Tesco Wines - Vintages mean NOTHING!

kizziedog

Ordered 12 bottles of Mcquigan classic shiraz 2006. Advertised as "was £42.66 reduced by 25% to £31.98" for 6 bottles.

Wine arrived - all 2009 vintage.

When I complained and asked Tesco to deliver 2006 I was told that they did not have 2006 vintage - all they could supply was 2009. If I was unhappy with what they supplied then all they could do was collect it.

So - I regard this as a scam from Tesco. Wine values change enormously with age. The consumer is willing to pay the vintner to store wine until it is properly aged. Tesco are purporting to sell aged wine and are replacing it with young wine, fresh off the vine!

It is now over an hour since my conversation with Tesco Wines and the website STILL shows incorrect "facts"

Please beware "facts" from Tesco wines. They aren't facts at all!

fluffnutter

You might well find that your 2009 is a better bet than your 2006 vintage. However, I agree with the sentiment. The wine's vintage is a critical part of the whole product and cannot reasonably be swapped. It's the same as getting a different spec telly or car ("sorry, we've run out of the 1.8L so here's the 1.4L instead"...) and that's if they've even bothered to tell you...! Before you complain further though, kizziedog, do compare the 2006 and 2009 vintages. The 2009 claret is reckoned to be one of the best ever. I know this is not the same region but still.. you might have got a bargain!

bap98189

The year of production can have a marked effect on the final wine. Bottles of wine from the same chateau can vary in quality and price from year to year.

But really, if you are expecting to notice a marked difference on a £5 bottle of wine, are you going to be very disappointed. Particularly on a big brand like McGuigan, which isn't made from grapes at a single chateau, but buys in grapes from all over Australia to make their plonk.

fluffnutter

bap98189 wrote: »

The year of production can have a marked effect on the final wine. Bottles of wine from the same chateau can vary in quality and price from year to year.

But really, if you are expecting to notice a marked difference on a £5 bottle of wine, are you going to be very disappointed. Particularly on a big brand like McGuigan, which isn't made from grapes at a single chateau, but buys in grapes from all over Australia to make their plonk.

Perhaps I should have googled myself! I wouldn't worry about it, kizzie. Perhaps this is why Tesco feels that they can swap the vintage so casually - because it's not going to make any difference. You wouldn't get this with a case of Chateau Lafite!

kizziedog

fluffnutter wrote: »

Perhaps I should have googled myself! You wouldn't get this with a case of Chateau Lafite!

And if I could afford Chateau Lafit I probably wouldn't be on this website.

The main priciple of Moneysaving is to get the best product possible for the lowest cost.

Not paying over-the-odds for incorrectly labelled items.

bap98189

kizziedog wrote: »

The main priciple of Moneysaving is to get the best product possible for the lowest cost.

Not paying over-the-odds for incorrectly labelled items.

I really doubt it's Tesco deliberately trying to defraud people. Are you suggesting people would pay more for the 2006 version, because I really doubt that is the case.

OK, it's labelled incorrectly on the Tesco website. It's a mistake hopefully Tesco will correct. You have the choice to send it back for a refund.

fluffnutter

kizziedog wrote: »

And if I could afford Chateau Lafit I probably wouldn't be on this website.

The main priciple of Moneysaving is to get the best product possible for the lowest cost.

Not paying over-the-odds for incorrectly labelled items.

I totally agree with you kizzie. You might find your 2009 bottles are actually worth more, that's all. Hopefully they'll be nice to drink. And I agree with you: wine should be the vintage stated.

kizziedog

Having had my rant (see above), returned the wine and hopefully will receive my refund in the near future...........I have checked the Tesco wine site today and find that they are STILL purporting to sell the 2006 vintage of this wine.
Either the information i was given by CS was wrong and they could have replaced the incorrect wine with the correct vintage OR Tesco are selling a product they do not possess. Twelve days after I complained.
Does anyone have a Tesco name and address to which I can formally complain?
Obviously not just Customer Service.

Jakg

kizziedog wrote: »

It is now over an hour since my conversation with Tesco Wines and the website STILL shows incorrect "facts"

Do you honestly expect the person you spoke to to be able to edit the product themselves? They will probably feed this up the chain... at work it usually takes a few days for issues like this to be fixed...

kizziedog

Jakg wrote: »

Do you honestly expect the person you spoke to to be able to edit the product themselves? They will probably feed this up the chain... at work it usually takes a few days for issues like this to be fixed...

Please look at the dates of posting. The line you quoted was posted on 9th. August. My last post was today.

I accept that some things can take time - but - anything that breaks trading standards laws should be corrected immediately.

gordikin

kizziedog wrote: »

Does anyone have a Tesco name and address to which I can formally complain?
Obviously not just Customer Service.

MSE member sirmarcus at some point will tell you who to email I suspect!