Kinda pissed. I bought the 2007 La Serenne this past Fall and now I get an offer from TCWC for 1/3 off the price I paid. I understand the need to move unsold wine for cashflow reasons, but do wineries ever do anything to reward loyal customers and keep them buying on release.
I was tempted by this price, but last year the Bordeaux blends were further discounted to 50% of release price by Binny’s so I may try and wait it out further.
But I feel your pain, I’ve experienced this with past purchases from Betz and Ketcham. On the positive side, Philips Hill recently put out a great deal to his mailing list & Facebook followers. Technically it was open to everyone, but at least the deal took having shown previous interest in the winery.
Betz doesn’t make a lot of wine. It sounds more likely to me that a retailer is dumping stock than the winery is.
I saw some last year at Costco.
It’s the distributor’s ineffectiveness to move the product which results in a closeout situation, not the winery dumping wine. It’s great to have labels like Betz but the reality is that $50+ WA Syrah is a tough sell. I’m sure Betz doesn’t like hearing about their wine at Costco or being sold off for cheap at Binny’s…
Sounds like a great chance to buy more! Congrats!
Please post store names that are selling Betz on the cheap. I’m a big fan of their wine.
Yes, please. Link?
Hi Chris, et al,
This is Bob from Betz Family Winery posting a note. One of our Mailing List members alerted us to this thread.
And we’re more irate than you are, I can assure you. So here’s the rest of the story…
Last week we had a conversation with our Illinois distributor, and we decided after 6 years to go our separate ways. We had never encouraged them to take more wine than they could easily sell, but they said we weren’t providing enough support. They were having a difficult time selling their allocation of 14 cases of each of our wines in Illinois; we understand things are tough right now, so we agreed to say good bye. I assume their immediate response, to a rather amicable separation, was to dump the few remaining cases they had in inventory rather than let us transfer that inventory to a new distributor who would maintain continuity in the state.
The result is a price that hacks off the folks on our Mailing List and us! I’m sorry. And we should have suspected something was fishy when we saw the same distributor discounting our wines at 50% off at Binny’s last year. (Dan’s comments about distributor activity were pretty much spot on–are you in the biz?)
We weren’t dumping excess wine, but had allocated a small quantity to one of the country’s most important wine markets for restaurant and fine wine shop placement.
The best thing to do is to take advantage of the low price and enjoy. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
All the best,
Bob Betz
Betz Family Winery
Thanks, Bob!
Welcome to the forum, and I hope you stick around!
Looks like Bob just sold a whole lot of wine for these companies dumping it!
Hi Todd,
A certain irony, huh?
My first time on the site. Looks like fun.
Cheers,
Bob
Oh, it’s fun alright!!
Be sure to check out the Cellar Rats forum - a forum dedicated to winemakers…not many of those around, huh?
Bob
How do you explain the wines showing up at Costco?
Hi Daniel,
I don’t know of any Betz Family wines ever being sold at Costco, either by us our a distributor.
In 2005 I agreed to advise Costco on a Washington Syrah that listed me on the back label as the consulting winemaker. It was representative of the very good Washington vintage but wasn’t made at our winery nor from our vineyards. I consulted on the fruit selection, winemaking and blending for the $18 wine. The label design turned out looking like our label and they promoted it on their website with my involvement, but it wasn’t a Betz wine.
If you know where our own wines were placed in a Costco I would love to know about it. Please send details. The wine folks at Costco are very good friends (the company’s main office is in a nearby town).
Thanks,
Bob
Bob,
I am the one that saw Betz at a Costco. It was Christmas '08, I think, and I saw either 2005 or 2006 Clos de Betz in the bin…maybe a case worth. It sold rather quickly IIRC. The location was West Plano in Texas. Hope this helps.
Why would this be listed as a pre-arrival? I would have thought dumping inventory would be an in-stock item.
Bob, good to see you on the board.
It’s the distributor that is dumping - CWC wants to know how many they should buy from the distributor with pre-orders. Taking a tip from Zachys and Garagiste.
Thanks, Bill, for the info on the West Plano Costco. We’ll check with our Texas distributor and see what happened. Sounds like a local decision…
And Todd, we shipped the 2007 Syrahs and Besoleil to our Chicago distributor on October 28 of last year. It must be the retailer who is floating the offer and then buying from the distributor whatever they pre-sell at retail. There were 14 cases of both wines shipped to the distributor so there probably isn’t a lot remaining based on our conversations with them about restaurant placements. The “pre-arrival” offer pretty much confirms my thinking that the distributor just wants to clear this out of the warehouse and approached the retailer with some attractive pricing.
Bob
Bob, any time. I am just here to help.