Pieroth

[granny grump]

I have received an unsolicited letter containing a survey request from

Pieroth International Wine Centre. I would receive a 'colourful Cheese Knife gift set'and a 'tutored sampling of 6 specially high quality wines' - of course free of charge. I've never head of this company - Has anyone else had any dealings with them?

[Buenchico]

Pieroth is a well-established company, which has been around for over 60 years:
http://www.pieroth.co.uk/

They sell wines on a home delivery basis and they frequently advertise for reps to work for them. I looked into it several times when I was unemployed but, if I recall correctly, it's a 'commission only' (or possibly 'mainly commission') job, calling at customers' homes to offer them wine-tastings and hopefully sell them a few cases of wines that are perfectly adequate but no better than you can buy in supermarkets (at prices which are quite a bit higher than supermarkets charge).

If you take up the offer of a freebie you won't lose anything by it but you'll almost certainly come under some pressure to buy some rather over-priced wines.

[Mamyalynne]

I got this letter yesterday , on closer reading it says they will also send '6 Bottles of wine' for you to try - that made me bin the letter.

[Mamyalynne]

Also they ask for your phone number to arrange delivery, but they already have your address??

Too many alarm bells for me.

[VHG]

Personally I would never reply to an unsolicited letter but it is up to you.

Danger is if you reply once you are on their database you will be rung up for ever asking you to buy wines.

A search for "Pieroth International Wine Centre" finds lots of hits.

Seems they try to arrange "wine tasting parties" at your house then encourage you to buy lots of their wine (obviously).

Some web sites indicate that you can buy just as good wine at the supermarket for less price.

Couple of web sites here (rather old)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=145231

http://www.simonswineblog.com/2012/01/pieroth-home-wine-tasting.html

[granny grump]

Hm yes - if it sounds to good to be true it usually is. Are you wine buff mamyalynne - I'm not I wonder how we were 'selected'

[Buenchico]

^^^The phone number will be so that their local rep can make an appointment to deliver the wines and provide the 'tutored sampling of 6 specially high quality wines' (a.k.a. some high-pressure selling from a guy who probably couldn't tell a Chardonnay from a claret a fortnight ago).

[granny grump]

You will be right thank you Buenchico

[Buenchico]

It's basically the Tupperware 'party' sales model but with wine.

If you're going to get into sales parties, Ann Summers would be much more fun ;-)

[Mamyalynne]

I like my wine GG, but the whole thing seemed too much hassle to me and I have plenty knives to cut my cheese.

Not sure how I was chosen either.

[KARL]

We did get a particular wine from them quite a while ago - a Hungarian red - we had opened a bottle that had been given to us and we liked it so much that we traced where it had been bought. It was (to us) rather expensive but we have never since got anything quite as much to our liking, not from Pieroth or even in Hungary itself - although we did get something approaching it there but not quite as good. I tried to get it in Germany where it is actually bottled but got nowhere in finding a source (it appears to be a Pieroth exclusive, at least outside Hungary, possibly a blend). Since then we were offered more by Pieroth but declined because we are content to drink something we also quite like but which costs us about 20% of the price of the Pieroth one.

We were phoned a number of times, but declined apart from once after some years when we had a fellow in because they coyly offered a tasting of "something we would like" and offered a free gadget as an incentive. We have not heard from them in quite a while. I felt the pressure to buy was not particularly strong but it was applied several times - they seemed to accept a no-thanks reasonably readily. If you have the time and are able to stick to your own views/decisions and keep up level thinking/judgement then in my opinion nothing bad is going to happen to you by trying out a visit from them.

[smurfchops]

And whatever you decide, dont give them your credit card details.

[granny grump]

Certainly not smurf :-)

[Cole76]

Pieroth is a family owned and run business which can be traced back to Burg Layer Germany almost 340 years ago. They own all of the vineyards they supply from and only deal in 'Fine' wines. Somebody has mentioned in a previous comment that they are no better than supermarket wines, this could not be further from the truth. Supermarket wines are mass produced and are full of artificial chemicals, sugars, additives and preservatives, where as, fine have none of these.
Pieroth started the home wine tasting approximately 50 years ago as a way of expanding an already very successful company.
There is no catch with these tastings. It is true that the ultimate goal is to sell to us, the consumer, but they have a solid reputation.
I have personally been dealing with them for some time now, as my Father did before me and I have never, to this date, had a bad experience with them. The are a little more expensive than supermarket wines but you are paying for quality not quantity.