Off mailing lists to buying retail?

In the Shafer thread many folks are now buying retail rather than from their mailing list. Seems the reason is that retail is cheaper. Who knew?
In looking at my buying habits, I seem to be buying more retail (Alban, Saxum, Shafer, etc.) with older bottles available at lower prices than
current releases. Of course, provenance is an issue, but at the larger wine shops in LA, they have a long list of customers who flip, so one
is usually getting a well stored wine. Harlen found out the hard way by raising prices too much and drying up their mailing list and others
seem to be walking dangerously close to the edge of that same cliff. Screaming Eagle is one that seems to be avoiding the price spike but
ultimately they will face a similar fate I imagine as well. Only list I still buy from is SQN, but they do things right in a lot of ways so there’s
that. Is the Golden Goose cooked?

Stan, I remain on a handful of lists that I buy from regularly. These are for the still wine portion of my cellar. This is how I continue to acquire and replace my still wines, with no retail involved at all. The only exception is the other half of my cellar, which is Champagne. That continues to be exclusively through retail.

Our buying patterns change over time. When the price goes up and it crosses that mythical line in the sand, we move on and that spend goes to another winery. I’ve been buying older vintages to drink now while I wait for the newer releases to get some age. Going to win more then you lose on the quality there but the losses always sting hard.

The question for us all is where that line in the sand is on price per bottle where you decide to just move on from buying direct. Everyone has a different budget for buying wine they are playing with.

Is this the Cali version of the en Primeur debate? I suspect there’s a few threads on that. [stirthepothal.gif]

[edited for typo]

Kinna. That ‘get on that list or be left behind’ Cali phenomenon that may be pricing itself out of existence.

I have been dropping lists each year for the past few years. I’m finding that unless I REALLY love a winery I can find most of what I want at retail. The issue isn’t necessarily the price, the issue is saturation on my cellar. I found that the lists I am on became the lion’s share of my cellar, but the wines I am drinking most aren’t the list wines. This meant that I ended up with a disproportionate amount of wine in the cellar that was just sitting. Not resting in a good way, resting in a get-in-the-way-of-what-excites-me way.

TW

Won’t buy off a list unless it’s something I can’t easily acquire at retail, like MacDonald.

supply and demand

I dropped from all lists about 3-4 years ago. I only recently joined Matello. Mainly because I consider Marcus a friend and would rather he have my money. I will add Walter Scott soon. If Envoyer is a mailing list, I’m guilty. Otherwise I am loyal to a couple of retailers. In the long run I have been able to get allocations at fair prices. The only wines I miss are from Carlisle, their Syrah and Petite. I have been able to replace all other needs. Yet I don’t think I gave saved money in money in the long run.

Sell it at auction.

Or, better yet, if your state laws allow it, then TRADE it [with a properly licensed entity] for something you actually enjoy.

I might even take a loss on a trade, roughly equivalent to auctioneers fees, to the tune, of, say, $80 of quality German/Austrian Riesling [or Loire Sauvignon Blanc or Italian Trebbiano or non-heat-damaged Champagne or whatever] for every $100 worth of soft flabby high-alcohol over-oaked not-improving-with-age mailing-list wine.

Selectively very true.
Love Peter Michael Les Pavots, but can find it at a better price elsewhere. There are other examples.

Two questions here:

  1. When does a wine get too expensive, however sourced, to keep buying?
  2. When is buying from a list a bad deal?

On the latter, if the wine becomes available at retail there’s little reason to buy from a list, unless there are special bottles only available there, at least if the price is comparable.

On the former, that’s not really a list/retail question.

I buy a few bottles here and there off lists, but no where near what I used to.

I feel some loyalty to a few of the smaller guys, but at the end of the day, I tend to want to try lots of different wines than buy cases of one producer year after year.

I live in Pennsylvania… retail is rarely an option.

I’m on a few lists that I can’t buy retail. Problem for me is that retail here in Santa Fe is not great for availability.

I am cutting my lists and buying more at local and internet shops. I will remain on some lists because the local shops are somewhat limited and usually higher priced. Most of my non list purchases are European.

Except when the LCB has those incredible close-out deals. champagne.gif

Recently moved to Las Vegas. Do wine shops in Los Angeles have bottles of long wait list wineries like saxum and SQN readily available for somewhat close to cost? If so I will def be making that drive when the weather dips in the winter. I wouldn’t expect it to be that easy

Yes, they do. Check internet for wine shops LA and you can buy before coming here and they will store it for you until you pick up. Also, K&L has a wine shop here as well. So you can buy auction and pick it up here at their shop.

Awesome thanks for the info