The New & Improved Underground Cellar
0Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Wine Country Connect has resurrected Underground Cellar. @Winedavid59 and his brother are bringing two decades of wine fulfillment experience to the Underground Cellar bottle “upgrade” model.
Previous discussion of the original UC’s bankruptcy and subsequent sell-off of bottles (as well as initial conversations about the New UC) located HERE.
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And another snippet of early conversation starts here. Includes a helpful refresher from a vol mod on inserting block quotes.
One thing I am not a big fan of… <1% allocations of the “base” bottle. This is a trend that I noticed in the last couple years of the old UC. As opposed to having a fairly sizeable number of base bottles. I used to buy a lot from deals where I liked and wanted the base bottle, because I knew that I would be getting several of them in my order.
Current example, the bubbly offer for $42 with a Schramsberg BdN as the base bottle, allocated at <1%. So, same odds as scoring the top bottle in the offer. I am a fan of this wine and would have gone in for a case purchase if I knew that 3 or 4 of them were the Schramsberg.
On the flipside, I would often stay away from offers where I didn’t really want the base bottle. With the current setup, virtually every single bottle is an upgrade.
Now, I just look to see which bottles are allocated at the highest % and assume I am getting one or more of them, then decide if I will be ok with them as opposed to the ones I am hoping to score.
@chipgreen
On a recent, actually my only, I did a three bottle purchase of the ‘Celebrate with French Champagne featuring 2009 Cristal MAGNUM! × 3’ offer. Don’t recall the base bottle but the confirmation showed
Champagne Philippe Dechelle Cuvée Terrienne Brut NV 750ML × 1 ~
$70~ upgradedand
Champagne Victor Charlot Les Terres de la Grève Brut NV 750ML × 2 ~
$200~ upgradedwhere I received three of the Victor Charlot.
CS made it good with a refund; not sure how that was calculated but the whole order is a bit of a crap shoot imo. Haven’t tried one yet, but I guess I’m good with the outcome, if not optimal.
@chipgreen @rjquillin
How much did you pay for those bottles? And what was the supposed retail/MSRP?
@chipgreen @ScottW58
Taxed and delivered $51.23/btl with a $47.70 one bottle refund and $30 credit for future orders.
Like I said, CS made it good.
CT value listed at $50 with purchases from UC, Last Bottle and Last Bubbles totaling 64 bottles.
Wine Searcher finds no retailers.
@chipgreen @rjquillin
The old UC’s supposed msrps or whatever you want to call it used to make WTSO’s msrps look like child’s play. From what I see at the new UC not much has changed? woof I hope they are great bottles! https://undergroundcellar.com/products/champagne-victor-charlot-les-terres-de-la-greve-brut-nv-750ml
@rjquillin
They gave you a refund for the additionally upgraded upgrade?
One of my three bottles from the magnum offer was also incorrect and they gave me a refund but I don’t know if the “Value” was listed as higher or lower than the bottle I was supposed to receive.
Packing errors continue to plague WCC.
@rjquillin
Just noticed the $30 credit from your previous post. While I was refunded for the incorrect bottle, I did not get any credits towards future purchase.
The current red offer has a 2016 Desert Wind Merlot claiming a SRP/value of $180 but CT average value is $30. Come on, WD.
@klezman
The current release of their Sandstorm Merlot is listed at $80 on the Desert Wind website.
Perhaps a typo/error since the 80 part of 180 is correct. But it makes you wonder.
@chipgreen Interesting. Most of the purchases of that wine were from casemates, so it being lower than SRP isn’t shocking. But then again nearly all the wines sold on UC are commonly sold well below SRP. Hence my prior disagreement with the use of the term “value” in the descriptions.
@chipgreen @klezman
You guys made me look lol. A better one is the whispering angel rose srp $175. Or even the mixed case of the roses srp $445. One is born every minute.
@chipgreen @klezman oops that’s a 3 liter bottle, but still could buy 6 bottles for under $20 each.
I put this over on ‘deals’ when it should really have gone here.
Well I succumbed to a UC special Crazy Leprechaun Red Wine Grab Bag offer from @WineDavid59
Shopping cart
Crazy Leprechaun Red Wine Grab Bag ft a Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate top upgrades!
6 $150.00
and ended up with the below.
2018 Sarah Francis Sage Ridge Vineyard Cabernet
2016 Trinitas Mataro
2018 Koehler Quartette Santa Ynez Valley Red Blend
2017 Press Cellars Solano County Red Blend
2021 Cote West Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast
2013 Opus One Oakville Red Bordeaux
but looking again, it suggests 12 bottles ordered.
Guess I’ll find out what they are when they arrive.