So I’ve been on the Marcassin mailing list for many years both personally as well as receiving an allocation at my restaurant. I didn’t receive an offer this year and sent them numerous emails inquiring. I finally received the below response back. I explained that I still had my personal allocations as well as still having many bottles on the restaurant list and that the bottles I listed on Berserkers in the past have been from private cellars and/or from auction purchases. I even offered to provide proof of life by providing photos of my current inventory but they just ignored me. Sad really as I know of at least four people who didn’t receive their offers this year and none of which have ever sold a bottle. Looks like I’ll have to just enjoy the rest of what I have.
“You have been quite clear about selling your Marcassin allocation. We prefer our mailing list to be for people interested in drinking our wines. There is indeed plenty of other wine for you to mark up. I do not believe Jailbreak Brewery is a sanctioned restaurant for our wholesalers.”
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That’s wild. I wish I had the time to track those on my list who sell the wine elsewhere lol. “You clearly dumped wine at Winebid and the opening prices were NOT flattering. Consider yourself dropped.” 
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It’s pretty impressive if they are able to do this - and they must have a waiting list that they are confident will purchase.
If a winery explicitly states that they do not wish you to sell off purchased bottles then I can understand this - otherwise, it seems pretty crazy
Cheers
I am not surprised that a winery doesn’t want their wine resold. There are other wineries who have brought this up when visiting for highly allocated wines. I imagine a lot of wineries aren’t selling through everything right now though.
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Yep, that is probably the case - not sure how many wineries can ‘afford’ to take this stance and still sell through - my guess is not many. I do feel for the winery - they do want their wines enjoyed by those who purchase them directly . . . that is the point of a wine club / mailing list no?
Cheers
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I don’t agree with their rationale, but I guess it has some thought behind it.
This is curious though:
The main point of having a mailing list is profit and promotion. It is more profitable to sell through DTC than pay the distribution vig.
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It’s actually quite easy to do when the poster is the biggest seller on commerce corner here and literally sells hundreds and hundreds of unobtainable highly allocated bottles every year. I’m not saying they should do it, but it’s their wine and they can do whatever they want with it. They can sell it to whoever they want to or don’t want to. And if he’s still sitting on many of the bottles, he’s purchased over the years that means he’s not really drinking many of them and they have a good reason to suspect that he will eventually sell them. Again, it’s their wine and lots of people want it. They can do whatever they want with it.
Justin is clearly in the business. He’s got a brewery and a restaurant. He just opened the wine storage facility. And he seems to have a very lucrative side gig selling hard to obtain Wines on the secondary market. Of course, he may also be a wine lover himself, but for them, they have decided they view him as someone in the business and not a consumer and end user alone. I don’t think it’s right or wrong. I think it just is.
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When I first got on the Marcassin list over 15 years ago I actually sold almost all my bottles. At the time the Pinots were selling on the secondary market 4x-5x the cost with Chards about 2x-3x. Paid for a lot of tuition over several years. Eventually dropped off as the return was not as good and didn’t feel like holding the wines for a year or two.
By the way, Jailbreak is a pretty good brewery. They had a tap labelled Bud Light and I asked if that was for people that didn’t like beer. They said, “no, it’s water.”
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Does this mean you won’t be offering a connection to Marcassin as part of your storage concierge service? 
Thanks for the love Bob:). I dropped basically all my domestic mailing lists years ago and have only held on to Marcassin, Screagle, Fingers Crossed and MacDonald (though I shouldve kept Maybach) as those scratch my limited domestic itch. I guess I can now cross of Marcassin.
Justin, you won’t really miss the Marcassin. I didn’t. Try to get on the Aubert list. You won’t regret it.
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This is the winery frowning on a customer who is reselling their wine above the direct cost. The winery is saying they would rather sell the wine to someone who’s going to drink it v resell. There’s only a small handful of wineries who are able to do this in CA.
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See KB. Bought the appellian wines at $32 and they “salyed” the next year. Then $42(?) Then $52. I’m out. Just a low budget baller.
Now Sandler and Navarro are in my wheelhouse 
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I was on the Aubert list for many years and fortunately have plenty in the cellar. They’re a pleasure to drink and very hospitable when hosting their members.
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Aubert is not a hard list to get on. I signed up for it this year and was offered 3 different bottles and passed on them all since I can get them all second hand cheaper.
When you sell something, how do you think you have control of what the buyer does next? I honestly don’t understand this.
What’s next, reading posts of wine dinners and objecting to the wines one pours next to this wine? Complaining about food/wine pairings, so no more wine for you?
What a horrible way to live. Feel that way, sure, but acting on it instead of maybe therapy? Why do you want this control? Bizarre.
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That was my experience about 6 years ago, maybe 12 months to get on the list. I dropped it due to the big price hikes about 2022. I can get it in DC but at about 40% mark up over the mailing list. I still have about 2 cases left.
As a related note to your post, in 2000 a bill was introduced into the Maryland legislature to repeal the felony shipping law and legalize shipping. So, as the lone consumer, I testified for the bill. Later I posted on Robin Garr’s board about the politics of the situation being related to campaign donations (bribes) and how if the Republicans controlled the legislature instead of Dems they would oppose the bill instead of Dems.
Well, the head of the agency that regulated alcohol back then was in the habit of perusing wine boards looking for illegal shippers and whatever else. He saw my post and started to inform committee members to discredit my lone testimony. Somehow my state senator made him stop after the guy had contacted 3-4 people
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I posted this in the Screagle thread, I was thrown off the mailing list in the mid 2000’s when they found out I was flipping two of my three bottles