In the last year, after 20 years of spending quite a bit of $$$ at Zachys Auctions, I bought 2 or 3 cases of old Beaulieu for a dinner I had lined up in LA. Bottle after bottle, — and we went through 48 plus bottles — was heat damaged and completely NG (I gave Jay a 68, which is one of the great ones, to take to dinner, and he felt bad about telling me how terrible the bottle was). As were all of the 68s in this giant lot of wines. When I contacted Zachys about this, their response was: “the lots were from two different consignors. We are willing to refund you shipping costs, but that is the best we can do.” This was not a giant purchase — maybe between 7500-10000 all in — but the point is, after doing business with an auction house for over 20 years, and having spent so much money (including single bottles costing more than this entire lot {e.g. the 21 yquem we had at my 60th birthday), I was really insulted and will never do business with Zachys again.
CONTRAST THIS WITH ACKER: whenever there is any issue, whatsoever, with any bottle, JK literally stands by the wine and does the right thing — replaces the bottle, gives a credit, works out a deal with me, whatever — but I feel completely protected and that is why Acker Auctions is #1 in the world — JK (#1 or #2 depending upon your pov) takes care of his friends and long time customers. It is, quite simply, called STERLING CUSTOMER SUPPORT (along with a heavy dose of long time friendship).
Here is the bottle of 1970 Beaulieu I bought from Acker that was perfect for what this wine should be (deep, dark, not as balanced or elegant as the 68, 74 and 78, but still a stunning California old school style wine that lasted 24 hours open) — we drank it last night — and then the night after:
SO, THE POINT OF THIS STORY IS:
FUCK ZACHYS. GO WITH ACKER.