EDIT: For those new to this post — my use of the word criminal is hyperbolic. While I didn’t imagine that would require clarification, I don’t want anyone to be left with the impression that I think someone should be imprisoned for seeing whether the market will accept a 100% increase in the price if Produttori Crus over the span of a couple of years. And, to further clarify, my omission of the offending retailer was not, in fact, an act of conscious silliness.
I just got an offer for Produttori Crus at $100 a bottle with delivery in May. I’m not going to name the retailer, and I doubt that they are the ones that are (entirely) doing the gouging here. But this seems a little bit ridiculous. I was buying the same wines just a couple of years ago for under $50 a bottle.
Vinous expected pricing at $78 and they always factor in an overly generous markup. I rarely pay the price they note for a wine.
Anyone have any inside information as to what’s going on here? I thoroughly expected having no difficulty finding these for under $70 when they were released later next year.
I’m pretty sure I got the same email, and my brows went up too. But criminal? I dunno. All wine purchasing is a value proposition. I like Produttori, but it’s always been a bit of a value play. If it stops being a value play, I’ll buy other stuff. Lots of great Nebbiolo at those prices, including some great 16s.
As a former American President responded to a question about how he justified a $500,000 speech engagement in Russia after leaving office.
“It’s the American way”
I guess there are a couple of ways to look at this:
(1) For each of the 9 cru, they have somewhere in the range of 1,400 cases to sell or probably ~12k - ~13k cases total. That compares, for example, to <600 cases of F. Alessandria Monvigliero and many other similar small Barolo Cru. So, there’s no shortage of the wine…
(2) On the other hand, Pichon Lalande (as an example) makes 15k cases of their first wine a year and I wouldn’t pay 50% more for it than Rabaja unless it were some investment (and I wouldn’t invest $150 a bottle in newly released Pichon Lalande)
So yeah — qualitatively it might be ‘worth’ $100 a bottle — but, that’s a pretty bold increase at the retail level, and 2017 and 2018 won’t be 2016…
But, if anyone benefits from crazy price increases — better it be farmers in Barbaresco than scarf-makers in Paris.