Just wanted to give this somewhat wider publicity for people who aren’t on the Chambers St. mailing list and who might not have been following the issue. As many of you know the Pinons lost most of their crop to hail in 2012 and 2013. Louis/Dressner in collaboration with Chambers St. Wines and some other retailers (I don’t see any other listings on wine-searcher or I’d mention them) are offering a special library release where all the money is going to help support the Pinons and help them through this tough period.
I have not had any of the specific wines on offer but a 1997 Cuvee Botrytis was ridiculously good about a year ago. And based on a 1959 Demi-Sec I had back in 2001 their wines age magnificently.
No business relation, etc., etc. other than loving the wines and wanting to do what I can to help them out. If this should go in commerce corner please feel free to move it.
~$125/bottle for ~25-year-old high-end stickies straight from the cellar door doesn’t sound too bad. Though it would be nice to be able to buy individual bottles.
$750 for those 6 bottles is a terrific value. Add that to the purpose of its offering and I must give the maximum amount of kudos to Chambers Street, David Bowler Wines, and Louis/Dressner.
Well, one of the bottles is the 2013 Vouvray, which is a $20 bottle with, perhaps, a slight boost for curiosity/rarity factor. So really it’s $725 for 5 bottles, which is $145 a bottle. The current release of the cuvee botrytis, the 2005, sells for $45.
As I said, such good value. Though given that the folks who are buying for emotional / ideological reasons are going to be buying regardless, maybe they picked the right price point.
If you consider it ideological to want to support a favorite producer who had a terrible stroke of bad luck I’m not sure how you describe trying to convince people not to support such a producer.
I don’t see how many purchases will be “emotional / ideological” in this instance. The question purchasers are answering is this: Do you ever want another vintage of Pinon wines in the future?
If “no,” please follow Mr DZ to the longer line for Chidaine et al
If “yes,” please enjoy these perfect provenance 25 plus year old wines now while waiting TWO YEARS for another vintage of Pinon. See? You’re saving money because you can’t buy anything else until the 2014 vintage!
Well, if we’re having a “what’s unseemly” debate, I think the email with the lengthy sob story to pull the heart strings with the $750 punch line isn’t exactly clean as a whistle. This is a commercial transaction, not a charity, and if you ever forgot that they gave you 750 reasons to remember.
It would’ve been something else entirely if they had, say, an offer at $50, $100, and then the big kahuna offer at $750. But they elected not to. Interesting.
You did read the part about how all the money (other than credit card fees) is going to Pinon and that none of Chambers St., Louis/Dressner, or David Bowler wines marked up the wine at all, right? It’s a commercial transaction only in the sense that you are paying money for a product. Usual markups/profits do not apply. Pinon wasn’t planning to sell these wines (other than the 2013, perhaps); he needed to raise some cash for the domaine due to the ridiculously small crops the last two vintages.
But if you want to be supportive without spending $750, try some of the other current releases they mentioned in the offer. I can assure you the 2010 non-dose sparkler is good, as is the 2010 rose sparkler. I also like the 2008 moelleux a lot. You don’t have to spend much to get those.
Of course, if you don’t want to be supportive, or don’t like the wines at all, that’s your prerogative. But you don’t need to get into an argument about it with those that do.
Have you sold any Pinon lately? I don’t know - not being in the business - but I don’t get the sense it usually sells all that well. To me, it’s still an undervalued wine that should be priced higher than it usually is.
You’re joking, right?
You can’t have NOT read the email detailing the transaction being a charitable event, then still made that ridiculous statement above. You can’t possibly have formulated your opinion without the full materials in front of you.
I received the email, dude. I thought the charity song followed with the $750 punchline was laughable. Typical chambers pull-at-the-heartstrings-no-oops-thats-actually-my-wallet BS.
Cynical, cynical Chambers Street wines. Charging less to raise money to support a family owned winery. Surely it’s a strategy to make themselves look better by comparison in order to gain market share. Either that, or they are just cheap bastards, who don’t really care about Pinon. Utterly shameful, regardless.
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