The Clarice Wine Company email

A membership, a community, wine, parties, online forum…

Adam is going all out/all in. Interesting concept.

Yes, it is an interesting concept. Not sure I see the value for anyone who is not in the area. Two wine parties a year are of zero value to someone living in Virginia. The forum might be interesting, but if the membership comprises 625 people who like a particular style of pinot noir, will it provide any insights I cannot get here? I doubt it. What I’m left with is a subscription for what will probably very good PN at $80 a bottle. There is a lot of very good PN in that price range, so it is a no go for me.

+1, unfortunately, in Michigan

Obviously I am biased, but just a couple of other points (that I probably didn’t make clearly enough).

As a member you get discounts - on other people’s wines (and availability of wines you wouldn’t get otherwise). So, for instance, Jake is going to open up the cellar and offer some Limerick Lane wines to Clarice members. Same goes for Scot at Marietta Cellars who is going to offer discounts on his wines that he doesn’t normally for Clarice members. There will be lots of others as well.

And I did think a lot about this board and how the two would be different. Obviously this board is a huge font on knowledge. What I tried to bring to Clarice is the guest aspect (so getting to interact personally with people like Jeff Newton, Mario Zepponi, and many others) and also the real time aspect (take a picture of the CdP section of a wine list, say you don’t like brett and post it. By the time you are done with your bubbles people will tell you not to buy Pegau).

And some of the educational content will be unique. My first post is on a study I’ve done which shows that Napa is both simultaneously more are less diverse. It’s a pretty in-depth study of the Grape Acreage Report over a few decades.

But I certainly understand the distance issue.

Enough of a commercial post.

Adam Lee
Clarice Wine Company

So in other words, “Membership has its’ privileges.” :wink:

Thanks Adam!

Has anyone joined yet?

Do they serve Chianti? With fava beans?

So nobody here has pulled the trigger?

I’ve loved Adam’s Pinots (and Syrahs) for a really long time and would have signed up in a second if I lived in California, because it sounds like a really interesting concept. From the East Coast, though, you lose most of the “extras” and it just becomes a lot of money for some probably very good Pinot.

Agreed, Jeff.

That’s sort of what I was thinking. Being out of state and paying that price, I would rather just go buy good wine.

The fact that I live in CA financially excludes my participation.

I signed up … I think the interactive feature will offer a unique opportunity to really stretch and challenge my notions about wine and winemaking. I’m hopeful I could make it out to an event every year or two. But Adam is one of the most transparent, honest, and generous winemakers I’ve ever met, and the Pinots are going to be excellent. I look forward to it.

Hey All,

I certainly understand those that live further away missing out on the parties. And I realize that for many that will be an issue that will prevent them from joining. One thing that I have arranged to try and make up for that is to make certain that members, near and far, get an opportunity to purchase limited production wines from other wineries or purchase other wines at a discount. So, for example, Jake Bilbro is going into the cellar and coming up with some older LL releases that are going to be available to Clarice Members, near and far. Other wineries will be doing similar things and/or offering exclusive discounts to Clarice Members.

Just wanted to point that out.

Thanks for the discussion.

Adam Lee
Clarice Wine Company.

There are a lot of wine clubs that include lifestyle and community functions (i.e. parties). There are a lot of places to go for online content. I’m not sure I see anything stunningly new here. There’s the tax-avoidance trick of calling most of the annual fee a subscription. That’s neat. And by making public a specific number of members (625) the exclusivity is highlighted. I don’t think I’ve seen a winemaker publish their list size, or explicitly limit it (though it’s obvious enough that with guaranteed 12 bottles a year per member, Clarice can only have as many members as cases they make … until they grow).

Why would anyone join? Certainly if you liked Siduri’s wines, then this gets you access to Adam’s new project. Since the wine hasn’t come out yet, and nobody has tasted it, you’d only want to sign up if you loved Adam’s style and were confident in his wine making, as many many people certainly are. So, the primary driver of Clarice seems to be Adam’s brand, which is a strong and well-earned one. At $80 a bottle, it’s not crazy, and I’m sure lots of people will be attracted to the ‘exclusivity’ of it. All the ITB content will attract those folks — perhaps this is a play to get ITB people to join with corporate money paying for the ‘subscription’?

The phenomena of highly successful wine makers selling their shop, then spinning up a new smaller project seems to be here to stay. For example, Bart Araujo sold his business, then started Accendo. I’m sure there are many more examples, and more coming. Buying wine from these kinds of new businesses seems more sensible then buying wine from a wildly successful businessman in some random industry (eg. industrial flooring, tech, or ice hockey) who knows nothing about wine diving into the biz.

In short, if you love Adam’s wines, and are fine with the price tag, then it’s a no brainer. This will be the best you can get from a top wine maker from top vineyards. All the other member benefits are fluff. Heck, I nearly just convinced myself to join!

Thanks Rich…just on a pure wine style end of things…the wines are more whole cluster than I’ve ever done before, picked a bit earlier, all native yeasts, etc. So some different directions…

And no plans to grow the business. This is pretty much it.

Adam

Thanks Adam, really intriguing.

Can you fill us in more about the change in approach? How do you expect the earlier pick, whole cluster, etc. to be reflected in the wine? What are you trying to achieve? Also, when will the first vintage be released?

I’ve been a big fan of Siduri wines for over 2 decades (love their wines and style) and was really interested in this new concept. Unfortunately, living out of state, just seems to take a lot of the advantages out of it. On one hand I like the idea of discounts from other wineries. But honestly, I am on enough (or more than enough lists) and discounts from wineries that I don’t currently buy from aren’t in the budget.

Adam - why wouldn’t you have tossed around the idea of having your forum here, where a much larger audience exists, in an opt-in or admin-approved membership for visibility? Would massively extend your potential marketplace, and most of us have seen how small forums die out fast

Hey Adam, can you give us an idea of the types of discounts you’re talking about/expecting to offer as part of the membership? For someone who does not live in CA, that could potentially be the added value that makes the membership worth signing up for. But being that I can/have purchased older vintages of LL at auction for substantially less than what I paid off the mailing list…it would be helpful to get a better idea of what you’re talking about.

Totally get it of you just aren’t able to talk speak to the specifics…but figured it was worth asking about since I do have interest in signing up.