As many of you are aware I recommend at least two websites to check prior to purchasing wine, wine-searcher.com, and 1000corks.com. I do this because wine prices vary widely and I want to make sure I get the best price I can prior to purchasing. I do understand there should be some regional differences in wine pricing as it should cost more to ship to New York from California as opposed to shipping to California as an example. But as much as this explanation seems to explain and even justify differences in wine pricing, unfortunately, it isn't true. Let's start with this example. A current popular red wine is The Prisoner Red Blend 2018. The lowest price available on wine-searcher.com is the Triangle Wine Company in Morrisville New Jersey for $34.00 for a 750 cc bottle. The highest price for the same wine is from WineChateau.com in Methchen New Jersey for $63.97 or $28.98 more expensive an 83% increase. Both the highest price as well as the lowest price is available from the same State, New Jersey and one of the furthest States from California where the wine is made in Napa Valley. I could understand if New Jersey was the most expensive place to purchase it as it is a long shipment, but the lowest cost also?? It just doesn't make sense. Let's look at another example, Veuve Cliquot Champagne from France, obviously should be much more to ship overseas, right? From Westbury Liquors in Westbury New York, you can purchase Veuve Cliquot Yellow label for $39.77. From Liquor Mart, Whittier California it costs $69.99 or $30.22 more expensive a 76% difference. Well, California is obviously farther away than New York so maybe the higher price is because of the additional cost to ship across the USA. But does that really justify a price increase of $30.22?
It has been my experience in general when pricing wine, especially on wine-searcher.com the difference in price from low to high can be as great as 100% many times comparing two different wine outlets within the same State. Most wine in the USA due to the current law is sold and distributed according to the 3 tier laws. What happens with 3 tier laws is the wine is purchased and picked up by a distributor(2nd tier) from a vineyard(1st tier) and then delivered to a retailer(3rd tier) who sells the wine to you. Truthfully the 2nd tier is really only a shipping company. But a significant portion of the markup and profit for wine goes to the 2nd tier company as they usually double the cost of the wine or more and not only cover their shipping costs but pad the price with a nice little extra profit for themselves. Over the past few years, I have noticed distributors selling wine to the retail outlets for the actual true retail price of the wine. So when you go purchase the wine you actually are paying above retail. In my opinion, the entire system is designed to profit the distributor more than anyone. The vineyard who made the wine makes only a small profit and cannot raise its prices knowing the distributor will again raise the price possibly to a point where the wine does not sell. The retailer is unable to raise the price of the wine to his customer as again the consumer is only willing to spend a certain amount for any given wine. I know some retailers who make around $1.00 per bottle profit as they don't feel they can raise the price of the wine to make a better profit. All of this is written into law and the distributors spend small fortunes lobbying the legislatures to maintain this system. One argument they use is this system has to be maintained to prevent alcohol sales to minors. I may have missed something but I don't ever recall hearing about a 14 year of trying to illegally buy a bottle of Prisoner Red Blend wine and certainly not a bottle of Lafite Rothschild.
Many vineyards have reacted to this system with their wine clubs and direct to consumer programs. And why wouldn't they? They can sell wine to the consumer at the true retail price and charge shipping to the consumer separately with door to door delivery. Of course, the distributors have fought this for years by lobbying State legislatures to prohibit by law direct shipment and to charge individuals involved with felonies. So far the courts have supported the consumer and the court's basic argument is laws preventing someone from buying something anywhere at a better price is unconstitutional and inhibits free trade so most State laws have been ruled unconstitutional and unenforceable. Frankly, I personally feel it is fairer for the vineyards and not the distributors to make most of the profit in selling their wine. On the other hand, I don't want to completely throw the baby out with the bathwater and condemn all distributors. If we had not had distributors going out and buying wine and distributing that wine Nationally the wine industry may never have grown to where it is today. It is much harder for a vineyard to sell 1, 2, or 3 bottles at a time to individuals all over the country as opposed to selling their entire production to one distributor who takes it away and pays them with one check. Certainly, that convenience warrants some discount to the distributor but in the end, the distributor should be more reasonable with pricing.
To me, the bottom line is the distributor up charges the wine excessively without really adding any value to the wine. The distributor's charges also cover their sales force which for some companies is huge. So much of wine is in my opinion "pump and dump". A salesperson comes to the retailer with the "next great cult wine" that the retailer needs to purchase 2 or 3 cases before it is all sold out only to find out months later the wine didn't sell, wasn't the next cult wine, etc. I would naively hope if I owned a wine shop I would have enough experience to know what my customers would want and what new wines were worthwhile to introduce my customers too. But that is not how the system works and probably won't ever. So, in the end, it is "Buyer Beware". Please continue to go to wine tastings and see what you like and continue to drink your favorites. But before buying, check out the prices on wine-searcher.com and 1000corks.com and make sure you get the best price. Don't forget when buying online you have to add in the additional costs of shipping and taxes and maybe lean towards the stores that offer reduced or free shipping and many do. I still recommend 1000corks.com for completeness but interestingly for the two example wines in this article the low prices on 1000corks.com were higher than wine-searcher.com and the highest price was lower for the same wines. Interesting. But it doesn't hurt to check both sites and be surprised at what you might find.
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