@EricO - great perspective, and thanks for sharing such a thoughtful reply, em dashes and all. I like the idea of “averaging down” and hadn’t thought about that. I guess the tension is between turning off future customers vs protecting existing customers. In my view, the flash sale risks eroding some of the trust and pricing integrity we’ve worked to build with both consumers and other retailers. I feel a responsibility to try to preserve that, but I appreciate you adjusting my thinking and the deliberate steps WS took.
@John_Davila I hear you loud and clear, thanks for the feedback!
@David.Berman strange world indeed! You’re right, we lose an element of control when working through distribution. Yet I’m convinced we need the trade in order to build a more enduring and recognizable brand. Come see us at the winery and we can taste through a bottle of The Bard together.
@Robert_M_yers@Chris_Crutchfield there are lots of different ways producers and distributors work together. Some elements can be contractual and some can simply be an understanding and shared ways of working together. In this case, I’ll take responsibility for not doing a better job to establish swim lanes about the types of retail accounts we want to work with. We’ve bought back inventory from a distributor before, as have many other wineries. There’s always a balance between pushing for new sales opportunities that might be right in front of you…and trying to do the right thing for the brand long term. In this case, we got the balance wrong.
Yes, this is my first post, although I have been in this forum since March 2025 (569 emails ago). When I do participate, especially in a public forum, I do run what I type through AI to clarify my thoughts and so I can be professional and empathetic (I wouldn’t want to break the “be kind” rule). I told it to be natural but I guess I should have removed the em dashes when I proofed it.
@scott.becker Thank you for taking my feedback as it was intended and listening.
I can assure you that the LLMspeak is infinitely more distracting for readers than any unprofessional or unempathetic responses. It’s also very obvious, even if you sanitize the em dashes.
Really appreciate your reply to this thread as well as your actions to protect the Realm brand.
I’m a massive fan of your wines and I’ll always buy direct to support the team at Realm. I truly only feel that way about wineries that have (in my opinion) earned that relationship with their consumers and that’s a frighteningly shrinking list…
I personally felt a sting seeing Realm offered on Wine Spies, but it was throughly pacified by your actions and post here.
Thanks for your perspective and honesty. I wanted to let you know it does mean something to us.
Anyone going for the mystery cases? I buy a lot from WS so expect I already have most of what is in the cases that I would even want. 10% off their previous sale prices is not enough to get me to buy.
Agree. Mentioning 10% further off for unknown is a buzzkill and I already sort of hate mystery cases. If one of those bottles is not to your liking, you are no better off. Odds are more than one will not be to your liking unless you are still in the search phase of your wine journey.
10% of a case is ~1 bottle, so even if 11 bottles are ones you would actually BUY you’re just breaking even. Definitely not worth the risk, especially since often these discount sites use ‘mystery case’ to unload bottles they couldn’t sell normally. Would need to be 30-50% off the normal price to be interesting IMO.
I came here to see if anyone is possibly excited by this. By my math if you buy the collectors you’re putting at least $100 of value into the excitement of the unboxing. I’ll admit that’s not zero but there ain’t gonna be a Mickey mantle rookie card in there (my grandmother gave both of my dads to my cousin who traded them for weed so I’m bitter). There’s also the educational value of the one or two wines that you’ve never thought to try that end up being good. But given that you’d be lucky to only get two bottles that weren’t your thing this can’t be a good fit for many
It is a pass for me too. No interest in mystery boxes.
By the way, has anyone tried the 2021 Viña Alberdi Reserva Seleccion Especial (Rioja)? (drinks like 96/97 point Bordeaux at $25). And the second day gets better, LRA is always great. but this guy is their fifth tier…
respectfully to wine spies, I am sure this is a way for them to get rid of all the random bottles they have laying around. I would have been into this maybe 3 or 4 years ago when I was exploring more wines at random.
I rarely buy mystery cases but I do remember 2 that were worthwhile. One was a dN case that was pretty low priced but turned out to have several bottles of pricey lots in it. This purchase allowed me to try a lot of lots without buying entire cases. The other was from a discount site that I can’t recall and was also low priced. It turned out to have a legit $250 bottle in it so I was quite satisfied. The Spies and Wine Slash mystery cases are not appealing since I’ve already bought all the ones I want that are likely to be in the case. I even emailed Slash asking about what was in 1 of their cases and they confirmed that it was all stuff that had been offered before or currently.
Its a fine everyday wine - just will want to thoroughly decant it to get rid of all the oak (unless that’s your thing). Never in my life would I say it drinks like Bordeaux though!