I believe the Montrachet is still <200 EUR from the Domaine.
That’s surprising. It’s been a year since I had it, but I thought it was amazing. And two bottles of the '13 Bâtard were superb last month…
The large price increase here is most definitely on the Terlato side.
Quite an interesting report–thank you! It reminded me that I had some bottles of the 2002 CM Boudriottes downstairs, and I ended up taking four of them to a gathering last night of 15 of my law school classmates. One bottle was lightly touched by oxidation, but the others were lovely: fresh, with nice minerality and dignified fruit notes.
The Montrachet 2015 is 155 euros ex-Domaine.
Khiem
jaw dropping.
Sounds good Jeremy. I am fortunate to be allocated 3 bots per annum and have always loved the wines. Would take a dozen Monty at 155 euros.
Alan,
Two years ago, the Bâtard cost all of 60 euros. It has now doubled to 105 euros.
Khiem
Next year it will double again to 120 euros.
Pulled this little beaut out of the cellar on the weekend.
2010 Domaine Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Ruchottes: This wine has shutdown somewhat and is a powerful and rich white, loaded with sappy orchard fruits. It looks a bit Batard-like and has so much sap and density. Balance is excellent and the finish is strewn with geological matter.
We had the '13 Ramonet Monty, and it was outstanding (if very young).
Not surprised on the PYCM though…
Add in standard 3-tier markups and that gets it about to what the 2014 cost stateside.
As you note in another post, the Batard has nearly doubled in 2 years ex-domaine, which is a mirror image of the change in the retail prices I am seeing.
standard tier markups are 20-30%. Not 200%. Sounds like the tiers and not the domaine are the cause of the excessive price jumps.
With respect, they are not 20%-30% across the board. And I did not bite, but for reference the 2013 Montrachet offer I received was $850 per, and $950 for the 2014.
It was BBM and BM where the real jumps came recently, as I claimed, and as Kheim’s own ex-cellar data points supported.
I guess your pricing is better than California. The Montrachet was about $2000 in 2014, a 10 fold increase in the reported cellar price. The other grand crus were close to $500. Interestingly, the premier crus didn’t jump much.
If you take the price of 155 euros, add in 30% markup at each tier in the system, the US price at retail should be $400, not $1000. Some extra profits are being extracted from the supply chain.
Wow! Okay- I can see where you and I are disconnecting then. CA makes it a bit tricky for pointing the finger since there are so many DI operations out there.
As to what others are posting, standard retail markup on wine is 40-50% in my part of the woods (except for champagne which is on much lower margins at the upper end)- and that is based on years of personal experience with a lot of retailers. The other two tiers vary, and I do not have specific insight there in terms of actual percentages, but as someone who manufactures product that goes through two tiers to reach retail, I can attest to the fact it does not take a big shift in the %s for the dollar amounts to change a lot.
Let me put it to bed like this- I have been buying Ramonet since I was in college starting with the 1994 vintage, at release from merchants who were not taking higher than standard retail markup. In 1994, Montrachet was $250, there was no Chevy obviously (99 was first one I had access to and it was $150 at the time), and Batard/BBM were about $120 each- all before any case or repeat customer discounts.
Since then, there has been a fairly steady progression, with Montrachet and Chevalier taking slightly more steep increases until 2014, when Batard and Bienvenue had their massive jump. And now things are much as they were 20 years ago relatively speaking (meaning Montrachet approximately double BM and BBM.)
You can argue all day about the percentages, but Kheim’s own ex-cellar pricing, plus my 20 years purchasing experience from the same retailers bears out my original assertion AFAIC. There may well be a higher percentage taken on Montrachet and other top wines, but the ex-domaine price changes are the drivers of the 2013-2014 jump in BM and BBM prices. Given how well they sold, there would be no reason for the distribution chain to adjust whatever markups it is taking.
don’t want to get in a pissing contest but if domaine cellar price now for Montrachet is only 155€, it’s not the domaine responsible for the egregious price increases. It’s capitalism in action by importer, distributor, and retailer.
No need for a pissing contest- I think we are making two separate points.
The big change I referred to was the 2013 to 2014 shift in BM and BBM pricing. From my own research and a data point posted here, that change comes ex-domaine.
My assumption then assumes that the relative % taken at the various points in the distribution system is unchanged. Whether that percentage is considered fair or unfair by others, or is higher than would be the case for your average wine (which I think quite plausible) is a different discussion. That is all I am saying.
155€ x 1.4 x 1.4 x 1.4 = 425.32€
Multiply that by 1.2 to get dollars and the price is only $510. So somebody is taking way more if your price was $950.
Another way to look at it: Your (low) offer of $950 is 792€ which is 510% over the cellar price of 155€. So price jumped 510% over cellar price, way more than typical.
There’s Ramonet gouging going on.