Hello, everyone. I thought I would address how I am managing the wait list.
In reality, wait lists are not as deep as some might think despite the raw numbers on them. Most people sign-up after a friend tells them about Wine X, or they try the wines at a friends house, or it gets a big score by a critic, or a post on a message board prompts someone to sign up.
For wines like mine, which really do sell-out, typically there is a 2 year wait for an offer, as few of my buyers ever drop off. This year a few people who signed-up in 2020 reminded me that they have not received an offer. We did not release a 2020 and that pushed everything back a year.
The reality is that unless you are SQN or MacDonald or Scarecrow of Screagle, about 60% of a wait list beyond a year is what we call “dead.” Those beyond 2 years is 80% dead and those beyond three years is 90%+. By “dead” we mean that the impetus to sign up, which is often impulse driven, wears off by the time one gets an actual offer the further out one goes. A wait list with 2000 on it might only have 200 still interested. Many wineries do not seem to understand this dynamic and assume losing a buyer is easy to replace with a long list. Not so!
It is very possible that I could open the whole wait list (2600 strong) and easily blow out what little 2021 I have left in an hour or two but I feel those on the list longer deserve at least a few hours head start, even though most are probably no longer interested.
Thus I am adding waiting list offers in “waves” spread out by a couple of hours. Jan 2020 through Aug 2020 was group A, Sept 2020 through Aug 2021 was Group B and Sept 2021 through Aug 2022 is Group C. Group A went live at midnight, Group B is live now. Group C gets their offer in about 1 hour.
There are also a few laggards among existing buyers but they were given a week and knew the wait list would get their offers starting today but I always hold back a few cases for the inevitable late arrivals. My view is once someone buys, do everything to keep them because it takes maybe 10+ people on a wait list to fill their place.
Honestly, we were 90% sold-out after 48 hours but I don’t mind taking my time for the final 10%, making sure every buyer has a lot of time (and chances) to purchase. And then rolling it out in waves a batch at a time until it is gone. I much prefer making sure those who really want the wine can get it, rather than being able to claim “sold out” in 2-3 days.
Since my wines are agers and often need a year or two in bottle to shine, I like to offer new buyers a couple of vintages with some age on em, so they can try older wines while they wait for the new release to recover from bottling and shipping. In this case, I am offering 2016 and a special bottling of 2019 to the offer, all at the same price of the 2021.
If anyone reading this is on the list and wondering where they are and what their odds are, write me at roy@roypiperwines.com and I will try to give you an idea. I hope this helps. Thanks!
Of course people who signed up earlier than I am are due their offers soon - no worries! (I was just worried that somehow my account wasn’t properly activated, because someone said they signed up last year and had already gotten an offer. Clearly they were mistaken).