Joseph Phelps 2001 Napa Valley Syrah 3 Pack

I really enjoy good wine. As long as I am getting a good price is doesn’t need to be the best price.
I purchased and paid for the 1st woot wine and have not yet recieved anything.I live in New Jersey and woot continues to tell me to be patient and that it will arrive.
Todays date 6-12.
Order date 5-24.
Total dates without delivery: 20 days including weekends.
Thats almost 3 weeks… how very painful.
Will I order again at any price except free? What do you think?

Thanks for the feedback - we’re certainly sensitive to this transit time and it’s a bummer to hear of missed expectations. One reason we’re in beta stage is to judge the effectiveness of deliveries to states that refuse to allow direct shipments from wineries. NJ is one of those states, as indicated by the “expect longer transit time” messaging.

A few solutions are obvious. First, we can time things better logistically to get this 3-tier delivery happening faster. Second, I think we need to do a better job describing the delay to these particular states to better set expectations. Third, if we can’t resolve these issues to everyone’s satisfaction, we need to remove these states from our delivery capabilities until they come into line with the rest of the country on direct shipment. The one positive of that (eliminating the few slower delivery states) is that it’ll eliminate the additional cost it takes to service these areas - allowing us to increase efficiency (read: lower prices) across the board.

No excuses though - it’s taking longer than we like and we’re working to improve.

I live near Capitol Wine in Albany and while it states on their site that this is a “sale” price…it is sold at close to $20/bottle most of the time. Without the shipping, this local wine store is a far better deal since one has no worries about shipping. I have purchased this wine before and it is a good value for the price. However, this isn’t a great woot as far as a deal on wine goes.

I’m in the same boat as you. I figured I woulda had it by this past weekend but no show. Not even the possibility of a tracking number. I’ve wooted before, but first wine woot. I’m still waiting patiently. I understand most of the issues. But if it rolls around one month, then something may need to be done.

Ah ha! That’s the problem with the one-size-fits-all $5 shipping. Sometimes individuals ‘win out’ and other times they lose out that way. I say dump the idiot states that force you to use a local retailer. There are a number of reasons for that. First of all, you (and we) should not be subsidizing the organized booze retailers and their lobbyists who are trying to extract monopoly profits. Second, if you (and the wineries) refuse to ship to those states, then consumers in those states will rise up and smite [cool word, huh?] their worthless politicians because they are preventing them from getting mail order booze. Third, it allows you to lower the price for the rest of us who don’t live in sucky states.

By the way, we got the three bottles of the second week’s wine and it was an anniversary present for my wife. We have not yet opened them.

My reaction to this is ‘wow, lighten up’. Woot is not into ripping people off, so yor purchase is safe, eliminating one source of potential anxiety. Yes, it might take a while, but we are talking about wine here, not some instant gratification shiny toy. If you HAVE to have some wine RIGHT NOW, go down to the frigging store and get some.

I for one am more than willing to let WOOT work out the kinks and get this all working. It is likely to take a few cycles to do so as they are having to train a lot of different sources. There are a lot of moving parts involved in getting your wine to you.

I see this as a great way to stock my cellar with a nice variety of great wine that I might not otherwise be exposed to.

People need to re-learn how to relax and remember life before the internet. Open a bottle (when they arrive) and ease up a bit.

The fact of the matter is that there are many other commercal internet wine sellers that have worked out the kinks already. If they shipped their packages as flimsy as Woot and not as worried about how long it is in transit then it may not be much more in price. Heat is the number one enemy for red wines and it doesn’t take a long exposure to “cook” wine. The reason established lines don’t go cheap on shipping is that they don’t want to have to refund the customers money for cooked bottles. Paying $20/case for overnight may be worth the extra $15 to make sure it arrives in good shape.

As for getting a hold of bottles you wouldn’t ordinarily be exposed to…there haven’t been any yet. Maybe you need to get out or online more…all of these are or have been for sale somewhere.

Relax, let people speak, and in turn this will help woot start their company on the right foot so many more can take advantage of deals on wines.

I think we’d all love to see success with wine.woot.com. Obvously there are kinks and regulations to be worked out, but in time, this will be a great site to not only buy wine off the Internet, but have fun while doing so. I took advantage of the first wine woot, and have since purchased another. So far, so good!

The fact that Woot is trying to really make this work is very encouraging, and I will definitely be checking back to this site to get my vino fix.

Now, if only Woot.com would offer up a wine fridge…

…99 bottles of WOOT on the wall…99 bottles of WOOT…Pass the brown paper bag. WOW my cholestorol is now under 200

Again please remember that the wine is shipped “directly from the vineyard” If you have a problem with the packaging it is shipped in, it is not woot’s fault, but the vineyards. This means that it doesn’t matter where you get it from, it will at some point be packaged the exact same way. Remember that this is wine.woot BETA. Which means it is in the testing phase, everything cannot be perfect the first time.

Two buck Chuck is 4 Bucks in Ohio. State minimum mark up is 100%. This is what happens when your State gets into the liquor and wine business. Thank God they changed the wine by mail law. WTG… One in a row for the Buckeye State. Most heavily taxed next to CT. BTW My first wine WOOT arrive ig good shape

And i was starting to wonder why it costs me more money to buy beer at home in CT than it does where i live now in NYC.

