep it simple and clear, but for those who did not get everything and may not want to watch it again to grasp some of the points they still have questions about, I will recap the main points discussed in the video further below in this post.
However, before going into the details and reasons why I believe this is a fake magnum of Petrus 1961, let me tell you a little more about what I do and my roles and duties as a Wine Quality Control Director. A position that I have been occupying for the past 8 years now.
What is a Wine Quality Control Director (QC)?
To make it short, let's say that at my current job as a Wine Quality Control Director (for the Wine Division of a large corporate company), I'm in charge of the following:
Quality Control,
Standard Operating Procedures (implementation and maintenance),
Market Prices Analyses,
Market Trend,
Stock Valuation,
Provenance,
Authentication,
Wine inspection prior to purchasing and at goods receiving,
Wine warehouses and cellars QC operations (conditions, environment control and security),
Prevention,
Staff training,
ERP System,
Quality Management System,
Compliance,
Audits,
etc...
(And even: Wine Classes, Wine Events, and Wine Promotion, as well as French tutoring, French Classes among other things).
I know it seems like a lot, but once managed as a daily routine, it is not that bad.
Standard Operating Procedures
So, parts of my duties consist of creating and implementing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) within the various departments related to the wine division (Purchase and Sales, Cellars and Logistics, and Quality Control, etc...) in order to clearly define step by step, the official or usual way that people are expected to do particular things within the respective departments of the wine division (or, to some extent, even within the company or organization).
Once created and implemented, and adjusted/amended/corrected if necessary, depending on the evolution of the business model and the evolution and changes of the department's daily operations, I need to make sure they are compliant. They conform to the rules (such as specifications, policies, standards, and/or laws).
Within the wine division, these procedures are put in place to manage and control both the people and the goods, as well as the environments, conditions, and security, and clearly describe:
How are daily operations conducted and done, and by whom?
who does what, when, and how (and even why)
How things are to be done (and in which order) to prevent from
a mistake, accident, or incident to happen
security to be breached
and/or even theft to occur
And what needs to be done and how, if any of the above occurs
These SOPs are created and implemented for all the following respective daily main operations at the office(s) and at the various points of storage (warehouses/cellars):
Purchase Order / Wine Receiving
Wine Inspection / Authentication
Wine Receipt in ERP System
Put Away
Wine Transfer
Sales Order
Wine Withdrawal
Wine Delivery
Wine Pickup
Others (too many to list them all)
Once the daily operations system and related SOPs are done and implemented, and the staff has been trained, I can focus on the product: "the wine".
Wine Provenance, Inspection and Authentication
My role as Wine QC Director consists predominantly in
verifying and/or counterchecking
the reliability and integrity of the wine merchants we are buying from
the origin, provenance, and conditions of the wines (history of the bottles, previous storage conditions, etc...)
the cost prices compared to the market
Do the bottle's inspection and authentication (if needed) before buying the bottles, if possible at good receiving, to prevent fake or counterfeit bottles of wine from entering our warehouses and cellars.
For example, when our Purchasing manager wants to purchase wines, a specific SOP tells us that the following main steps (SOPs are generally more detailed, this is just an example) have to be done prior to being able to purchase the wine:
receives an offer or receives a specific request from a client (or from the boss)
sources the wine from Négociants or trusted/reliable wine merchants,
negotiates a reasonable price to generate a minimum profit based on the current market price and availability
asks for a quotation
The Wine Quality Control Director (QC) (based on the quotation)
verifies the reliability and integrity of the negociant or wine merchant:
Reliable? or trustable?
Did we work with them in the past?
How is our relationship with them?
Are they in possession of the stocks or not?
If not, where are the stocks? And what are the current conditions of storage?
Are they buying the wines directly at the property? Or via a negociant or official agent? or via a third party?
Are they able to guarantee the conditions and provenance of the wine?
Verifies the integrity of the source:
Honest about the conditions and provenance of the wines?
Practicing fair prices?
Are they flexible with the payment terms as well as the shipping/delivery terms?
Does a Market Analysis to:
Establish the fairness of the quoted prices compared to the current market
and verify the potential Gross Profit Margin (GPM) compared with the average market prices
Is it possible to inspect the wines prior to buying them? If possible and if locally sourced;
If not, ask for high-res quality pictures (if possible, and/or documents/proofs of origin if available) of the wines (cases or even bottles if available) to determine:
the quality
the conditions
the authenticity
the provenance
inform PM if the supplier is reliable or too expensive, etc...
