For us Zone 8 (about 70% of the country) is $85-90 these days.
As a winery owner, I donât get this.
Itâs just not that hard to have a consolidation corner in the winery and let customers wait until they have a full case to ship. We use a flat rate for shipping and 12 bottles makes the most sense to ship. The customer minimizes shipping cost per bottle to <$4 per bottle.
While we subsidize more total dollars in the box, we also get the most efficient cpst oer bottle at 12. Itâs less packing material, itâs less wasted gasoline, and none of us like shipping costs, so why remind a customers 3-4 times per year instead of once? Especially if they ask you to hold it, which is basically the same as saying I have another order coming for you. Itâs just not that hard to manage.
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I work for a winery where we wax all red wines, no capsules on whites. On a unit cost basis (depending on how fast we wax) was is 50-65% cheaper than capsule closures.
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Here we are again. The costs of everything about wonderful wine keep rising. More so than the profits. Boy do I get it. My annual budget continues to grow while the number of bottles I take in continues to shrink. All of this said, anyone out of region buying wine directly from a winery to save money is on a foolâs errand. Most of us buy directly in order to get specific wines in short supply and not always available at local retail stores. So, think of these wines as âspecialty goodsâ, not commodities. We all have to adjust our expectations in these crazy times.
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That is true only in the sense that specific, high demand wines may be increasing in price over time.
I think the overall quality of wine being produced has dramatically improved and the availability of excellent cheaper wine from many different places in the world is much higher in recent years.
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There are retailers who offer this type of consolidation service, which is appreciated and at least for me strongly encourages a purchase.
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If this is the true cost to ship coast to coast, then I fault the shipping companies not the wineries. But as I said earlier, itâs not the winery bottle cost that I look at but the total all in cost to me. Bottle cost + Taxes + Shipping. If itâs my perception that itâs too high, I donât buy.
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Yes, thatâs why we use a $40 flat rate charge.
There are a lot of issues in shipping that arenât obvious. Shipping from a relatively small wine growing area like the Willamette Valley, there are a limited number of options and costs seem to be higher than in some other areas.
Thereâs also the reality of licensing fees in all of the states. Some places, like Wyoming are easy and economical. Some are almost prohibitive with annual licensing being hundreds of dollars.
And then thereâs the adult signature fee which is now $9.50, for something they routinely donât bother to actually do. Even shipping a full case, this is now nearly a $1/bottle. Thatâs a ridiculous amount for that serrvice. The person making the labels gets about $.40, cork is $.35-.85, each of which actually requires manufacturing and is a product. The signature at the end takes an extra minute and in the past 5 years every one of the deliveries of wine that I have ordered has just heen left at my door.
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Just ordered from Martinelli. $10 to ship 13 bottles to Connecticut
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Although I would not mind if the wine was just left at my door (I live on a quiet cul-de-sac where the neighbours all know each other and strangers are noticed), that has never once happened to me in more than 15 years.
Canât wait for FedEx/UPS to offer a âpre-signâ service to recipients for yet another fee just so we can avoid having to come to the door to sign, or wait for delivery the next day. 
During Covid I had great luck not needing to sign. Now itâs hit or miss. Either way itâs extremely annoying all because wine distributors/retailers convinced lawmakers that wine by mail was going to be the easiest way for under-21s to procure alcohol underage.
Add into the costs for wineries are bottles that are damaged upon delivery. UPS and FedEx rarely pay for a claim, so wineries have to eat the cost to pull wine from inventory and ship them again. To my knowledge there arenât any insurance companies providing an insurance policy to the wineries upon shipping for spoilage, freezing/heat damage or broken bottles. Shipping seems like a major PITA for wineries.
I think ârouteâ does that
After reading all of the above, I wonder. What if shipping cost were never explicitly âcalled outâ. And, all one saw was the bottle cost. Would this not be better for the consumer and winery? I think this would be a better approach. How much does it cost per bottle?
Hello did the new Marcassin offer come out? I keep. Checking
Mail with nothing yet
Adam
So thatâs your cost - but you only charge $40?
Cheers
Not that I have heard. I dropped off the list years ago but every now and then they send me an offer.
This is such a difficult subject, and Iâm not surprised to hear that individual customers are off put by shipping costs as an added fee.
I have been in winemaking for 20+ years, and owned a brand for 12 now. I regret the amount of time and energy I personally spend on âfulfillmentâ. It is most certainly not the reason I got into this line of work, but now would appear to be a truly necessary part of our business as we have very limited distribution, and customers all around the lower 48.
We 100% NEVER capture the amount from customers that is actually what we are charged for shipping product, (and this does not take into account my time in packing, or the packaging costs.). I am aware we get a bad deal, but this is partially because we rely on partners to handle some of the compliance costs that are simply unrealistic for us. When I raised prices from $55 to $65 for our best wines after five years of no price raises, it was with shipping costs in mind as much as or more than farming costs. What a shame.
All I can be is transparent to customers, but it wonât change the fact that too expensive on any level will prevent sales. Our volume remains too small to simply lose money on every single transaction in order to move product, but that appears to be the case. When I hear what others on this thread spend for shipping to the East Coast I am in awe. If only I could get those ratesâŚI could charge customers similar flat rates but NOT lose an additional 5-20% of gross revenue (depending on the wines purchased).
Waiting for some thrifty entrepreneur to build a business to make this all workâŚfor sure there would be potential. Liquid is bad enough, regulated liquid dealing against fifty sets of small governments with different rules and fees even worse. One thing I know to be true though, is that shipping companies have increased their service costs by more than this winery has increased wine pricing by percentage. And in successive years.
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So what is your cost to the east coast and how much do you charge?
Cheers
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FEDEX Ground to most East Coast location runs us $120+. Certain location $130+
Third party where we have no control of carrier and donât get tracking at time of service runs us $85 or so. But this requires a critical mass and therefore cannot be done but in batches and not âon demandâ, which plenty of our Spring orders can be.
This does not include my time or the packaging materials
We charge $70 on our website currently
Only five years ago FEDEX ground from same company would be $80-90. It seems around a 50% increase since pandemic
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