Direct Wines 1-3
Last night, I opened up three more bottles of wine from the Four Seasons wine club. This follows the disappointing experience I had with the riesling, so I was looking forward to writing something positive about Four Seasons.
I can’t.
Originally, the score was 0-1 with the failed riesling. Now, Direct Wines can chalk down one “win” and two additional losses. The win, however, is marginal, as the wine was marginal. Perhaps it should be reduced to a half-point.
The three bottles consisted of two bottles of 2004 Piduco Creek Chardonnay and one bottle of 2004 Bramblewood Sauvignon Blanc.
Upon opening the chardonny, it was readily apparent that both bottles of 2004 Piduco Creek were corked. Considering that only maybe 5% maximum of wines are corked, having two corked bottles in a shipment of twelve wines is completely unacceptable. Furthermore, when I think back, I realize now that the riesling was likely corked as well, though the cork was clean and appeared free from contamination. These two had soggy corks that clearly had some greyish substance on them and smelled horrid.
Thankfully, the sauvignon blanc was acceptable, and we ended up drinking the whole bottle. However, it was about the quality of a house wine that had been sitting around for a few days. It tasted watery to me but did have the “bouquet of grapefruit and grass” as claimed on the bottle. Personally, I wouldn’t run out and buy a bottle of it for a fancy dinner.
I’m extremely disappointed with these wines and will attempt to contact Direct Wines this week to see if they can remedy the situation. Until I receive a response, I have to give them a grade of F for the remarkably bad wine that I’ve received. We’ll see if my laziness pervades though, as I’m more inclined to write this off as a loss rather than go through the headache of complaining.
I’m not too hopeful about the other wines left from the shipment.
September 13th, 2006 at 12:14 am
I was considering the “4seasons” wine club, for which I had received a direct mailing, and decided to do a little research. I was so glad I read this blog before I tried it. I do have a Wine Spectator online subscription, and you will be interested to know that the tasters at Wine Spectator have never tasted a single wine ever from the “vinyards” purportedly producing the wines distributed through the club. What a scam!!! Why doesn’t somebody out these guys???
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:27 pm
my boyfriend and I have each ordered from Direct Wines and let me tell you what we did. We tried all of their wine and couldnt even finish the first glass. Their wine tastes awful. I’m not picky on my wine. I would chug down a 3 dollar bottle of wine easily. But these wines from Direct Wines are just awful. I’ve cancelled my membership but still regret for trying their wine.
December 22nd, 2006 at 1:31 pm
What’s kind of funny is I’d more or less forgotten about all this wine until you left this comment. I have a number of bottles that have been sitting around unopened, as I’m extremely reluctant to try them. Perhaps one of these days I’ll get around to it, but from what I’ve experienced, pretty much any cheap bottle of wine (e.g., Two Buck Chuck) beats any of these hands down.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I wish i would have researched before I joined 4 season. Talk about gross wine! I thought the presentation was fantastic — but the rest of it was pure crap! And, I don’t drink expensive bottle — we usually try to stay in the 10 to 15 dollar range. I would bet that 2 buck chuck is better than any bottle they sent me!