The Cellars and Logistics Manager
Liaises with shipping companies and gets quotations to compare and estimate
The shipping cost (door-to-door, reefer container, plane or boat, etc...)
the time of the shipping (when, how long, etc...)
Choose the shipping company based on cost/efficiency/security/service/quality (the cheapest are not always the worst, and the more expensive are not always the best either)
Liaises with the negotiant or wine merchant to arrange for shipping/logistics details
Arrange for the ETD (Estimated Time of Departure) and ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) with both the negotiant or wine merchant and the shipping company
Inform and keep the warehouse team updated
B. Wine Purchase Order Receiving
In most case scenarios, unless you buy directly at the property or from a Négociant or an official agent or a trusted wine merchant, it is going to be very difficult for you to get high-res pictures and/or documents/proofs of origin of the wines prior buying it. Let's say it's nearly impossible.
Same regarding the provenance and/or current (or even previous) storage conditions, there again, unless you buy directly at the property or from a Négociant or an official agent or a trusted wine merchant, you will never know if what they are telling you is the truth or not.
Yet, it is true that it may also happen with the Négociants, official agents, or "supposedly" trusted wine merchants. They may tell you that the wine comes directly from the property, while they may have bought it back from one of their clients or from a third-party seller. You'll never really know, in fact. You can only trust your guts, unfortunately.
That's why it is very important to work with trusted wine merchants who can give some guarantee about the provenance or, if not, are willing to let you inspect the wines (if sourced locally) and/or send you some high-res pictures of the wines for you to check them prior to buying them.
But because it is not always possible to check them prior to buying them (either physically or on pictures), even with the merchants you know and trust, that's where the role and job of Wine Quality Control is crucial, as he or she will have to inspect and/or even authenticate the wines at good receiving at the warehouse (or at the store or wherever they have been ship/deliver to) prior storing the wines, in order to immediately inform the vendor and sent the wines back, if not satisfied and/or if the conditions are not as described on the email, the catalog, the pictures or any other documents provided prior buying them.
The SOPs state that at good receiving:
The Cellars and Logistics Team
Arrange for delivery time at the warehouse
Unload the truck or container, weigh the pallets/cases, and mark them
Count the pallets, cases (and eventual loose bottles) based on the shipping documents and the purchase order delivery note
Bring the wines to the inspection zone (usually an area prior to or within the storage area dedicated to inspecting the wines prior to being put away in the storage area)
The QC team
Supervise/help with the unloading of the truck or container
Take pictures during the unloading to have proof of how the pallets/cases were when they were delivered and unloaded
Make sure that none of the wines have been put away in the storage area without being inspected first
Proceeds to the inspection prior to the Cellar and Logistics team putting the wines away
The QC team proceeds to the inspection case by case
A case of wine is put on the inspection table or bench
If the case is an unopened Original Wooden Case (OWC) or Orignal Carton Box (OCB):
the case/box is not opened
it is inspected carefully to check of any signs/traces of opening attempts
If pristine, a sticker or security tape is put on it
If not pristine (meaning there are signs/traces of a previous opening), the case has to be opened
the case is weighed to check if it has a correct weight
If correct, a sticker with the case weight is printed and put on the case
Then the case/box is banded with a band featuring the company logo for security reasons
If not correct, the case has to be opened to check its content
If the case has been previously opened, then tape resealed or nail closed (no matter if OWC, OCB, or not) and or if the case/box has not been opened, but it is not an OWC/OCB and/or does not present any markings of any kind to indicate what is in the case/box, then it has to be opened to do the quantitative/qualitative inspection in order to check the quantity and quality (conditions) of its content.
QC staff should always come prepared for an inspection and have their tools at ready for inspection (here is a list with the most essential items to have for a wine inspection)
A portable LED flashlight (or light torch, however you call it) if it does blacklight even better
A magnifier
A ruler
A cutter
Transparent tape
Tissue paper or wet tissue
A rollerball pen or a permanent marker
Small size Post It paper
A camera or smartphone to take pictures
During the inspection/authentication process, QC checks and takes pictures of the following (taking into consideration the vintage and origin of the wine, of course):
Overall bottle conditions
Label (pristine or damaged)
Capsule (pristine or damaged)
Level (correct, too high or too low)
Cork (depressed or protruding, check the vintage if possible for old and expensive bottles, and only if previously agreed with the vendor)
Color (correct, too young, too old)
Sediments (present or not)
Bottle marks
If all the bottles of wine in the same case pass the inspection:
The bottles are carefully put back into the case/box,
The case/box is turned resealed/closed
A piece of security tape or sticker is affixed on the case/box,
And/or the case/box is banded
The case/box can now be given back to the Cellar and Logistics team to be put away in the storage area
If some of the bottles of wine in the same case do not pass the inspection:
The full case is put aside (either in the inspection area if secure or right behind the door at the storage area entrance, not to be put away yet and not to be mixed with other cases either).
