BevMo 5¢ Where are all these labels coming from?

WINE TALK
21

I would argue those are one in the same in many instances. The trend of over hopped beers also seems to come in conjunction with elevated alcohol levels and a concentration of one facet of beer in lieu of balance. But that is a discussion for elsewhere.

I would point you to our Beers and Spirits forum where we have one of the longest threads on the entire site devoted to beer. We have some people even mainly posting on beer rather than wine.

22

[highfive.gif]

23

Chris you wrote:

" Jonathan Sasser wrote:The private label wines are basically any wine with a talker, including the “Winery Direct”.



Very informative post, Jonathan, thanks. The one sentence above I didn’t quite understand, though – could you explain for me? Thanks."

I’m not Jonathan, but I can explain.

“Any wine with a talker” - that means a shelf talker, a small stub placed above or below the wine on the shelf telling you about it and maybe quoting a review.

“Winery Direct” - The retailer is saying that they bought direct from the producer, bypassing a wholesaler (and/or maybe a broker), thus getting a better price that they are passing on to you. I don’t know if there are legal qualifications for making these claims. In the case of a CA retailer selling CA wine, every chance that they indeed bought straight from the winery, but they may well take a higher markup than they do for wines they buy through the 3 tier system. In the case of retailers outside of California, they are legally obliged to go through a wholesaler. They may well have an arrangement with a small wholesaler who passes on the wine at a price negotiated directly with the winery, with the wholesaler keeping a derisory sum in return for other business. In this case ‘winery direct’ is a questionable claim as in almost every state it would be illegal.

Dan Kravitz

Dan Kravitz

24

BevMo uses “Vineyard Partner” to denote this and supposedly these are wines which they have some input into how they are made. Often these are real wineries e.g. Cline but even so ones that have been bought by the huge conglomerates.

This is a great thread and I think something happening in the wine business that everybody should be aware of, even if members of this community are more immune to this. Don’t forget Sierra Carche looked like something out of the mountains of Spain, but was actually a brand that dreampt up by a British marketing company. Nowadays lifestyle marketeers are cranking these phony brands straight out of Pottery Barn catalog pages and using them to try and drain The Wine Lake onto unsuspecting neophyte consumers looking for a wine experience “free of the traditional snobbery”.

I mainly hate this crap because it gets me into arguments with my wife when she decides in the middle of the grocery store that she wants to try a cheap wine on a whim… because she likes the label or something.

FWIW our BevMo does have a few real wines from real wineries, but you can also drive down the street to a small family owned place which will have on the shelf Carlisle, Wind Gap, McPrice Meyers, Denner, etc. and a much nicer place to shop.

25

Chris - Dan explained it exactly as I meant it.

I think Total is a good company overall, treat their employees well, but unfortunately do not offer a lot of value in terms of advice due to their business model. They do have some screaming deals on a few wines, mainly in Sauternes, Rhone, and Bordeaux, but most of their stuff frankly isn’t that inspiring. Also, at least in the stores in Virginia, the storage conditions for the wines outside of the temperature controlled unit is spotty and can lead to wines that are either cooked or more elderly than they should be for their age.

26

Bingo! There were a lot of popup labels in the last three years buying excess inventory and marketing it at a discount. There was an awareness of the vanishing surplus starting in July/August of last year, and that has only intensified. Many companies are scrambling to get enough inventory to maintain markets, and anything wine-like can be and is being sold, potentially resulting in increased spoofity of the popups. The grape markets are also pretty nuts, and the spot market will be pretty close to gone this year. Also, with all the planting in the central valley, nursery companies have zero stock for sale. Strange times.

27

THIS.

I was in another “hipster” grocery store last night - one I hadn’t been to in a while - and the marketeers had just decimated the wine department.

Who or what is the money behind [u]Turning Leaf[/u]?

Who or what is the money behind [u]The Naked Grape[/u]?

Who or what is the money behind [u]Cupcake[/u]?

Cupcake at least seems to have a winemaker, but then they go on to say that

…Adam has used his global wine making experience and relationships around the world to add seven international wines to the Cupcake lineup, including such renowned regions as Marlborough New Zealand; Mendoza Argentina; Italy’s Prosecco, Trentino and Asti regions; Barossa Valley, Australia; and Germany’s Mosel…

???

Who has the kind of money to put together an empire like that and still have anything left over to pay the “shelf space ransom” to get such prominent display in all the grocery stores?

And have the existing logistical resources at hand necessary to throw the whole thing together seemingly overnight?



[I checked a few sites like Manta and CorporationWiki but I couldn’t find much of anything.]

28

So you think the bubble is about to burst on the marketeer wines?

