A fairly well written piece about a new label and why they are charging what they are - at least for their most expensive wine. I wish he had asked about pricing on their $90 chardonnays as well.
“The worst thing you can do is set the price so low you cause the perception that we’re not as good as these other wines,” Parable General Manager Brian Kelleher told me. “But you don’t want to set it so high that you’re saying you’re much better than those other wines.”
Discuss all . . .
How much is shipping for the $275 wine 
Well, 15.7% alc. on a bottle of Cabernet (or any dry red) is a turn-off right there.
The part that gets me is Beckstoffer requires him to charge at least $225 in order to use the vineyard name. My perception is that is a dick-ish move. Pretentious and pompous. I get that the wine price has to be that much and more in order to make any profit.
Exactly encapsulates everything that has gone wrong in new Napa startups. Sounds like the San Francisco real estate market. Multi millionaire X now wants to spend money on fun new hobby. Has little to do with the passion of making wine (there are lots of other places that would love to have investment in a vineyard project) but it has to be in NAPA dammit! Because that’s the most glamorous place to be…
Thanks for sharing Larry. And kudos to the author for such a hilarious and brilliant take on Napa wine pricing from a self-described non-wine writer. I’m sure this experience left him entirely perplexed about the Napa wine industry.
Great article. It has got to be hard to price your firdt vintage, especially when the inputs are so expensive and the risk is so high.
Because Beckstoffer and it’s riduculous that he forces these wineries to charge at least $225 to use the vineyard name.
Newsflash, there are so many other great vineyards that are not owned/farmed by Beckstoffer.
IMO, a Beckstoffer Vineyard doesn’t carry the same weight as it used to.
That got me as well… because I assume he wasn’t supposed to disclose that to anyone… let alone a news reporter…
Beckstoffer pricing has been overt for a while now. It’s not a secret that retail pricing is predicated on use of the name and so is the cost of the grapes
What I wonder is how this is dealt with on flash sites where the price is lowered below the contractual threshold
What are his vineyard sources for his $90 Chardonnay’s? That’s already near the top of the line of the most expensive California Chardonnay’s available (Aubert, Kongsggard, Morlet, Maxem, Wayfarer).
Well . . . he implies his costs are about $135-140 per bottle for that $275 wine. That truly and honestly seems outrageous - but he has a consulting winemaker who takes a big cut; he probably makes wines at the facility the consulting winemaker requires, and that costs $$$; he probably is using a huge amount of new oak, and that costs $$$ ; he may have other consultants as well; he has to use a big ass bottle because - expectations.
No one says he has to use Beckstoffer fruit; no one says he has to have the cost structure he has. He’s painted himself into a corner IMHO
Cheers
Yep, it’s been known for some time that Beckstoffer requires a multiple based on per ton price to price wines that contains the Beckstoffer name on it. This started about 20 years ago and the Beckstoffers have simply become more aggressive about this over time.
Wineries desire this fruit because either a) it’s the best they can get b) it’s the best they think they can get without searching around or c) FOMO . . . or a combo of those things.
Cheers
Buy 3 get a French Laundry dinner coupon free?
My favorite part is it’s obvious he went for the free food
Another wine for the first bottle/last bottle etc discount wine sites
Bet those guys love these new outrageous fruit bombs poppin up like weeds
For sure and this is the first time anyone has ever heard of them and there’s no website available and no other details about this winery.
Didn’t care in the least about the wine, nor the plutocrat trying to price his vanity project or the fact he couldn’t find a way to make alcohol levels palatable. At that level, Beckstoffer vineyards probably haven’t much terroir signature left, so I can’t see the point of paying those kind of prices.
But….I loved the writing. I started off smiling and ended up laughing…a lot.
This is connected to why I no longer buy any Napa Cabernet Sauvignon or Chardonnay.
It’s because they don’t have enough wealth to buy a baseball team.
