For The Love Of Port

Your thoughts?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/02/dinin ... il1=y&_r=0

Well, there are different ways of buying on line. I buy almost entirely via the internet. The Rare Wine Company is the place I buy most frequently. Otherwise I buy from brick and mortar establishments with internet sales. I also will submit absentee bids to auctions via the internet. I've not dealt with purely internet companies.

Most of my wine buying, Port and otherwise, is via the internet one way or another. I purchase in online-only auctions, online submitted bids for in-room auctions, internet sales, and in a some cases from a local b&m or two that I happened to find the best price at via an online search. Luckily I live in a state where shipping is not a problem, and the cost of shipping is made up for by the lower online price.

Many big wine Web sites simply offer the same bottles you see on the supermarket shelves, at the same prices. To get the best wines, retailers need local knowledge and connections. Many of the best online wine sellers are offshoots of local shops, located in wine regions.

Even for big brands, I find that prices are lower online than what I can easily find in Colorado. Maybe if I lived in New Jersey, things might be different. For the more specialized products, I do have to search and regularly end up buying from a smaller shop. Some are in northern California, but plenty are scattered all over the US. You might need to be in California to get boutique or cult California wines, but that's not what I'm buying. For Port, CdP, Sauternes, etc., you can be just as well connected in St. Louis, NYC, or Chicago as in Napa.

I'd say about 3/4 of my buying, and almost all my higher end buying, comes via the Internet. Spending a lot of time in Idaho meant it was tough to find many things in even the couple excellent stores, but fortunately shipping was easy. Most of what I buy in stores is $15 or less, and is more to address a specific nights need and maintain a relationship with a local business for when I need a favor/keep them around.

It's definitely a risk, IMHO, in buying on line, relying solely on the seller's repuation. So far in the last 5 years I have had 2 kaput bottles from online, exactly the same number as for those bought locally. In the latter case I had no trouble getting a refund; in the first the wines were fortunately very modestly priced. Overall, the winners have way outperformed the losers.

I recently tried something new. Buying on line from a wine forum that has a marketplace where people trade or offer their wines for sale. Grabbed 3 cases of great well aged juice for a very good price. I realize this has the same inherent risks as buying from a shop online or auction, but it all turned out just great.

Congratulations!

I've got to say, I've had actually a (slightly) lower rate of flawed wines from online auction than I've ha from either online or brick retail over the last 3 years, total bottles consumed being about 300. Granted, I'm probably overly picky in my auction bottle conditions, and corked bottle is much more luck than anything else, but that surprised me when I did the math just now.