We’re definitely open to hearing all feedback; although, it can be frustrating when incorrect assumptions are made. We’re late in making some news posts that would have given this a bit more transparancy, so here’s some detail:

You’re actually transacting direct with the winery here, so there are varying packaging methods and even shipment methods involved but they are all obviously approved by the winery. Specific feedback on any packaging that appears flimsy could be useful to the winery, but so far we’ve had next to no box related damage and that’s what matters. Some of these high-tech cardboard boxes may not look snazzy but they are very shock absorbant.

Heat concerns can be valid, especially if delivery can’t be made on the first attempt by UPS/fedex driver (definitely try to avoid redelivery - use business address if possible) – so far the actual data here (less than one half of a percent issues) looks promising but we’re not ignoring the issue. There is already use of 2 day air by wineries in some states at no cost to the buyers who get such service – each winery has their own experience driven proceedures and practices and we defer to their judgement. In addition to this, Los Spuntino (affiliated with Wine Country Connect, Woot’s partner in this dotwoot) are experts at 3-tier delivery methods that include use of refrigerated trucks throughout their network – there are future options to us to expand use of this network to hotter climate states during the summer, but the tradeoff, as we’re seeing, can be tedious transit times. We’ll keep looking at options and address this in future wine.woot news posts.

Side note: It’s really crazy the number of actual retailers illegally shipping wine directly interstate - surprising that many of them would risk it when the laws are fairly clear. Producers of wine are often the only entities allowed to transact to certain states. Plus there are considerable tax burdens wineries must obey and logistic challenges to absorb to pull this off the right way to so many states.

We’ll make some blog/news posts and update ourFAQ as we develop fixed proceedures so we can set expectations correctly. For now, we’re appreciative for the understanding of some delays and of course we will continue to stand behind the quality of the wine you’ll receive. email service@woot.com if you have any issues and we’ll help correspond with the winery.

Does anyone know from personal experience if this wine is amaaazing, or just ok?

Snapster, your monitoring and responses to our comments is appreciated.

I’m one of the folks who’d expressed concern about possible heat damage on the St. Supery. So to let everyone know: it arrived with no physical signs or tastes of heat damage. And even though the outer carton was pretty well bashed up, the inner packaging remained solid.

I’d still feel a LOT better about – and be willing to pay more for – wines that were shipped either refrigerated or by air.

The reality of interstate wine sales is this: everyone involved knows that the restrictive laws exist only to protect politically powerful in-state wholesalers, and that other issues (tax losses, purchases by minors, etc.) are raised simply as red herrings. So – as with Prohibition – lots of people simply ignore laws for which they have no respect and see no justification.

I recently moved to northern Jersey and recieved the Cathedral Ridge Trio 10 days after ordering it. The box was in good shape and while I haven’t opened a bottle yet, I’m happy so far. Please don’t stop shipping to NJ! We need our woot too!

I’m in NJ too and appreciate being able to purchase wine that I would otherwise not be able to in this state. My vote is to keep us around a while :-)!

My second wine.woot! showed up yesterday, which means that 50% of the wine woots are still in transit :).

In the Cathedral Ridge Trio shipment I noticed that they threw in a few pieces of paper about tours, other wines, and a wine membership (nice try, they’ll never take me away from woot.)

Long post short, I’m not too much of a wine person other than when I drink something I know if I like it. Is it possible to have the wineries include a label or a sheet with the wines we order so that we know what they go well with, ideal temperatures, what medications they are currently taking, how long they should be allowed to breathe, how late are they allowed to stay up, how long they can be stored, and any other information for the wine unsnob? Even if the information is included in the item description it would be helpful so I know how to best enjoy all of these bottles that are slowly starting to stack up!

Looks like I have a little work to do tonight…

http://mail.rigstad.com:8081/wine.jpg

Hi all, I wanted to give the Joseph Phelps Syrah a try but after the bad experience with the St. Supery, I thought I should give the winery a call to make sure they would keep the shipping on hold until the temps down here in TX drop a bit.
I was surprised to find out talking with ‘Nita Thornell’ that this wine is NOT shipped directly from them (… so where is it shipped from I wonder?). She also checked with her boss (the owner) and confirmed they have no relationship with Woot, they have never talked with anyone from Woot, nor is Woot considered a distributor for their wine. She also passed on that they “will NOT” ship wine to many of the southern states this time of year due to the heat- but they do hold orders in reserve with a CC number for shipping when the weather looks good/cooler. Their winery price for the 2001 Syrah is $30/bottle or $24/bottle if you join their wine club (plus shipping I would assume but I did not ask).
By the way, the people I talked with at the Joseph Phelps winery seem like really great folks…very responsive to questions about their winery, wines, and even my wootish questions and even returned a call exactly when they side with detailed info. They are at: http://www.jpvwines.com/winery.html (1-800-707-5789)

Not surprising; given the hugely confusing multiplex of state wine laws, more wineries are outsourcing their direct-ship programs to niche logistics specialists, who handle the actual transactions, shipping, and conformity with all state regs. One of these California firms seems to be Woot’s partner in wine.woot. So while the wine is TECHNICALLY sold by the winery – for purposes of legal compliance – the reality is that all arrangements are handled by the agent, and the folks at the winery may not have any knowledge about where their wines are actually going.