Yes, I confirmed with the winery that the price is now $850 per bottle, up from $235 per bottle! I really enjoyed the 2019s when I got them direct two years and have been eagerly waiting for the 2021 release, especially since the 2020s were lost. The number of Cabs that can sustain an $850 price point I think can be counted on one hand, and they all have decades-long tenures. Just makes me sad and angry at the same time.
9 Likes
Wow! Still have a couple bottles from 2005.
A prophet and a poet walk into a bar, and the bartender sees them carrying seven stones.
The bartender asks, “What’s with the stones?”
The prophet replies, “I foresee winespies in their future.”
The poet chimes in, "And I’m here to judge them for Justin Timberlake’s new label”
The bartender laughs and says, "Great! And if you are throwing stones, aim for the Chardonnay section, it’s gotten a little bit pretentious over there”.
ChatGPT
8 Likes
Me too…$175 on release…great wine…I think I remember @Roy_Piper saying it has an actual abv of 17+%! Dropped off at inaugural vintage…$850 is crazy talk!
1 Like
wow, like their wines but this is insane
17%, wow. It must have changed since then since the 2019s (and 2016s) I enjoyed are not bruisers at all. Closest comparison would be like a cross between Opus One and Spottswoode. Really enticing combination of elegance and power. But at this point I don’t care if Jesus is making the wine. I can’t even recall wineries gouging this much after an RP100 back in his heyday.
4 Likes
Crazy man, crazy on so many levels.
2 Likes
I assume this has a lot to do with the recent sale of the winery? Quick google search tells me it sold for $34 million in '22 to a mysterious international buyer. They must be really trying to recoup that money asap.
Insanity on every level and this is even more egregious than Prophet & Poet.
Total slap in the face to long-term buyers and supporters.
1 Like
2 Likes
Ahh, now it makes more sense. Some vanity billionaire half a world away is pounding his desk, demanding an $850 price point to make back his $34m, thinking “well Harlan can do it, why not me”?
5 Likes
Could there a tax angle here? For example, if the billionaire owner himself purchases the wine at $850 for personal consumption and then gifts it as a write-off? The billionaire effectively gets $425 per bottle in a tax offset on the gift. And maybe there is tax strategy that warrants increasing the profitability of the winery (e.g., even at $850 the winery is breakeven because of stepped-up depreciation from the purchase?). So the billionaire parks cash in a secure estate purchase, doesn’t pay taxes on the winery’s go forward operations (as its breakeven, even at $850/bottle) and lowers his personal tax liability by $425/bottle.
3 Likes
11 Likes
LMAO- more expensive then nearly every other wine outside Harlan & Screaming Eagle. I doubt the wine is even on the radar of the $500 a $750/bottle category .
2 Likes
Didnt think of this and its the only thing that makes sense. Theres no way the winery is selling more than a few cases at this price if any at all
Do you have any idea what it takes to commission outdoor sculptures these days! Chip in, it’s for the arts.
3 Likes
Wow. I hadn’t heard 2021 was such a great vintage.
Wow, I haven’t even heard of this wine before!
7 Likes
What’s really interesting to all of this is that the new owner effectively had almost nothing to do with the outcome of the quality of the wine! So what they bought was basically finished wine for 2021.
1 Like
Really looking forward to the slashdown price on WTSO in 5 years.
3 Likes