Just had a .375 family farm with some pork souvlaki. Delicious.
Hey Kevin,
Since you brought it up 
… How many “allocation tiers” are there? and are we able to know how low/high on that tier totem we are at?
Merci!
I loved the Bearwallow, definitely not going to ignore that one. Certainly a different profile than the SCM wines. I really need to get a friend or two over and open all 4 bottlings.
Mark,
We have don’t have set tiers but rather it varies by the quantity of the wines that are in the offering. Our allocations are based on total purchase history. So if we only have enough Skyline for 500 people, the 500 customers with the highest aggregate purchase total will be offered the wine. This cascades from the lowest production wines to the highest.
Fortunately, now that our vineyards are mature, two of our highest production wines are Alpine and Horseshoe so customers that have little purchase history are still offered some of our highest quality wines.
Kevin - Thanks for taking the time to explain your allocation structure… many wouldn’t. Can I ask a hypothetical? Do higher aggregate purchasers skip over folks with lower aggregate but longer purchase history? eg lower aggregate customer loses allocation of x wine to customer with higher purchases in a low quantity vintage.
Dan,
We chose aggregate purchase history because it takes into account both length of time as a customer as well as purchase volume. This means that if someone doesn’t buy all the wine they are offered it is theoretically possible that they will be passed by someone buying more wine but that is less likely since they will be protected by their longer purchase history. This model seems to strike a good balance and passes my sense of fairness but we are always open to customer feedback.
Price points on this release?
No changes Nate.
$45 San Mateo
$59 Family Farm
$69 Alpine PN
$79 Home PN
$69 ALpine Chardonnay
$69 2011 HS Syrah
If I can buy 8 pinots (Horseshoe, Alpine, Farm, or Home) a year–so far no problem–I’m very happy.
Thanks Kevin. Good insight!
Since you’re open to alternative packaging, have you considered polling your customer base to see if screw-tops would be popular enough to justify the effort to cut over (or offer both screw-top and cork)?
I am curious… given that the poll here on WB seemed to justify adoption of an additional format, what percentage of Rhys’s customer base participates on this board? And, if not a huge percentage, is it nonetheless a pretty representative sampling of the customer base? Or, to put the question more generally, are there particular (types of) wineries for whom this board represents a particularly good sample? In many cases Wineberserkers tend to characterize themselves as pretty atypical/extreme in their wine drinking habits, but it seems like we might actually be the ‘normal’ customer for some of our mailing list darlings. I suppose I’m getting into a discussion of marketing, which might be a sensitive subject, so forgive me if I’m stepping over a line with the questions.
I’m not really expecting an answer, I just thought it was something interesting to think about.
Skips two in a row, two in their entire time as a customer, or something other than that?
And what does a “lower allocation tier” mean, now that you’ve explained that priority is based on total lifetime purchases from Rhys?
Thanks.
Judging from the cheerleading squad, I’d reckon 99.998% ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I opened the '09 at an offline a few weeks ago. It was an overwhelming 
Rama,
That’s an interesting idea but probably not one we will pursue. To bottle under screwcap would sometimes require we modify our winemaking (to prevent reduction) so it’s more than just a different bottling closure.
J,
I don’t really know the answer but I would guess that an important minority of our customers are Berserkers. Of our mailing list signups about 75% list “friend” as the reason they signed up. We do get a few that say Wineberserkers but it’s a small percentage.
That said, I do think a majority of our customers are “wine geeks” (which would include most Berserkers) and they are probably very influential when it comes to their friends wine choices.
Chris,
If someone hasn’t ordered from us in over a year (skipping two releases in a row) we no longer allocate them the lower production wines. Lower production wines are difficult to allocate and in high demand so we need to offer them to active customers. (FWIW, if someone skips two releases in a row they rarely order anyway)
I presume you’re implying your current winemaking paired with natural cork “variability” is superior to modifying your winemaking and using screwcaps? If so, I’d love to understand how you’ve reached that conclusion. (From a serious academic perspective, not a snarky one.)
Also: pinot and chard experiences reduction? I’ve only seen it first hand with syrah.
Thanks for the answer Kevin, I really appreciate the perspective! One of the reasons I love that you (and other winemakers) participate on the board is getting these behind-the-scenes glimpses into the business side of things. So interesting that 75% of list signups are brought in by friends, although I guess it makes total sense.
I, for one, am very excited for the upcoming release, and will continue to tell my friends to sign up