How long were you on the Monte Bello waiting list?

How long were you waiting to buy Monte Bello Futures?

Just like the title says. Seems like an awesome savings on a great wine, just not sure I’m interested in being sucked into buying 5 vintages of the Estate wines (even though I do like them) before getting a chance at the MB futures.

For the record, I know the price is higher than it used to be, but that doesn’t bother me because I still think the wine is worth the cost.

When I signed-up it was immediate (2007 vintage futures), and estate wines were not part of it.

Same. I got right onto the MB list. No other purchases needed. Has the demand become that high that you have to buy X to get Y?

I was immediately offered purchase when I signed up in 2017, but I got no offer this year (because 2018 was a short vintage).

Is that the lag? 5 years? Wow.

I am a fan of the Estate cab, and if I were younger and if the price was decent I would not object to it to get the MB, but I just dropped off. The MB I have is not really going to be ready until I am well into my 70s. Just didn’t make any sense for me.

Check out bassins.com. Ridge shows there every year and I believe wine is available on the website.

to sign up for MB futures it looks like you have to also commit to the estate wines at this point.

I honestly have no idea. thats why I was curious. if there is a wait this year, maybe ill shoot you a message and see if you’re willing to give up your 2019 allocations? haha

I definitely will for some current releases. from what I can tell, the benefit of futures is that the futures price of the 2014s was less than 120 (I believe?) and bassins lists it for 199.

I signed up this year in February and bought the estate wines in March(I like the estate wins). I didn’t get an allocation of MB. Looking forward to next year.

The “wait list” is new, so no one has been on it long. I assume this is a way to temper expectations following this year’s offering. As best I can tell, this year was the first time that some club members, for whom the futures offering was a stated benefit, weren’t able to purchase futures. When the 2005 vintage was offered, there was only a mailing list of futures customers. That release sold very quickly, so there was a “last call” emailed to eatablished customers, offering them a limited amount of the 2005 before it sold out. That was when the club was established, with the assurance of being offered futures for subsequent releases.

that makes sense. this way if there is a small MB production people aren’t upset if they don’t get any because, hey, you were on the waiting list! but I’m glad to hear that typical vintages have been accessible.

The 2014 futures were offered at $105/750 in February 2015. The wine was released 2 years ago, and I’d guess the “sticker” price was pretty close to $200. Bassins has an event every spring, and I believe their CA futures offering is around the same time. I’m not surprised they aren’t showing much availability right now, but check back in 6 months or so.

Thanks! Thats good to know. Does Bassins offer it at a price near “sticker” or is it similar to the futures price through Ridge?

I show at that Bassins show, so that is how I know they sell futures there. Prices might go up after, but futures are available from that show.

Same for me

IIRC, the Bassin’s offering is not as inexpensive as Ridge’s, but still a significant saving over the release price. I think the Bassin’s offer is a year or 2 behind Ridge’s too. Ridge offered the 2018 this year, and I would expect to see that offered at Bassin’s next year, or even in 2021.

for anyone else who was watching this:

I actually signed up two days ago and got a call from Ridge as a welcome the next day, which was pretty great. The way they explained the “waiting list” was basically as assurance because 2018 had been such a short vintage. Sounds like most years they do a pretty good job covering the entire list but by calling it “waiting list” it gives them a little room to play with any shortfalls in the selection process and supply. Sounded like theres a pretty strict 1/3 of the production that goes to futures vs distributors, which I could imagine being a little frustrating if you are denied a chance at futures when 2/3s of it is still going to a distributor unsold. She sounded pretty confident that 2018 was a rare vintage where that might happen though.

oh also she mentioned that the 2016 pre-release email should be going out on Tuesday!

What is your spring buying obligation of the estate wines? How good or bad is the pricing on what you have to buy?

Thanks.

I was fortunate to get on IMMEDIATELY before they started a waiting list, and mine has no requirement for buying Estate wines, though I often get a couple cases of mixed Estate wines (Geyserville, Lytton Springs, Estate Cab all multiple times each order).