Curious about thoughts here. Keen to see them succeed. Also, feel a bit burned by the rapid increase of price on wines that were very accessible not long ago. Would love to see more Haynes from Tulocay, Enfield, perhaps Failla. Stony Hill will always be iconic for me, and frankly did not need to change at all. History like Heitz worth preserving. Martha’s perhaps Napa’s most identifiable wine.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/lawrence-wine-estates-winery-20275913.php
2 Likes
Isn’t this the real cause of the fine wine industry’s problems? Wealthy investors buying up properties, then having to charge a lot more for the wines and hospitality. Everything else in the valley follows that upward spiral. It’s a house of cards that is unsustainable.
8 Likes
A very interesting article indeed. One of the facts that blows me away is that in one of their properties, they’re losing money on $125 seated tasting. That makes no sense whatsoever.
I truly wish them success, just like I wish everyone success who tries to get into the industry, but they certainly need to understand all of the facts and variables.
Their challenges cannot simply be explained by a Drappi economy. It is much deeper than that for them.
Curious to hear more from those who have visited their estates and for those who purchased regularly regarding pricing, etc. I’m sure that the customer service they offer is impeccable, but does that justify everything else?
1 Like
My hypothesis is that they probably have a positive gross margin on the $125 tasting, but are “losing money” when they calculate the required return on their investment in the winery.
2 Likes
Went to visit Stony Hill as it was always an old favorite. Vibe is very corporate environment pushing sales pretty hard. Felt like they were reciting a sales script. When I heard they pulled out most of the white wine and replaced it with Cab it was sad to hear. Wines were fine and enjoyable but not worth the price increase in my opinion.
Just commented in the other thread where this got posted. Some juicy quotes in the article.
I will just say this, there is quite clearly many tone deaf in Napa who don’t understand that their problem is their pricing model to begin with. If you have a $250 bottle of cab, you better stand out against your competition. That competition no longer just includes Napa cabernet at that price point.
The egregious tasting fees also are counteractive to selling bottles. If the goal is to sell wine, you want people who can afford to visit, taste AND buy bottles of your wine. They can do all of this without the crazy costing model.
5 Likes
Will add, and perhaps this is ignorant - I miss the old labels from both Stony Hill and Heitz.
5 Likes
“They’re releasing $250 bottles of Chardonnay into a market where we’ve run out of suckers to buy $250 bottles of wine."
Do I now also need a $250 chard like I need a hole in the head?
5 Likes
Thx Victor
1 Like
A friend was a long-time (30+ years) member of the Stony Hill mailing list. After receiving a few missives from the new owners and perusing the revised pricing for Chardonnay, she opted out. Too rich and too fancy for her.
1 Like
Anyway to read the article as it looks to be behind a paywall?
1 Like
IDK if this is allowed here, but at least one of the options on this website works for about 80% of websites.
1 Like
Try this - gift article link:
Lawrence Wine Estates’ promising Napa winery empire is consolidating
1 Like
Thx I was able to access the article
they had a ton of capital expenditures to get the space operating. Then including labor costs. So while they might not be losing money on the wine itself, the whole experience is probably far away from the break even.
1 Like
If only they’d gone with 300 dollar seated tastings.
1 Like
Very interesting. If nothing else, the label change at Heitz was unforgivable.
Costing Model irony…I think many would be shocked at the low salary for those pouring the wines, telling the story of the winery, vineyards, winemaking and selling those $150-$300 bottles. Commission helps but still very low pay considering the luxury items the employee’s are selling.
2 Likes
Insurance (if they can find it) for the winery is probably INSANE which doesn’t help the consumer in the end.
1 Like
One other tidbit of information that should not be dismissed - when they purchased the Haynes Vyd, That they stopped selling fruit to someone we have been pushing some grapes for decades.
A friend of mine with good knowledge said that one Winery offered nearly $15,000 a ton for Chardonnay grapes last harvest and was told no.