Found this early Xmas present in my email box today, and thought I would share:
In appreciation of your interest in Keefer Ranch Wines we want to add to your holiday cheer by offering a 20% discount on any wine ordered today through December 31. Order by Monday, December 14 to ensure delivery by December 24.
I found this as a nice surprise. I had bought 6 on release, as I find their wine to be one of the best values in single vineyard pinot at full price.
I could see how people could be put off. Would it have been preferable to find them on the store shelf for less? People mention that as something that irks them as well.
In my two years of dealings with Keefer Ranch, Craig and Marcy have provided excellent service. I would not be the least bit surprised if they didn’t credit your account if you brought this to their attention. But I could be wrong. I really enjoy their wines, so I’ll be ordering another 2 or 3 bottles on 12/31.
I’m a little surprised they’re discounting this. Only 125 cases made? Is it that bad out there? It’s not like $42 is that much to ask for the quality and vineyard pedigree.
Hmm, I didn’t get it which is interesting since I bought both vintages to date at release.
Anyway, nice deal but I don’t need any more. Besides it looks like the later 07 Belle Pentes are about to be released. I’m done w/ 07 Cali PN, focusing on OR at this point.
Yeah, I flagged this one as well. I ordered the 06 and didn’t love it, so that was an easy pass this year, but I can imagine an 07 being far better than most appellation blends at that price point, so now I might buy after all. It is an attractive offer.
I’m a little surprised they’re discounting this. Only 125 cases made? Is it that bad out there? It’s not like $42 is that much to ask for the quality and vineyard pedigree.
John,
without any concrete facts, I am going to wonder aloud if Keefer was able to sell through their small production of 2006 on the basis of a number of positive Parker posts. I’m not sure when their WS score was released. I gather the proprietors are respected ITB, but they’ve only released one other wine, ever.
In any case, I’ve reconciled myself to the reality of having bought at the peak of a bubble. Prices are falling. I’m holding off on making purchases to capitalize on future lower prices, so I’m contributing to the dynamic that produces the annoyances when businesses have to discount an identical product that was marketed as scarce-upon-release.
Keefer was not aggressively marketed IIRC, and $42, well, it’s no Benovia.
This is what really annoys me: wineries that put customers on a waiting list that turned out to be short and who didn’t sell through even during the bubble. Seeing those wines heavily discounted will cause some irritation, but it really hasn’t happened much, and the wines in question have been generally great, just not as scarce as marketed.
Keefer is in year 2. A mature or better capitalized winery could just sit on the inventory and sell it as library stock over time, but they might not have that luxury. I think we should cut them some slack.
Not at all trying to be critical. Just curious, given all the possitive reviews and notes on CT, why this 125 cases wasn’t snatched up by now. Interesting. We had the Siduri 07 Keefer a month or so ago, and it was just beautiful. So we thought we’d give the Keefer Keefer a try.
I recognize the bottle so I know I have tasted but don’t recall specifically. Seem like great folks and hope it sells through and the can continue. My impressions of the vineyard (from other producers) are that it is not up my alley but surprised by some of the pallets praising it here. Maybe bottle age as well as vine age will change my thoughts.
I should note that like so many … +$40 is too much. Although I understand you would probably have to produce at a loss at sub $40. Fact is that for $30 you can have a hell of a pinot.
I thought this discount offer might create some controversy, so I’d like to clarify a few things.
This is a limited offer for the holidays to our mailing list customers. It’s not permanent pricing. We just thought it would be nice to give our customers a break.
Our production is not 125 cases but 245 for 2007. It’s not a huge increase, but 100 cases is still a fair amount of wine. It’ll be the same for 2008…
We never intended to market our wine as “scarce upon release”. And if it was perceived as scarce, I really want to change that!
We never had a waiting list and it never turned out to be short. People who got the offer letter either ordered or they didn’t.
Scott, we did sell through our 2006, but we only made 143 cases that year. I agree that we should be more aggressive with our marketing and we’ll address that this year. Our primary business is farming, so we are still learning the wine biz and hope to get better at it each year. And while we’re no Benovia, you gotta start somewhere!
Jason, the vine ages on the 2 clones in the 2007 are 9 and 15 years, respectively. Most of the SVD’s produced from our vineyards come from the 15 year old vines.
I hope this doesn’t sound too defensive. I just thought I’d clear up some of the stuff I read in the thread so incorrect information doesn’t get out of hand.
I went ahead and picked up 4 of these. I remember getting the original offer and for whatever reason the $42 just made me hesitate. Couldn’t begin to tell you why, but I passed. Now seeing this, I’m glad I did. Went with 4, wanted 12… I’m sure I’ll manage.
Craig,
thanks for the input. Just to clarify, I was comparing your first release pricing ($42) favorably to Benovia, which opened its SVD Pinot line at $60 IIRC, which I thought was absurd (even with the track record of the winemaker). I also found your marketing to be passive and lacking hyperbole, which I appreciate.
You didn’t quite confirm my hypothesis about 2006 selling easily through internet word of mouth, so my hypothesis stands, although that sort of belongs in another thread.
Although it sounds like you aren’t dumping a bulk of unsold inventory, even if you had to, the way you handled the initial offers makes me way more likely to buy now. Although I didn’t buy the 07 on release, I definitely understand why people feel a bit peeved when they see a wine they bought direct end up cheaper on retail or in an email offer. In your case, I don’t think they ought to be peeved because even though any low production wine has marketing value as scarce (or maybe I’m just a sucker for that pitch) I don’t remember Keefer pushing that. If you had, the offer on the table might make the previous one appear goofy, as has happened on a few occasions with other wineries. I’m sorry if that wasn’t clear last night.
Still mulling over the offer, if only because I expect similarly attractive offers to come around over the next year as wineries figure out what to do with their unsold stock. Good luck.
I hope this doesn’t sound too defensive. I just thought I’d clear up some of the stuff I read in the thread so incorrect information doesn’t get out of hand.
Your’s was a great post and did not sound defensive one bit.
I bought three of these on release, and popped one a couple of weeks ago. Lovely wine. I don’t view the offer as negative at all. Quite the opposite in fact. I welcome the chance to buy a wine I like at a lower price. I had thought about buying more, but held off. Then came the offer, and that brought me off the fence pretty quickly.
I haven’t had any other producer’s Keefer bottling so can’t speak first hand, but from reading tasting notes about Keefer bottlings from KB, AP Vin, Loring, et al, my impression would be that the version from Keefer Ranch itself is made in a more restrained style than those.