An email including details of the discrepancies/defaults + pictures is sent immediately to the vendor
Negotiations begin on getting something for the unsatisfactory bottles, either:
a replacement
and/or a discount
and/or send back the bottles and get partial or full reimbursement
Depending on the negotiation's result,
Bottles are replaced
A new invoice showing a discount is sent
The bottles are sent back and reimbursed
Although continuing on the subject might interest you, I will stop here regarding the SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). Otherwise, you will be bored reading all these details. (if interested in the inspection's details, read my previous posts on the subject here)
However, the reason I wanted to share with you (parts of) these SOP details is to show you that we have an elaborate system in place to prevent fake and counterfeit wine bottles from infiltrating our warehouses and cellars in our various storage locations and that theoretically we should not have any suspicious bottles in our stocks (either fake or counterfeit or just in bad conditions) like this magnum of Petrus 1961.
Yet, this is not the case. The proof is that the suspicious magnum of Petrus 1961 (in the picture above) managed to get into our stock.
💥Work in Progress - to be finished 💥
Cheers! Santé!
LeDomduVin (a.k.a. Dominique Noel)
NB: Over the last few years, I wrote quite a few posts on or including fake and counterfeit wines (if interested read the 2 most detailed ones here and here)
As you probably know by now, as a "Wine Quality Control Director" (for the Wine Division of the company I work for), an essential part of my daily job is to inspect (detailed examination and authentication too) all the bottles we buy, sale and/or store in our different warehouses in Hong Kong and China. (*)
The case scenario I will detail in this post today is a rare one that is quite unlikely to occur on regular basis, and so I thought it would be interesting to write about it (and, you never know, it might also interest you).
So, here is the situation:
Two days ago, on January 29th 2019, 6 bottles of Petrus 1966 (and a few more bottles including Chateau Haut-Brion 1989) were prepared at one of our warehouses in HK to be withdrawn then delivered.
One of the members of my QC Team, in position of QC Supervisor at this warehouse, quickly inspected the bottles and took some pictures (unfortunately in low light - see picture below), which, in turn, were sent to our internal WhatsApp group for the QC (myself) and the C&L (Cellars and Logistics) Senior Manager reviewal and approval, prior the bottles leave the warehouse.
My QC team member did not switch on the lights that normally should be ON to allow for the wine level and other details to be checked. Consequently, at first glance, looking on WhatsApp on my phone, and despite some of the levels being low, but nothing abnormal for the vintage, the bottles looked OK. Hence, I gave my approval. The bottles were released from the warehouse and delivered to our company's headquarter building in Kowloon Bay first.
Once in Kowloon bay, the bottles were put in the cellar of our company's French restaurant "Le Pan". Simpson, Wine Director, at Le Pan, took a picture of the bottles of Petrus 1966 (and the Chateau Haut-Brion 1989) when they arrived, and send it to the WhatsApp group.
The picture being clearer (with more light) than the picture taken at the warehouse, Samuel, our C&L Senior Manager, realized that something was wrong with one of the bottles. A broken piece of cork was floating in one of them.
So, I looked back, (a bit more closely this time), at the first picture sent from the warehouse prior the delivery, to check if the incident of the broken cork may have happened during the transportation between the warehouse and our headquarters building.
But no. Looking at it again (more closely this time), I realized that it was already like that at the warehouse (meaning that the broken part of the cork was already floating in the bottle), and that consequently my team member did not inspect the bottles properly and carefully enough prior the delivery.
I was really unhappy about him, as it is his primary role as QC Supervisor at the warehouse to do a quantitative and qualitative inspection (at good receiving and departing) and consequently to check that all bottles are in good (or at least acceptable) conditions prior the bottles can leave the warehouse and be delivered.
