What's up with Reynvaan?

Just got home and received an order of 2014 Reynvaan “futures” I bought a few years back. Price was $85 per bottle from the winery. Go onto Wine-Searcher and I’m seeing all sorts of bottles listed for $60 or less, including the 2014. Not to mention recent reviews on CT are not so hot. Is this wine falling out of favor? I thought it was supposed to be the next Cayuse.

P.S. A recent bottle of 2012 The Contender I had was ho hum.

This seems to be a regular occurrence with Reynvaan. My first allocation was the 2013 vintage and not being familiar with “The Unnamed” and “The Contender” I purchased a three pack of each and of “In The Rocks” only to be alerted here a few months later a retailer was having a blowout sale of around $60 per bottle.

I emailed them and they asked for the URL to the store and replied they take this serious as not to upset their list customers. Well, they care so much that they’ve increased prices every release. I still receive offers but have not purchased since this experience since their wines seem so easy to source at well below release price.

Thanks for the confirmation. This will likely be my last purchase directly from the winery.

Your choice…I had a 2008 recently which was pretty incredible. Also, the wines are getting decent reviews. I plan to sample a few more with a bit of age on them before bailing out.

Not picking on Reynvaan but the pricing irks me, especially when these are just coming available. For what it’s worth, I’ve been cutting lists left and right the last few years, so this makes it easy.

Still my favorite, our largest holding. As for CT, 22 Reynvaan wines in our cellar have an average CT score over 90 - 5 over 94. The 1 under comes in at 89.1. At a recent totally blind tasting here in Tampa, '10 Stonessence ran away, unanimous WOTN, vs a Frog, a La Landonne, a La Turque, and 3 more. That said, it’s all personal preference which is why there are so many good choices out there.

Larry, you’re correct, and in reviewing my own tasting notes, I only had one off bottle. I’m more reacting to the pricing differential. Ordering something for $85/bottle a year or more in advance, only to confirm on Wine-Searcher it can be had for $60 or less is frustrating. And to the earlier comment about Reynvaan claiming to be concerned, they can easily check Wine-Searcher themselves to see if retailers are selling their wines below their mailing list retail. My guess is they’re dumping inventory to retailers - not sure how those retailers could sell as cheaply if they weren’t.

The distributor could have been closing them out, the winery has little/no say about pricing in that instance.

I’ve had a few Reynvaan, and also a few Cayuse in my day (though, not as much as others I’m sure). I feel like Reynvaan wines don’t get as much love from the wine-loving masses (i.e. CT Users) becuase they are expecting a Cayuse, and they’re not even close. While they share a lot of that Rocks District savoriness we love, they come across to me as more delicate and often less “powerful” wines in some ways. I tend to really like that. I would argue, however, that most wine fans are looking for, and score higher, the “bigger” wines of Cayuse.

I realize I’m solely commenting on the quality of what’s in the bottle (in response to the OP post that CT reviews aren’t so hot), and not on their pricing model. I don’t buy from their list, preferring to stick to retail (Full Pull, local wine shops, etc.).

I’d agree if this was wine previously released, but it just came out (as far as I know) and just received shipment on the 2014s. Also, the lower price appears to be all over the U.S. across all of their wines - not sure if they just use one distributor…doesn’t seem to add up to me.

I like Reynvaan wines- they are typically good to very good wines, not as consistent as Cayuse for me, but very good wines that I would be happy to have in my cellar. I have also met some of the family at an event and they seemed very nice.

My issue has always been the pricing- They came out of the gate touting Christophe as their consulting wine-maker and asked for pricing at or above cayuse level from the get-go. I voted with my wallet.

This is purely anecdotal and speculative, but I am guessing there has been a bit of a bubble with Rocks syrah and we are seeing that, combined with softer secondary prices in general. There are no longer 1 or 2 “rocks” wineries, but now 20-30, and some of them like Proper are making very comparable wines at much better prices. I think you can safely expect to find better deals on these wines via retail or secondary.

Not to mention how unpopular Horsepower has become (as evidenced by that other very credible thread.)

I’m certainly not a Reynvaan apologist, but at the get-go they were significantly below Cayuse pricing ($40-$55 for Reynvaan compared to $75 and higher for Cayuse). They have increased their prices steadily since then, especially after they got one good score on the Stonessence, and are now as much or more than Cayuse. Since they’ve been increasing their prices the last few years, you can almost always find their wines for less through retailers than direct from the winery. To me, the wines were a bargain at the $40-$55 range, and are now greatly overpriced at $75-$100.

My comments to a T. I first joined the list for the '08 and bought a mixed case. The shipping was “that’s a helava more than any other wine” so I left sit, inquired about my local fixer picking up on buying trip for me and got “No can do.” Finally knuckled under and had them shipped. Subsequently bought some from said dealer, and as the price went up, bought fewer and fewer, none lately. I am happy they have buyers with more to spend than I and happy to buy many that I like that cost half and under. To be really honest, I would much rather drink WV Pinot or WA Cab Franc these days.

Because of this thread, I opened a 2008 The Contender tonight. My records tell me that I paid $55 for it. It’s enjoyable, but it doesn’t blow my mind. For $55, it seems like a reasonable deal. 2010 was the last vintage I bought, as it seemed similar enough to Cayuse for my tastes that I felt like I only needed one of the two (and I tend to like Cayuse a little better).