This bottle was purchased retail , not auction .
What’s this label supposed to mean?
According to their website:
"Provenance Guarantee
We acquire fine and rare wine from well-maintained private cellars and reputable wholesalers after provenance is verified by our team of acquisitions professionals. Before purchasing a private collection, we travel to meet the collector and inspect storage conditions to verify provenance. As a result, we guarantee the provenance of all wines that we sell. If you open a wine purchased from us within six months of the purchase date and the wine shows signs of damage due to improper storage, we ask that you re-cork the bottle with the remaining wine inside and contact us immediately."
Note that: “If you open a wine purchased from us within six months of the purchase date and the wine shows signs of damage due to improper storage, we ask that you re-cork the bottle with the remaining wine inside and contact us immediately.”
No explicit guarantee of refund or replacement for corked wines. Or, refund for wines that may be counterfeit or misrepresented.
It became legal some time in the 1980s (?) for wines to be acquired from private hands – versus directly from producers through the market’s established channels – if said wine was owned by said private individual for a minimum of five years, IIRC. Even retailers could purchase wines directly from consumers (who obviously did not have a wholesale license) if they’d owned the wine for 5+ years.
As “GG” stated above, via their “Provenance Guarantee,” Benchmark Wine is attempting to provide the consumer – you – that this bottle is sound (i.e.: has been properly stored) over the time the wine has been in private hands. They are not guaranteeing the wine will not be corked, nor – interestingly enough – that the wine is not counterfeit!
As an aside, my old company, Adventures in Wine, imported the wine.
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