Did you know a company like Studio Beverage Group exists?

Did you know that private label wines are all over the place?

If you didn’t then you have not paid attention. This is a process that has been going on forever.

Not sure what you find objectionable or shocking. This is just marketing. Walk down the aisle of any grocery store or wine shop. It’s a business.

Neither new nor shocking, as the others mentioned. Nor is it necessarily deceptive or dishonest at all. I make a wine for you, I make a wine for your neighbor. They are both indeed scarce because there’s only half the wine there would be if I put it under the same label.

Go into Total Wine or Trader Joe’s or BevMo or any large wine store. Half the labels don’t exist anywhere else.

And if it’s a big wine store, what’s the problem if they do the customer a service? I worked for a place that put out a special label for a store that wanted to buy in quantity. They took several containers of the wine. The exact same wine from the exact same bottling line at the exact same time as another wine. The only difference was the label. But the store sold their house brand at a ridiculous discount. So if you knew the labels, you’d buy the store’s wine or you’d pay 30% more and buy the other one. In another case, one label was sold to restaurants and the other to retailers. The restaurants wanted one that was more “exclusive” and they got it because retailers couldn’t buy it. So what’s the harm?

And FWIW, we sent both labels to Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Advocate, Food and Wine, etc.

And they got different scores.

BTW, these were all estate wines. It was just a big estate.

Wine is a business. People on this board like to think there’s some artisan devoting his life to wine. They watched Kirk Douglas in Lust for Life.

That’s not reality. Unless you’re independently wealthy and don’t care, you have to move product. If your schtick is playing the part of an artisan who doesn’t care about sales, and you can move all your wine that way, good for you. But some people aren’t such great actors and they need to figure out another way to sell.

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There are many artisan winemakers who actually care about the quality of their products and are not acting a “part.” I’ve visited them, drank their wines and sold their wines over the years. Of course it’s a business and they need to sell their wines to continue that business. But I don’t think that necessarily means they are “actors” and are doing something artificial.

Didn’t say it was artificial at all. I’ve visited many dozens over the years on several continents.

And a good act or a good story can help sales. People not in the business tend to think that wine makers are spending days tasting wine with fans and hanging out and they forget it’s business. They have to buy boxes, figure out how to fix the leak in the roof, deal with the county, call the distributor that didn’t pay yet, etc. And if someone offers a great deal to take half your production and you’ll still make a profit, well, a lot of these people also have business degrees and they can recognize when something makes financial sense.

Caveat Emptor.

Hell I bet 75% of Trader Joe’s wine brands come from one maker, Bronco Wine Company.

In Total Wine the orange shelf talkers indicate a private label wine.

Right, nothing new and not uncommon. Heck, does anyone think certain Chateaux in Bordeaux don’t create an artificial sense of scarcity? Doesn’t the supply chain effectively do the same for many producers in other regions (Burgundy, etc.)? Many US wineries with their wait lists? This is in no way limited to private labels, and it’s definitely done with estate grown wines on a widespread basis, even some with cool stories and nice people behind the wines. It’s worth repeating that the wine business is a business. Beyond that, it’s a luxury goods business for many producers, and the general class of wines, well liked by people on this board. There’s a cool story about what the wine business is like that isn’t true for almost anyone.

Interestingly, there are wines that Total Wine buys that are 100% estate, and they are the only retailer in the country that sells them. There is one in particular from Stag’s Leap District (name of the winery escapes me) and the wines get rated by Wine Advocate too.

A business??? Heaven forbid, I thought winemakers were performing art???

Shocked, I tell you. Absolutely shocked!

Buyers own brands have been big in the UK for a long time. Wineries fly the buyers to places in France, Spain, Italy etc where they can make their own blends. Many wineries bottle without labels so it’s really easy for them. This is big not only with supermarkets but with merchants like Justerini and Brooks, Berry Bros, the Wine Society, etc. The Wine Society’s Champagne is made by Gratien. Averys used to bring in their own cognacs, sherries, ports, etc and bottle them in the UK.

Whole Foods: anything floor stacked is bound to be their own label.

Look at the listings of various wine clubs sponsored by newspapers, etc…has anybody ever heard of these wineries.

Wine might be art, but even museums and repertory theater companies try to sell tickets.

You thought art was art?

Despite the derision with which people have responded to your comments in this and other threads, I think you make a good point here Greg.

A lot of people have a very romantic relationship with wine, one that is buoyed by both the consumer and the ways in which the wine industry markets itself. Ok this isn’t news to anyone, and nor is the fact that the vaaaaaaast majority of all wine sales are not small-lot high-touch low-yield yadda yadda. Most wine (at least in the US) is, for all intents and purposes, bulk wine, or bulk wine-like, made at low cost and sold in high volume. Much of this stuff is pretty anonymous-tasting, so I have never really understood the problem with having a similarly anonymous system of distribution and marketing.

Personally, I am interested in provenance and accountability. I like to know where a wine comes from, who makes it, and what I might be able to expect from it from year to year. I think that’s true of many Berserkers. But we are mostly not drinking these anonymous/“private” labels except to root out good deals, often with a great deal of speculation or sleuthing as to their true origin! And I think that’s fine! There is so much wine out there, it can serve multiple purposes.