People are entitled to be personally annoyed at the things that peeve them. But I don’t personally understand this one. This is a way of letting people know what wines are available if they choose to spend more with him. There are a number of retailers that do this. I honestly don’t see the issue. And for the record, I say this as someone that doesn’t get lots of things I’d like from Robert (and some I do).
That’s how it goes.
I’ve found Rob to be super easy to deal with. I don’t really have any desire to play the allocation game with a bunch of retailers so I’m not really on any mailing lists, including Rob’s. But I buy the same stuff from him every year and he always just emails me when he’s gonna get it and makes it simple. I suppose what I buy from him might not be so highly allocated, but he’s gone out of his way to find what I’m looking for.
I thought Rob’s email was pretty good. And @Matthew_King , I don’t think your response was bad or worth beating yourself up over. It didn’t strike me as nasty. Your original question in the thread was what to do to deal with the situation. It may be that you really only want a bottle of Boloree and a bottle of Mugneret Gibourg, and aren’t going to buy anything else this year. But if you are gonna buy something else - even if its just a little bit - I would just suggest telling Rob what you are interested in and what you are planning to buy this year and that you’d be willing to make all those purchases from him if you can get consideration one of the bottles you were hoping to get. It’s worth a shot.
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what an interesting take; you’re advocating lying or, minimally, obfuscation vs the actual truth.
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Back in my day, when I had a retail shop, this is how I would allocate the few bottle of Pappy Van Winkle that I would get. I believe that this would apply to any allocated product that anybody sells. Wholesalers will usually tell a retailer that the more of a given product or family of products that you buy(sell) the more of a chance you will get the opportunity to buy the allocated product. So, for me, in the Pappy example, It was tied to the purchace of Ridgmont 1792 Bourbon. I would buy barrels of the stuff. Had my own private label. So I recieved a fairly large allocation of the Pappy family when it was released in November. Because of this tie in, I communicated to all of my customers requesting Pappy, they needed to buy 1792 in sufficient quantity to land high on a list of 1792 purchasers. While this may not seem fair to all, this was what I had to do to even get some Pappy.
The point is the communication. If you tell your customer what you have to do get the allocated item and what they have to do to get a shot at this item, then I feel your being honest and above board. There still is no guarantee that you will get it, but you now know the expectations surrounding it. Just my $.02, YMMV.
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This seems pretty reasonable given the uncertainties of actual allocation from producer and distributor.
depends, if the retailer sends the offer to those with more purchases first, then to the person who is told it is sold out, OR if the retailer sends to everyone but fills the orders in order of total yearly purchases, then its not really a lie at all. even technically being told ahead of time, if you know that the bottles ARE going to be sold putting that person at the lower end of the pecking order, its still probably not a complete lie.
personally, I would still prefer to be told “I am really sorry, I know you’ve bought this wine several years running, but its gotten increasingly popular over those years. As such, I have a limited amount to sell and I have to take care of the people who purchase more from me first. unfortunately, this means that I am not sure I will have any bottles left to sell you once they have a go at it. I will do my best to get you some if possible.” rather than “look you know youre a little fish. it is what it is”
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If he wanted to keep it more succinct he could have just said, sorry the available bottles have been allocated or something.
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Coming back to “how to wrestle” with it: Once you can appreciate that there is nothing intrinsically about YOU that makes you extra special deserving of all of the best allocations, it’s looking back, smiling and counting yourself lucky that you were able to get those allocations for the time that you did. That works for me at least 
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That’s malarkey. If Adam had done this a couple years running then sure, re-allocate that much elsewhere. Assuming the worst, especially when he didn’t flip it, is the kind of self important producer activity that always rubs the wrong way.
Especially when everyone knows that there are some sizeable percentage of buyers on any allocated list just camping and flipping every single year. Singling out one person they just happened to see who decided to share the wealth one time crosses a boundary to me. They probably have dozens of other people taking their shipments directly to a retailer, selling to friends or packaging them up for an auction house.
Instead of summarily dropping him, perhaps they could have inquired if he no longer needed his allocation at the size it was?
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I appreciate the candor on both sides. As someone who has seen allocations dropped from other retailers even after yearly support, the honesty is refreshing. While I’d love to get cases of my favorite wines, I’m happy for the occasional bottles, knowing that I’m not a major player.
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This isn’t a CA winery list. If they are sitting there on a retailer allocation, they are presumably doing a lot of business for the retailer to get them. Why should the retailer then care what is done with the bottles?
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He’s talking about Adam F being dropped from a list.
In the retailer’s quote of his message to the buyer in this case, he didn’t say what was needed to obtain an allocation, he cited and faulted the client’s previous buying. It wasn’t a communication to all customers what was required, as is your 1792 anecdote, it was a shot at one individual. That’s quite a bit different in my book.
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Your argument is that because the retailer/merchant can’t control all resales, it’s wrong to control any. I don’t understand this argument; it’s the same as suggesting it’s unfair to prosecute some people for corruption because you didn’t catch every corrupt person. That’s not the point.
Lots of high end producers don’t want their allocations resold. It’s up to them.
As for the proposed remedy, why should the retailer/producer reach out to Adam to ask if he doesn’t need an allocation he obviously doesn’t need (since he’s selling it)?
Say what you will about US vs European wines, but it’s times like this I’m happy my preferred wines are from my home country & not imported. As maddening as it might be to wait for years on a “waiting list” once you’re offered an allocation it’s yours as long as you keep buying.
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This. I’d drink unallocated, domestic wines all day than lick someone’s boots and shell out 10k in wines I won’t drink just to get some highly coveted(and hyped) bottles. The only exception to this was German Riesling, but seems like that time of good, affordable riesling is also coming to an end. At least allocated bourbons will keep well past my lifetime and get passed down to the next generation - most wines won’t.
If you do it like this
you’re doing it wrong.
I wish I had the means. 10k is a drop in the bucket for some. Not for me, unfortunately.
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If you’re buying tons of wine you don’t want just to get a few allocated bottles you’re interested in, then you need to consider whether or not it’d just be easier and cheaper to pay the premium for the allocated wines at auction or through some other resellers.
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I suppose that if all you want is highly-allocated bottles then you might feel like you are spending a bunch of money on crap to get what you want. But if you want to buy a range of wines from different producers at various price points, and you don’t feel the need to get the lowest price on every single wine, it’s pretty easy to buy from a retailer that sells you a bunch of great stuff and gets you a few allocated bottles. And it’s the other stuff that you buy that eventually ends up being allocated when every one else catches on to how good it is.
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