Is there a better way to buy Chave than going to your local wine shop? i.e. some way to tie into wholesale/import - I know they used to be a Kermit Lynch portfolio wine and then seems like they took it in house? Thanks and sorry if this has been covered on the message board before.
Thread drift. I used to have the greatest Chave deal. A store (I won’t mention the name) used to get their Chave allocation and then price both the white and red with the same markup, same price. So the white was massively over market and the red was really cheap to market. I would get an early call/email from the owner and would just hoover up all the red he had (bottles, mags). Was fantastic. Unfortunately that store went out of biz and I’ve never been able to find another good value source. Living on my 1998 - 2010 stash…
BTW, 1998 mags cost $100. The 2003 was a huge jump to $230. 2009 and 2010 more reasonable at $215 and $500 for mags. And every once in a while. Just a couple of bottles of Cathelin ($250 for the 1998, $800 for the 2003)
Further drift - The PA Monopoly used to have a legally mandated mark-up. It made cheap wines expensive and popular wines (e.g. Spectator 100) cheap relative to market. Chave was one of those popular wines. Unfortunately, one also had to deal with PLCB provenance (“Let’s put the Chave in the sunny window so everyone can see it!”). They recently enacted legislation to allow more pricing flexibility so now they’re just expensive for everything.
I think the best way is to simply whip out your credit card with the highest credit limit and spend like a drunken sailor.
No cheap way around Chave.
Yeah, it would be nice to have an “in” though - maybe a way to get offered cathelin, magnums, etc
The amount of Cathelin being sold at retail is really small. I’m sure any retailer that is getting it is reserving it for their top clients.
I would argue there really is no “in” on Chave at this point, save for getting your own retail license and being a really big supporter of all things Chave.
Buying young vintages and aging them is your best bet.
While Chave is not inexpensive, frankly, as it’s one of the worlds great wines, and the production is limited, when compared to the top wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Napa, Chave is cheap.
If you love the wine and have the money, it’s never going to be cheaper.
Perhaps because they had so much working capital tied up in unsold white Chave?
Also off domaine you usually have to take 1:2 white and red, at the same price. The high market price for the red is due to refusing buying the white, too.
What do you think wine shops are getting it a bottle from distributors? 2018 $325 cheapest on wine searcher so what is the shop paying for it?
I’ve only been able to buy Chave on one occasion in my small town and even then it was not easy. I can’t imagine trying to buy any amount in bulk, it’s so highly allocated around me. Hope you find what you’re looking for!
I don’t know why people slight the white. It’s an excellent wine.
because some of us can’t stand white rhone. Simple
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Aren’t they making like 6 times the amount of red to white now?
No idea.
My guess off domaine for importers is app.110 € without tax.
I think the Chave red is a wine the retailers get very little profit from.Last I heard from a friend of mine was that the wineshop was paying $275 for the red & white hermitage from the distributor. When a wine shop might get 1-3 bottles of each, there’s little reason for them to drop it below $325. Especially when some are selling their allocations for $350 and higher.
Well that’s a damn shame.
No, 9.3 ha red, 4.6 ha white, but the actual no. of bottles depends on the amount bottled at the domaine … a part is sold off to negoce.
This perspective is where my head is at. Trying not to agonize about my friend’s <$100 purchases back in the golden age of Northern Rhône.
Buy the good vintages not 100 pointers that fetch even more, look at Allemand pricing, then congratulate yourself for how much money you saved.
p.s. The white is great and ages really well but I personally don’t seek out $300 white wines to cellar. Still have my last bottle of 1990 I’ve been sitting on since release.