I’ve been able to make some nice Bordeaux purchases at total, though it’s been a few years. For me, the best aspect of total is the liquor section, which is pretty extensive.
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Thanks for the pic. Great story.
I’m just surprised that Rudi didn’t have custom racking made for long-necked bottles. Those seem to be extending more than you’d like.
Holiday Wine in Escondido has a fair selection of Rieslings (albeit at about 10-20% above prices you’d find elsewhere), but beyond that I struggle to think of anywhere in the San Diego area that manages much of a Riesling section. 4 out of 5 times I end up just ordering from K&L.
Winery Direct meaning their mass produced garbage wine. Yes they have winery direct stuff that is good. Butter Cream, etc. is terrible.
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The Butter Cream is good? I walked past a huge pallet of it the other day, on my way to get hooch. TW’s hooch selection in Indiana is hard to beat.
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We are not talking those wines. Buttercream, Oak Ridge, Cloud Break and many other bad options. The good winery direct wines are not good deals in MN and not even close.
No it is not good. David mentioned some winery direct wines that are good and Buttercream, Oak ridge etc. are bad wines. That is how they make all their money with massive makeups on them. Trust me they do alright with the good winery directs also as the good shops in MN are cheaper on them.
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Then say mass produced garbage wines (every wine shop sells them to some extent) which are very different than winery direct. Selling those wines is not how they make all their money. In fact most TW stores sell more spirits than wine, a lot more. Either you are making things up or you don’t understand the business. Be better
I find wine connection has a decent selection here. That’s been it so far. Holiday didn’t
You clearly have no idea of the markups on the winery direct junk. Let me give you some examples to educate you:
1858 Monterey Pinot Noir $29.99 at Total Wine ($12.99 another shop)
Vennstone PInot Noir $19.99 ($11.99)
Truth & Valor $31.99 ($14.99)
Borrasca Prosecco $15.99 ($9.99)
Butterknife $16.99 ($7.99)
Olema Cabernet $29.99 ($16.99)
Next question do you think the shops selling the winery direct junk are not making some margins on those prices?
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Those are all PL wines for TWM.
Legally any customer can buy them in States, the pricing is just buried deep in a QD of 1200 cases so not attractive to wine shops, or it is a BtD deal brokered thru Johnson Bros. or another middleman to exchange paperwork.
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I need no education from you and once again you are confusing terms. While there is crossover winery direct does not mean garbage wines. Garbage wines mean garbage wines and every store sells some of then. You also refuse to admit that these are not the source of all the profits.
They make good margins on PL wines, but margin isn’t profit, they make the bulk of their profit on spirits and PL spirits.
I’d hazard a bet their profit mix is 60% spirits, 30% wine, 10% beer/NA.
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Total has a lot of bordeaux that are winery direct, including Mouton, Margaux and Lafite that are listed as winery direct, probably because they import them. Need to be very careful choosing WD bottles as many are plonk.
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All of them are through a brokered system. Are you saying that Washington can sell these also a mom and pop.
Again David the whole winery direct game is a marketing tool. The good wines are offered at any shop but Total Wine makes a lot of their profit amongst the 98% of the wine drinkers that drink Buttercream and the like. The margins I provided for you shows this.
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As I tried to explaining to David winery direct it nothing more than marketing. Those buttercreams are making well beyond what Kris is saying on the 30%. My examples earlier prove they are the highest profit in the store in MN
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Have you ever had Buttercream? Have you tasted it over 3 days?
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While the term “Winery Direct”, as Total Wine uses it, may actually have a literal meaning – from a practical perspective as a customer, it’s meaningless.
From what I’ve seen, the vast majority of the wines they market as “Winery Direct” are private labels – and the vast majority of those are crap. Seems to me it’s mostly a way for wineries to get rid of juice that they’d otherwise have to move on the bulk market (heck, much of it probably does come from “wineries” that bought juice on the bulk market). And, of course, since they are private label, no way to price compare or even find much in the way of reviews (which makes sense from a TW perspective, as independent reviews would call them out as crap).
For non-domestic wines at TW, the first think I do is turn the bottle around and look at the importer. Saranty Imports clears their foreign private label “Winery Direct” wines. If you see that importer on the label – run, run fast, run far away from that bottle.
For most brands you’ve actually heard of, I’ve found it doesn’t matter if it’s Winery Direct or not. The pricing on those wines will be, at best, mediocre. Yes, of course, there will always be a few exceptions. And, of course, you will have to deal with the TW reps who seem to always be shilling, as they try to get you to move away from “real” brands (that carry lower margins) to their private label brands, which are higher margin.
Michael
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