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Q: Purchasing wine online
Hey Guys
A while ago, I moved out of busy Shanghai and into the middle of nowhere. I was never a bar person but I do like having an open bottle of wine at all times in my room. While I was in Shanghai, this wasn't too big of a deal, but out here, the only place that I could get wine was a DaRenFa. For a while, I thought for big conglomerate, it wouldn't be too hard for it to purchase real wine but recently I came across some very suspicious wine. I have no proof but the China Paranoia has set.
I was thinking of buying wines online. Was wondering if anyone has ever done it. I've found a couple, amazon.com.cn, shanghai9, fields shanghai, and jd.com. JD is in Chinese but I heard from a friend that they do stock legit wine as long as you buy directly from JD and not third party. I loved Amazon in the States but their Chinese website looks shady. Fields and shanghai9 have only a small selection/tend to be more expensive.
Any advice?
I haven't found one reliable source for wine/alcohol online to this day.
They all start out with one batch of the real deal, then brace yourself for the watered down second batch then the fake crap following.
I never bought wine online (not much of a wine drinker at all), but have gotten liquor online often enough. I might be mistaken, but I was under the impression that wine was far more often counterfeit compared to liquor (or beer, for that matter), so it might be harder. I never have had a bad experience from a purchase.
I always avoided the expensive bottles, and when I approached a seller, I'd buy a bottle of something I know well (so I can tell if the flavor is off... I've even bought the same bottle from back home to compare, so if the Old Number 7, for example, from Taobao tastes just like the Old Number 7 from home, it's legit. If not, I pass), and something cheap. If it's legit, I'll buy another bottle. You can save shipping fees by buying several bottles at a time, but I'd suggest to get it one at a time, at least from the start. That way, if you find something that's not legit, you're not out as much as if you bought three bottles of fakes.
Jepson Wines of Shanghai will deliver most places. They deliver to me and I'm in the middle of nowhere.