However, and fortunately, the bottle had been delivered to our headquarters first, meaning, prior going to its final destination. So, I had to take care of the situation and find a solution to replace the bottle with the defectuous broken cork, by a bottle with better condition to be delivered with the other bottles instead. Fortunately (again), we had a few more bottles of Petrus 1966 at the warehouse, so we had to quickly organize and make a new delivery from the warehouse to our headquarters building for the replacement bottle.
While waiting for the replacement bottle to arrive, I (assisted by my colleague Martin Li) inspected the bottle with the defectuous broken cork. I brought it down to our basement cellar to get a closer look at it.
The capsule was still tight, and did not present any sign of seepage or leakage. Yet, it looked like the piece of cork was quite big, but "how big"? (...that was the question...)
Looking even closer (like on the picture above), it almost seemed that the upper part of the cork was visible and did not seem to be loose. Therefore, I believe (at first) that the broken piece was only the bottom part of the cork and probably corresponded to only about ⅓ of the cork maximum.
But I had to be sure and it was important to know how much of the cork was remaining in the neck of the bottle to make a rough assessment on the wine condition and ensure the wine was still safe from harm. Therefore, I decided to cut open the capsule by making an incision right below the ring of the neck.
For record purposes, I asked my colleague, Martin Li, to assist me by also commenting (and holding the camera too) while making a little video of me cutting the capsule (of this Petrus 1966 with a floating cork inside), to check how much of the cork left within the neck.
(I definitely need a better camera man..... 😊)
LeDomduVin: Petrus 1966 with a broken cork inside the bottle (inspection) - Video 1/2
LeDomduVin: Petrus 1966 with a broken cork inside the bottle (inspection) - Video 2/2
So, when I cut open the capsule to check the remaining part of the cork, I realized that I was wrong, as, in fact, ¾ of the cork was broken and the remaining ¼ upper part of the cork was seemingly solid and still tight. Therefore, it is possible that the wine may not have been harmed or damaged by this rather peculiar cork condition. Yet, difficult to say.... unless we open the bottle.....
The broken part of the cork being so big, and therefore the level of the wine being difficult to estimate, it is also hard to tell if the wine suffered from air oxidation or if the wine has evaporated a little due to the cork condition.
Yet, as previously said, the capsule is tight and the remaining upper part of the cork is seemingly solid and tight against the inside of the neck, the capsule does not present any trace of seepage or leakage, so we can assume the wine could be OK, after all.
I sealed back the cut part of the capsule with tape, then laid down the bottle in the cellar for further examination by regular checking within the few hours that followed.
Conclusion
It is hard to determinate what exactly happened
for the bottom part of the cork to break within the bottle like this. It is a
rare case scenario that is unlikely to occur usually, unless the bottle previous handling and/or storage conditions led to the weakening and eventually cracking of the cork.
We can only speculate that this situation may have occurred, for example, if the bottle experienced or has been exposed to important and/or sudden variations and/or oscillations of the temperature and/or humidity levels (for a certain period of time and at a certain period of the bottle's life), altering and changing the shape of the cork in some ways, weakening it, while, at the same time, creating a pulling force, like a vacuum, sucking the cork within the bottle.
This situation usually happens when the temperatures are too cold, causing the cork to slightly shrink and get pulled into the neck of the bottle, which normally leads to a "depressed" cork....
However, as you can see in the video and in this screenshot of the video above, the usual sign of a depressed cork, which is normally characterized by a "dent" formed on the top of the capsule, giving a clear indication that the cork is either weak and/or has slightly been sucked in, is barely visible. But ,even if, a tiny, slightly bit depressed, it is nothing compared to bottles with serious depressed cork conditions I previously inspected. And therefore, once again, makes me think the wine might be OK. The color and overall condition of the wine seemed OK too when I checked it. So, let's cross fingers.
In any case, I put the bottle laying down in the cellar, and will keep it there for the next few days, to check if any seepage
or leakage occurs due to the defectuous/broken cork. If no seepage or leakage appear after a few days, the bottle is to be sent back to its original warehouse (for long term storage), with a
note to be written and taped on the bottle, saying "do not touch unless strictly necessary and/or to be handled with extreme care due to the broken cork".
My advice (first verbally formulated by my former CEO Bernard de Laage, when I showed him the pictures) is that this bottle should be opened and consumed as soon as possible, as the wine may deteriorate quickly (or not) with a cork in such conditions.
I will keep you inform of the status of this particular bottle.
That's all folks for today, stay tuned for more posts coming soon and meanwhile drink responsibly and give a closer look to the cork condition of your old bottles. You never know....