If so, then how do you “short” a company that you can’t even find any information about?

29

Cupcake is The Wine Group which is in the top 4 biggest wine companies with Gallo, Constellation, and Bronco. I have a separate rant on them as their label claims they are a Livermore winery (they are not). TWG set up the Cupcake corporate offices here after buying Concannon.

Turning Leaf is Gallo, who was sued by K-J over this brand for trying to imitate their label.

Naked Grape is also Gallo, although a lot of “real wineries” are part of Gallo/Constellation/etc. Not all start as marketing projects. I have no idea from where Naked Grape originates though.

Worth noting though, the majority of that grocery store shelf is probably 3-4 wine companies.

30

[shock.gif] Be very scared [help.gif]

31

Gallo brands

Alamos -distributor [26]

Anapamu Apothic Red Ballatore Barefoot Wine Bartles & Jaymes Bella Sera Black Swan Bridlewood Cask & Cream Clarendon Hills Dancing Bull DaVinci Don Miguel Gascon E & J Brandy (known in colloquial terms as “Easy Jesus”) Ecco Domani Frei Brothers Frutézia

Ghost Pines Hornsby’s Indigo Hills Liberty Creek Livingston Cellars MacMurray Ranch Louis M. Martini Marcelina Martĩn Cõdax Maso Canali Mattie’s Perch McWilliam’s Mirassou Vineyards New Amsterdam Gin

Night Train Peter Vella Pölka Dot Rancho Zabaco Red Bicyclette Redwood Creek Red Rock Winery Sebeka Thunderbird Tisdale Vineyards Turning Leaf Twin Valley Whitehaven William Hill Estate Wild Vines Winking Owl Wycliff

Sparkling [9]

32

Our Costco in San Diego regularly has Kim Crawford on sale for $10.99. Not a bad deal.

33

Although a few years old now, this interview with the founder of Clos Du Bois is a good read for a take on wine marketing. http://www.archive.org/stream/foundingclosdu00woodrich#page/51/mode/2up
In it he discus’s trying to get the most varietals and wines in his lineup to increase the shelf facing’s and literally trying to produce wine with any grape he could ( except zinfandel). Previously in the interview he talks about coming out of the Proctor and Gamble marketing machine where they had a soap that foams, a soap that turns pink, a soap that smells like roses, etc. in order to create more shelf items. I found it interesting at least.

34

Well that would certainly solve the “existing logistical resources at hand necessary to throw the whole thing together seemingly overnight” problem.

Silly me - I had been sitting here trying to imagine how a truly independent firm would put together the rolodex necessary just to get a little face time with the regional purchasing managers at the grocery stores - much less get some ink on any actual contracts.

35

A good guideline to the big boy wineries is to check its origin

If it is cellared or bottled by is from:
Modesto = Gallo
Manteca or Lathrop = Wine Group
Ceres = Uncle Fred Franzia(2 buck chuck)

Someone told me when I first started enjoying wine to never buy a bottle with an animal on its label.

36

I haven’t bought a bottle of wine at Bevmo in 7+ years - I am guessing - but do go there twice a year to get a bottle of the 7 Leguas Añejo tequila, which they seem to carry.

Since I am nowhere near K&L and WineClub in the Bay Area anymore (still order a few times a year from K&L though!) , I go to Total Wine in Roseville to stock up on stuff they have - mostly Rhones and Spanish wines, (ie Las Rocas for $6.99) using some of their coupons and toss in a 10 year port or two (i.e. Taylor’s 10 for $23). They also have great deals on liquor and beer and will randomly have 20 bottles of Rittenhouse Rye for $19 sitting there when I couldn’t find it anywhere else. [wow.gif]

The Winery Direct stuff and the other stuff the emps point newbs at are mostly swill but I appreciate the fact that if you go in there knowing exactly what you are looking for, you might find some great deals…and will often see some Novy Sonoma/Napa syrah’s for $19 in there as well. It is always 70 degrees in there so don’t expect some obscure wine that has been sitting there for a year to not be effected. They have a lot of $50 pinots in there I can tell haven’t moved.

37

I would have thought good advice, until I got an e-mail from my sister-in-law in Michigan telling me she found a Livermore wine at Meijer’s (which, for the uninitiated, is a mega-store akin to Walmart or Target).
The wine? Cupcake [suicide.gif]

38

So, no Screaming Eagle for you?

39

FYI Jon Las Rocas is now a Gallo product. Bevmo does have a few decent wines (Qupe CC Syrah a few sales back) but the vast majority are eh.

40

Huh.

Well that would explain why it’s now front and center in all the grocery store aisles.