Dave Tong 
Santa Clara, CA
Barrel Filler
Posts: 1336
 | | 02-27-2006 10:44 PM |
| I have a friend in Paris who organises a wine group. They have the usual tastings etc. He also arranges bulk purchases of wines; typically he ends up with orders for 50-100 cases at a time and can thus negotiate a pretty good deal. The wines are typically less well known houses - wines I believe he's purchased in the past include Lalande de Pomerol, Haut-Marbuzet, L'Hospitalet and Grand Corbin. They would typically retail in the $15-30 range.
Recently we were talking about the possibility of my shipping them to the USA. He's asked around and got the name of an importer who might be able to take care of it. However for the odd case the cost is likely to be prohibitive; the best thing would be to get a group of people to order and thus share the cost.
Would anybody be interested in joining me on this? | | | http://scmwine.blogspot.com - My wine blog.<br>http://scmwine.wikispaces.com - your guide to the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley<br> |
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BellaDonna
Wine Labeler
Posts: 3660
| | 03-01-2006 03:07 AM |
| I would be interested...but have concern about double shipping costs. | | | |
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dgoerisch
St. Louis
Grape Fermenter
Posts: 402
| | 03-01-2006 04:26 AM |
| I have serious doubts about the legality of such an arrangement... | | | |
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Randy Wigginton
Master of Wine
Posts: 10937
| | 03-01-2006 12:49 PM |
| What could possibly be illegal about it? You would form a group that receives wine from the importer. At least in CA I cannot see any problem with it. Well, other than receiving french wine  | | | |
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Dave Tong
Santa Clara, CA
Barrel Filler
Posts: 1336
| | 03-01-2006 03:41 PM |
| Quote:
What could possibly be illegal about it?
It could be perceived that this was selling the wine without a licence.
My friend has everyone make their cheques payable to the chateau to
ensure that he never actually handles any money. With an importer
to pay, that might not be possible.
Then there's the issue of getting the wine to the group members.
Presumably the importers can legally ship the wine across country,
but expecting them to break down the shipment into individual lots
and send them out is unlikely to go down very well. Obviously by
living in a free country ;-) my friend doesn't have this problem. | | | http://scmwine.blogspot.com - My wine blog.<br>http://scmwine.wikispaces.com - your guide to the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley<br> | |
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GATC
Wine Lover
Posts: 4741
| | 03-01-2006 07:10 PM |
| Based on the price level of the wines, I don't think it will be worth the trouble. You will also be depending on a group that may have different preferences than you. It is pretty easy to get good values of Bordeaux in this price range already since only the hot wines sell for a premium. I bought a lot of 2000 Bordeaux (futures) from local retailers in the $7.99-25 price range that were terriffic. | | | |
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dgoerisch
St. Louis
Grape Fermenter
Posts: 402
| | 03-01-2006 07:36 PM |
| Quote:
What could possibly be illegal about it? You would form a group that receives wine from the importer. At least in CA I cannot see any problem with it. Well, other than receiving french wine
I think in many states (certainly in Missouri), the importer would not legally be allowed to sell wine directly to a consumer. I think you could set it up where it would be legal--the importer sells to a distributor/wholesaler, who in turn sells to a retailer, who then sells to the consumer--but such a setup would likely defeat the intended purpose of the buying group, which is to save money. | | | |
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Winegeek
San Francisco
Barrel Racker
Posts: 1534
| | 03-01-2006 09:49 PM |
| Quote:
He's asked around and got the name of an importer who might be able to take care of it.
Dave,
Is the importer in California? If not I can certainly give you the name of one on the Peninsula who does this kind of thing. And if you need a retailer to make things legal I'd be happy to do that as well.
Richard | | | |
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David Niederauer
Los Gatos, CA
VinoCellar.com Extraordinaire
Posts: 30967
| | 03-02-2006 11:18 AM |
| I don't think I would be willing to buy a wine like you are talking about without tasting it at any price.
A "club member" would have to commit with no opportunity to change their mind. It would most likely have to be paid for in advance or someone somewhere is going to end up with a lot of wine that some other person has backed out of their commitment for. You can't send it back and someone has to pay.
It is also correct that it won't be cheap to break the stuff up into smaller packages for shipping to individuals in different parts of the Country.
And whose to say that this wine would be any better than something that K&L (or the like) doesn't have at a similar price. I would think they have the experience and know-how to get probably better deals than someone like you are talking about David. I honestly don't believe that this kind of buying group works. As a matter of fact I would predict that it would end in a real disaster. | | | |
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