Cru World Wine Reviews

I started buying wine on Cru World Wine in 2016 and have never looked back. It's a perfect combination of a wine wholesaler plus 'interactive broker of fine wines.' Great sales people, great people in logistics (thanks a lot Jane H.) and a lot of valuable research. I'm loving it!

I bought a case of 6 Pessac-Leognan Blanc 2009 from these guys. It arrived 5 weeks late and with a high additional local delivery charge, but in apparently good order. However, when I opened the first bottle a couple of weeks later, there was mould on the cork, the colour of the wine was dark and it tasted extremely acidic and unpleasant. A second bottle looked and tasted fine (7/10), although it too had a mouldy cork. This was a wine and vintage I knew well, and had ordered before from other suppliers with no issues of quality. It seemed to me that the wine had probably been poorly stored so I wrote to ask what their policy was in such cases. They replied, asking for photos which I supplied. These showed the mouldy corks and how the colour of the "off" wine compared with that of the better one. Their response was to say that "Well, it's old white wine and you get uneven ageing, but we've been assured by our trusted suppliers that it's been stored well." I wrote back asking how they could know how a 13 year old case of wine had been stored throughout its history? Also, as they are a brokerage and this was a marketplace order, how could their trusted supplier know how it had been kept? I acknowledged that wine of any type or colour can age variably, but white Pessac-Leognan has considerable longevity, much greater, for instance, than most white Burgundy's. Good ones (which this was) can improve up to 20 years and then some (I've heard - though never experienced - up to 40 years for the very best). Their response was simply to repeat that they had been told about the storage by their "trusted supplier" (no name or details given) and anyway, they weren't liable for any spoilage or quality issues AT ALL for any reason, as shown in the T&Cs which they kindly pasted into the email. They did offer me a discount on my next order, but when I asked what this might be, I was told it would depend on the order. "We sold you a lame horse this time which we're not going to do anything about, but we'll give you an unspecified discount on the next one," seems to me to be a pretty abysmal sales pitch, on many levels, to say nothing of demonstrating a pretty low estimation of their customers' intelligence, so I won't be buying anything from these guys ever again. Of course, wine is a perishable commodity and there is a discussion to be had as to what constitutes acceptable quality, but mouldy corks and one £65 bottle out of 6 (so far) undrinkable I would say is at least grounds for some kind of compromise. On the rare occasions when I've had to return a bottle of corked wine, most merchants are only too happy to give you a refund or replacement, and as a result, they've gotten more of my business. Just because something is in your T&Cs doesn't make it fair or ethical, nor does it make it good practice. Refusing to take responsibility for selling spoiled or sub-standard goods is not only appalling practice, it's dishonest. I'm sick of modern businesses (particularly online) that prioritise profit over customer satisfaction and this is just one more. I'm not a big customer for them by any means, (I have bought from them once before and it was fine) but this wine wasn't cheap. Perhaps treating customers like this, they can afford to throw expensive wine down the sink if it's corked or spoiled, but I can't. Most companies treat their high-rollers well, at least if they want to stay in business, but the way they treat their smaller customers is how you get their true measure; these guys couldn't care less. Maybe if you're buying and selling wine for investment, it's conceivable that they're ok (though I doubt it), but if you're buying wine to drink, there are far better companies around who actually give a toss about their customers, rather than just their customers' money.

The website looks slick and professional, and they make it very easy to spend money with them. Unfortunately, the service which backs this up is very poor. I transferred two cases of wine to Cru from another merchant at the start of November. When the wines did not arrive after a couple of weeks, I queried the transfer with Cru, who asked for proof of delivery. I provided them with this, but six weeks later the wines still haven't appeared in my account. The only response I have had is "we have a huge backlog for landings at our new warehouse currently. We are moving over 40,000 cases... We are doing our utmost to get everything sorted". Meanwhile, the company has over £1,200 worth of my wine which they appear to have lost. I still don't know if this is utter incompetence or some kind of scam. The more time that goes on the more I am inclined to believe the latter. My only advice is to avoid this company entirely. Update: The wines have now arrived in my account and Cru arranged for someone from their storage provider to call me and explain the reason for the delay. I'm afraid I only feel able to make it three stars because I was still waiting more than six weeks for a simple transfer. But they did go out of their way to apologise and restore my confidence in the service.

Redeeming client service

I simply could not fault the quality of service from Jonathan and the team at Wine Cru. I ordered my bottle of Leasingham Cabernet Malbec at lunchtime on the Tuesday and it safely arrived on Wednesday morning. First class service and I would highly recommend.

Brilliant and easy-to-use platform. Great experience!

I have been using Cru platform for a while and I must say that it is the Best online wine merchant on the market.

Brilliant online platform for buying/selling wine that's a great tool for drinkers, collectors or investors and so far more advance than many other merchant's website. The investment research they publish adds another dimensions that many don't offer.

Best online wine merchant. Many interesting offers at competitive levels. The merchant offer price bid and often I get deals that are well below market prices. Very easy to use platform to buy or sell wine as well as making logistic arrangements. Excellent customer services.

Excellent online wine webstore to obtain the latest wine intelligence. A lot of in-depth analyse on wine prices and trends. Very easy-to-use website, the logistic network and warehouse service between Asia and Europe are just incredible!

Easiest wine website to make investments and sell wine. Once you get used of the platform, you can generate a good income.