Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Wednesday 16 February 2011

1855: 'a bunga-bunga, manaña company' – tale of 24b Carruades de Lafite

Château Lafite

This is a tale of Mr B, who ordered 24 bottles (two cases) of 2007 Carruades de Lafite en primeur from 1855. These should have been delivered in June/July 2010. Instead he has received a series of emails (see below) apologising for the delays and promising that the wines will soon be with him.   

Herewith are three emails from 1855's customer relations each with different delivery dates – 30th November 2010 (the supplying process will spread till the end of december), 13th December 2010 (until the end of January) 14th February 2011 (first few months of 2011).

On 30 Nov 2010, at 10:42, ludivinesb@1855.com wrote:
Dear sir,

We would like to apologize once more for this too long delivery delay.

Nevertheless, we confirm that the last references of your order will
get to us, but the supplying process will spread till the end of
december.

We will make sure that you get a notification as soon as the
remainder of your order is available on our platform.

We deplore this situation and we are making everything we can to
close this matter as quickly as possible.

We remain at your disposal for further questions.

Best regards,

_________________________________

1855
Le plus grand choix de vins sur Internet
http://www.1855.com

10, rue des Moulins - 75001 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (1) 42 61 18 55
Fax : +33 (1) 42 61 18 31
_________________________________

Ludivine Stalla Bourdillon
Chargée de Relation Client

1855
Le plus grand choix de vins sur Internet
http://www.1855.com

10, rue des Moulins - 75001 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (1) 42 61 18 55

_________________________________

**
Le 13/12/2010 09:15:59, « Mr B a écrit :

Hi you promised final delivery by the end of this month - can you
confirm this is correct please and that you have ALL the wine in your
warehouse?
Also can you tell me the date of dispatch?
** 
From: matthieu@1855.com
Date: 13 December 2010 23:54:51 GMT
To: ***
 Subject: Re : delivery by decembber 2010


Dear sir,

Thank you for your email.

We will do our best to deliver the wines before the end of december but it might spread until the end of January.
We will get back to you when the wines are available to organize their delivery.


We sincerely apologise for the delays.

Best regards,

_________________________________

Matthieu Ortalda
Chargé de Relation Client

1855
Le plus grand choix de vins sur Internet
http://www.1855.com

10, rue des Moulins - 75001 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (0)1 42 61 18 55
Fax : +33 (0)1 42 61 18 31


Date: 14 February 2011 22:17:42 GMT
To: "***>
Subject: 1855 / Follow-up of your Primeur Order

Dear customer,

Thank you for your message.
We would like to apologize once again for the important delivery delay.

As you may have noticed, our platform has been lately overloaded by the holidays' deliveries, and our suppliers' end of year break kept us from coming to terms with the deliveries of your Futures as we hoped we would do a few months ago.

Nevertheless, we wish to let you know that we are in the process of conveying the last items of your order over to our platform although this will spread over the first few months of 2011.

We will make sure you receive a message as soon as the remainder of your order is available.

We are aware of the inconvenience generated by these important delays and successive postponings.

Be assured that we deplore the situation as we are doing everything we can to close the matter as fast as possible.

We remain at your diposal (sic) for further questions.

Best regards,


_________________________________

Matthieu Ortalda
Chargé de Relation Client

1855
Le plus grand choix de vins sur Internet
http://www.1855.com

10, rue des Moulins - 75001 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (0)1 42 61 18 55
Fax : +33 (0)1 42 61 18 31
_________________________________

Matthieu Ortalda
Chargé de Relation Client

1855
Le plus grand choix de vins sur Internet
http://www.1855.com

10, rue des Moulins - 75001 Paris, France
Tel : +33 (0)1 42 61 18 55


**


'As you may have noticed, our platform has been lately overloaded by the holidays' deliveries, and our suppliers' end of year break kept us from coming to terms with the deliveries of your Futures as we hoped we would do a few months ago.' 

Matthieu Ortalda's lame excuse of 14.2.2011 would be hilarious if Mr B hadn't paid in good faith 885,60€ for his 24 bottles of 2007 Carruades de Lafite. 

Rather than the entirely unexpected arrival of Christmas I suggest that there is a more compelling reason why Mr B has not received his 2007 Carruades de Lafite – 1855 never placed an order for this wine. Instead 1855, run by Fabien Hyon and Emeric Sauty de Chalon, trousered Mr B's 885.60 euros (442.80€ a case) either with the intention that they would buy the Carruades when it was released or, possibly, never intending to supply. 

It is surely reasonable to conclude from the above exchange of emails that 1855 does not have Mr B's 2007 Carruades de Lafite. Hardly a surprise as to buy those two cases of 2007 Carruades would cost now cost 8868 € (4434 € a case) – just over 10 times what Mr B paid!

Sadly suspect that Mr B will be receiving a series of 'manaña' emails from 1855 – truly a 'bunga-bunga, manaña' companybut one which, apparently, complies with FEVAD's strict rules. 



4 comments:

Luc Charlier said...

Fascinating, Jim.
Very wickedly, I would dare a single question: Why on earth would anyone with a sound mind go through all this trouble for the sake of acquiring the SECOND wine of a so called “grand vin” (= brand, trade mark) that is already unripe, bitter and uninteresting in itself ?
I know I’m being very provocative and prejudiced, but my question remains. For pity’s sake, buy good wines at reasonable prices, when they are easily available, and stop this comedy about the “GCC en primeurs”. It’s all fake and smoke-screen.
This being said, those customers have of course every right to be delivered their due orders within the appropriate dead-line and you, for one, do a great job lobbying in that matter.

Jim's Loire said...

Luc. But surely these wines are not for drinking!

Luc Charlier said...

Just one more hypothesis.
French wines are loosing ground on all export markets (don’t trust the figures given by Sopexa, go and see what the various other countries publish). It is not a good thing for me, as I happen to be the producer of one of them. Still, it is a fact and there is no denying it. Amongst them, Bordeaux wines are loosing even more market shares, with the notable exception of a few very “hype” ones. And here comes my suggestion. Could it not be that the “négoce” (and surely “Fevad” is but one of their tentacles) is orchestrating all this, still supporting 1855.com because it becomes a TOPIC, something about which people write, and talk, and in so doing “keep the aspidistra flying” and the prices up?
Good or bad, noise is what they want. Just like female fashion: what is the value and/or meaning of a piece of cloth – however nicely knitted, or sewn ‘(correct spelling? I never know) – without all the fuss around it ? David Cobbold is no Lagerfeld’s fan, and neither am I. But how much “Chanel” items would be sold, if it weren’t for his outrance ?
Not that I care much, mind you.

Jim's Loire said...

Ingenious Luc – but I think probably not...