Avalanche of e-mail wine offers

Is it just me? I am experiencing a tsunami of e-mail offers, maybe twice if not more than I normally get. There seems to be a good bit of downward pressure on prices. I started comparing a lot of these offers on wine-searcher and almost every one is offering at the bottom or below the range. Anyone else seeing/noticing this?

Plenty of them in my inbox also. Must be tough to sell wine to the unemployed & terrified masses.

I got one for 30% off, plus free shipping. And, one restaurant that was 50% off inventory.

Yes, I too am one of the unemployed masses.

i am getting tons of email offers

Folks - as a small producer who depends upon DTC, including visits to my tasting room, the current situation has impacted my bottom line tremendously, as it has other producers. I do sell a portion of my wines through the wholesale markets, but as you can imagine, very few retailers and zero restaurants are looking to order wines at this time.

You will continue to get these emails from many producers - and if you are in the position to support small producers, now is the time to do so. We are all working hard to stay above water here (and this is not to say that others are not - I truly and honestly feel for those that work in industries like the restaurant industry where most work without health insurance and many work paycheck to paycheck without one now).

The deals that many of us are offering are above and beyond our normal deals and that is great enticement to you. It comes at a difficult time, leading us to lower our margins but maintain some cash flow at a time when most of us have a wall of crop/bottling bills that are piling up.

Cheers.

Yes, much of distribution business ultimately goes to restaurants. Which aren’t buying. Distributors have (temporarily) laid off sales staff. I’m owed tens of thousand$ from a variety of great business partners who like almost everyone in this business have seen the worst case scenario occur.

So yes direct sales - that’s all there is now and for the foreseeable future. Times are desperate. I expect several producers won’t be able to ride this out. I’m hoping to and feel in as good a position as I can imagine. But talk to me in another month or three.

Meanwhile, do anything you can to support businesses you value. Stay well. Volunteer or help in your community in other ways, even small ones like checking on family, friends and neighbors. I’ve signed up to deliver meals for Meals on Wheels. Any help can make a difference.

To use a sports analogy, our economy - our society perhaps - has essentially ruptured its Achilles. We need to look ahead to the next season and focus on salvaging the career, and get through the meantime as decently as possible. I’m hopeful, but sobered by the potential realities ahead.

Decent updating list here:

I stopped by Hi Time on Monday. I guess they are still open, but you can’t go in the store, you can only order things on their website and then come pick it up. That must knock their revenues down to a small percentage of what they are when the store is open, even before you factor in the softening demand due to economy and stock market.

Not seeing this and not seeing downward pressure on prices. Just got an offer from HDH Wine for 2018 Bouchards – the Le Corton at $150/per (50% or more higher than release prices for the 2015 and 2016), Chevalier Montrachet at $445 (again 50% higher than previous release prices), etc. etc. From K&L early bid on 2000 Pichon Baron at $200/bottle, maybe $20-30 below market prices and the auction has six days to run. I am not in the market but keeping an eye on it out of curiousity and seen plenty of this, prices don’t seem to have moved much for high end wines.

Larry- as always I respect your candor. I have zero issue with any size winery reaching out via if i have consented to email communication and they provide me the ability to opt out from future emails.
I would 100000x prefer a blunt email promoting product/sales/discounts etc rather than one being subtle about it and discussing corona etc.
meaning, if you wanna sell-sell, I respect that.

Yeah - I’m getting the wine store emails that are basically just reminders they’re open and selling (even if just by delivery or parking lot pickup). No sales there - full retail (I get it).

Then there are the wineries like Larry’s that are sitting on more wine than they expected and looking to sell it - some deals there. Too bad it’s right after mailer season!

Getting a ton of them and what I did buy so far was library releases so I can drink them now without having to cellar long term.

I have gotten a few. Poorly timed by them.

With this economy, everyone is getting crushed. I will be drinking out of my cellar for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we are at the bottom.

I’m so new that I still hadn’t lined up any retailers, distributors or restaurants. I had so many meetings boked and so much interest, but now… So DTC is the only way I can feed my family right now and I sure appreciate all those who have ordered and even re-ordered. Every little helps. Please, if you’re in the position to do so, keep DTC orders coming to all the small producers you enjoy!

Thank you so much for your support!

Restaurants here are blowing out their wine. I may grab some. I don’t know if it would make me feel good or scummy. Probably both. It’s really sad.

Getting tons of offers mainly offering cheap(er) shipping. Almost no discounts on wine making it worth putting in an order.

“Poorly timed by them.”

I actually laughed. Thank you.

Yes

No

I, too, have been received a blizzard. A friend at the distributor level told me that retail sales are fine. I figured they may be (a) capitalizing on the fact that restaurants and bars are closed and/or (b) trying to rake in some cash and reduce inventory before the economic tsunami hits.

Everyone is trying to keep their heads above water for as long as possible. We don’t know how long this will last and how dire things will get. Many of the wineries we work with might be able to hang on through another 4 weeks. But if this extends into May, June, and July…I hesitate to even speculate.