Where is the $20.00-$30.00 price-range?

But, seriously...Very Nice Post!!!

LCC, I am not sure 500 cases sold at $20-30 per bottle would even meet the cost of the vineyard management and winemaker.

Pricing for me has to be fair, bottom line! If $150 was fair then so be it. As long as greed is not part of the equation.

Can't confidently answer the question without about a dozen other factors thrown in, so I picked $60-70. Seems like a nice guess.

Seek1: You know that I was joking, right?

being in business myself, i tend to look at things from a long term perspective. i would want to prove myself first, gain market share and then increase capacity as demand for my product increases. anything over $70 might work short time, but could backfire long term.

Just list a circle; "a Lot lower than $50."

seek-the question.

is $150 fair for a low to mid 90's rated wine?

We're missing the most important info needed to make a pricing decision - how much did it cost to make the wine? Any winery that bases it's selling price on anything but actual costs is looking for trouble. So I have no guess.

To truly answer this question, I would need to know a lot about my expenses. How much is my winemaker? How much did the winery cost? Are these my grapes or are they sourced? Etc, Etc.

However, I agree with ojeffso that coming in on the lower end is the way to go. I know that I love when I find a great new wine that is "reasonably" priced. Once I fall in love with that winery, I tend to stay pretty loyal, provided quality doesn't fall in the toilet. Plus, you can always escalate prices moderately later. So I chose $50-60.

jb

Brian chimed in while I was typing, but I agree with him.

jb

If this is my first release would I even have a mailing list? I'd prefer to sell the wine directly through the winery if possible. That might offer lower costs (no shipping, extra handling, etc.) and offer quicker word-of-mouth.

Of course those "tastings" can eat up quite a bit of that 500 cases if you have a thirsty crowd. Of course you can charge a few $$$ as well.

Interesting poll though. I voted $60-$70.

Next question is would I pay that given the same criteria or go with a more proven wine if I were on the mailing list?

The best thing to do is scrap the mailing list idea and post on vinocellar.com.

I picked $70.00-$80.00.

...Anything over that, especially over $100.00, & you loose a LOT of people. Although, you probably Sell all of it, anyway.

I based my decision on the following: There are still some/few Vineyard that put out about 800-1,200 cases & get rated in the low-mid 90s, all the time. If they can do it... Especially, that we are talking about a start-up Winery.

brian-unfortunately, in stagnant economic times, ones costs do not enter into the equation. pricing should be based on supply and demand and what the traffic will bear. if my cost is $40 a bottle and i can charge $80, great. if my cost is $80 a bottle, but demand will only pay me $60, i have to make a decision. either bring my costs down so i can make money at $60 a bottle or take losses until i can create the demand to charge $120 a bottle.

..."in stagnant economic times" (in ojeffso's post), I agree 101%. Unfortunately, @ the moment, I cannot & will not spend $100.00 & up on a bottle of Wine. 2-3 years ago, I did w/o a hesitation...

You know, I do the exact same job that I did 2-3 years ago. But, they want to pay me about 30% less these days...

LCC,

Good for them! Your QPR is terrible.

The real question to me is:

A. Who is the winemaker?
B. Who is the vineyard manager?
C. Is the wine of the finest quality or just a Napa also ran?

Without knowing these items, it is hard to assign a proper value. The price to produce it is more important to the vintner than it is to me. The finest luxury items always come at a premium no matter what they are. I am willing to pay for the right team making the wine.

stemor: Do Not be fooled by my attendance in this Site. The Job is ALWAYS Done. And, done well. Would I lie to you???

stemor, that was hilarious! I actually did laugh out loud.

jb

I think you misunderstood my meaning. I wasn't trying to justify higher prices, I was saying that going with a higher price without supporting costs is a bit shortsighted. Because it's pretty damn difficult to support a $100 price. Let's look at why I say that...

Even if you're getting some of the most expensive fruit, you're still not paying more than $10,000 a ton. And believe me, only a VERY tiny amount of fruit costs that much. Heck, $5000 a ton is obscenely expensive. And if you press this fruit very lightly, let's say you make 50 cases a ton (also extremely conservative). That means your grape cost per case is $200. (Remember, we're pushing the numbers here to their far out limits). 50 cases needs 2 barrels... let's use the best new French Oak. That's another $1500... or $30 a case. OK, we're up to $230 a case. Add some incidentals, processing fees, a nice bottle, cool labels, etc... and maybe (and I mean maybe) we could get to a bottle cost of $25.00 Now for pricing. Let's say you can sell it all direct. Good for you! But you do have to consider that in the future you'll have to probably sell some at wholesale or to a distributor. So you can't just set the retail price at $40. Or even $50. That's because at $50 retail, a wine shop would want to buy the wine for $33. Not much profit if the bottle cost you $25 to make. So, all things coonsidered, maybe you decide to retail the wine at $70. Not bad based on your costs.

But you most likely didn't pay $10,000 a ton. And your bottle cost - even for the best damn juice around - was more like $18 a bottle. So where does the $100 price tag come from? Isn't this the kind of thing we're all complaining about? I guess if you have to build a million dollar winery high up on the hill, you need to make a lot of money to cover those costs. But is that a fair "cost" to pass along to the consumer?