Had a bottle of Syrah this weekend from a Paso winery that sourced the fruit from the same Carneros vineyard as lot 49. It got me thinking I haven’t purchased any cab franc so I grabbed some since that lot isn’t sold out yet and there was still free shipping.
Never said it was a bad thing.
Just pointing out the marketing (and good salesmanship) Cam has.
It’s just sleight of hand games and makes me chuckle when clueless buyers falls for it.
Pretty good at what he does isn’t he!
Marketing and sharing good wines at great prices.
What’s not to love? ? ?
Clueless? Nope, eyes wide open.
4 Likes
I grabbed a case of 38 (Chardonnay) and 50 over the weekend. I’ve never had Opus One, but Lot 50 sounded interesting and at $12/bottle and free shipping, why not?
I’ll probably take some with me to Scottsdale when visiting my daughter and her family.
4 Likes
No hard feelings here.
but if Cam is playing sleight of hand sales games one needs to know he’s doing the same in his descriptions.
Not everyone here has eyes wide open on that
2 Likes
guys, it’s been over 5 years, we know Cam uses standard marketing tactics to give a sense of scarcity + premium sourcing. You aren’t some savvy guru for pointing this out and saving those you think are naive suckers. In fact, just about every wine business does this, not just Cam. “Limited production will sell out!” “get your allocation now!” “legendary winemaker / vineyard!”…years later the wine ends up on discount sites and so on.
5 Likes
So lot 43 is overflow wine from Cam’s own vineyard? I may be misreading the copy, but that is very interesting. I suspect it’s good wine but there’s not much to go on and I haven’t touched lot 6 yet. This is where the $19 shipping actually moves the needle. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but it’s sad how big a driver “free shipping” is. There is no such thing so it’s either a separate line or it’s rolled in. It shouldn’t matter. With that said they don’t have a line for bottling costs, or marketing so there’s some logic to the all in pricing.
1 Like
So then anyone suckers keep posting like they are clueless?
2023 Napa Valley is vintage of the century! BUY BUY BUY!!!
1 Like
Yes, Cam is a salesperson/marketer. His track record on all his wines has been decent. In the Rose category, I think he’s done better than his norm. Lot 6 was compelling for me. Much more complex that I was expecting for a Rose with a good dose of minerality/saline and more tannins than I would have expected form a Rose, in a good way. Agree with Jonah…the $19 starts to play in my mind. A $129 case is now $160+ with shipping & taxes.
Good news though…. looks like if you spend $1000 you get free shipping. Saw this on the shopping cart page while playing around with the numbers.
2 Likes
The problem with that is that I can’t grab a case of anything that comes out…w/FS. Lots will sell out while trying to make $1000 purhases…FOMO!
1 Like
$19 shipping moves the needle and comes into play? $1.58/bottle? On a sub-$20 wine?
What are we doing here? 
4 Likes
It’s $1.583333 per bottle. Are you rich?
Depends on who you are talking about. There’s a small amount of losers trolling, for sure. The rest (and even those losers) are just bored debating stuff on the internet. It’s kind of a fun exercise debating whether our brains prefer the bottle prices hiked vs. getting “free” shipping.
But let’s be clear: None of us have a clue how Cameron has ever made money on any of these ventures, besides selling the previous company for a big number.
How on earth is he sending a case of wine, cross country, for $150 all in, and making a profit on it? I mean, even if the juice was given to him for FREE, it’s hard for me to see how any math makes sense, given how much all the rest costs.
One day the Netflix doc is gonna be awesome.
9 Likes
You’d be surprised the price of some wines and the margins people are willing to make on them. Sell low and sell a lot or sell a few but profit more.
my local wine shop had bottles of AIX Rose for a little over $7 per bottle so we were all drinking that all summer since it couldn’t be beat for the price. Here Cameron has some of his own vineyard rose and you know the production costs start to finish are going to be a lot more in California than they are in Province France area. In a wine shop you can sell a wine just above cost to bring people in since most people will buy more than just the one wine at a fantastic price, cam x doesn’t have the ability to really sell at cost since it’s all online for the most part but having low prices and lower margins does give him the ability to move more product and still make money off it. A win win for both parties since he’s essentially the middle man and not gouging us like some other NDA brands out there.
2 Likes
Pricing is an absolutely fascinating topic!
Yes, $19 isn’t astronomical, but factored into my thinking is distance. I’m located 45 mins away from where they ship. If I could order 5 cases and pick up locally, I’d do it. Going from here to the East Coast…I don’t know how they do it for the total cost
@Cameron_Hughes let us know when you’re planning pick up parties on the yacht!! 
1 Like
It is a fun debate if you will. In the end, it makes no matter and is only a marketing tool to feed on preferences. On other threads, I get the biggest kick from people that refuse to buy with a $50 shipping charge but offer suggestions to just add $5 to the cost of the bottle with free shipping. It just shows how emotional purchase decisions are and that it is a fine line to try and hit the right trigger to get the sale.
It looks like CAM has a hub and spoke model for deliveries. He is sending truckload shipments to a 2nd distribution point and then delivering last mile(s) from there. Probably much cheaper than send everything small parcel from CA.
2 Likes
I guess it’s all about perspective. Living in Florida, I can neither hope Cam allows for pickup, or have access to the Costco stores he distributes too. $19/case is a steal vs the other wineries I buy direct from. At the end of the day, I look at total landed cost per bottle for the value proposition. Based on what I’ve tasted thus far, and extra $1.58/btl doesn’t change the value proposition.
6 Likes
How could anyone argue that a $19 increase on all cases (10-15%) isn’t the most consequential news in months? We did 100 posts on six Costcos selling the wine 49 cents cheaper than the Cam X shipped cost. And this has generated too much discussion?
3 Likes
Come on $200 for 20 with a 19 ship fee !!!
2 Likes
1 Like