Based on the stats available in CellarTracker (CT) I thought it might be interesting to see what people buy, where do they buy it from and dive a little deeper into these stats for top 2 retailers: Costco and Garagiste. Thank you Eric for making this feature available to all CT subscribers!
For those not familiar with CT, “Remaining” refers to bottles purchased but not consumed.
- Where do people buy wine from (top 10)
Unknown 22.0% Bottles purchased (10,113,717) / Remaining (6,275,361)
Winery 8.3% Bottles purchased (3,822,921) / Remaining (2,027,526)
Garagiste 1.4% Bottles purchased (622,893) / Remaining (325,908)
Costco 1.2% Bottles purchased (533,389) / Remaining (193,776)
WTSO 1.0% Bottles purchased (445,711) / Remaining (215,375)
Vineyard 0.9% Bottles purchased (395,057) / Remaining (238,872)
Wine Library 0.8% Bottles purchased (369,700) / Remaining (165,840)
Wine Club 0.7% Bottles purchased (330,551) / Remaining (171,136)
Premier Cru 0.7% Bottles purchased (306,363) / Remaining (204,920)
Gift 0.6% Bottles purchased (283,568) / Remaining (127,500)
JJ Buckley 0.6% Bottles purchased (277,846) / Remaining (185,380)
Vineyard/Winery is one entry, thus top 10 even though there are 11 items on the list. With Unknown at 22% AND CT being a small percentage of the wine-buying public the answer to the question of where do people buy from is highly speculative. Costco could (should?) really be #1 but whatever. If we say that this applies to, ahem, wine connoisseurs, rather than everyone than conclusions derived from this data can be somewhat valid.
Interesting: Garagiste ahead of Costco and everyone else. I don’t think Garagiste moves more bottles versus, say, Costco and other large brick-and-mortar, traditional retailers but this might be accurate for online-only or online-mostly retailers. I am neither a fan nor a hater of Garagiste but from a business perspective this is interesting to me. A large enough mailing list / marketing reach and sufficient scale for sourcing product (direct or indirect) appear to be main pillars of their business model, purely an operational competitive advantage. There should be copycats galore and they do exist but at a smaller scale.
Expected: a lot of wine is bought direct from the winery. Small business is the engine of America? Discuss.
Expected: Premier Cru undelivered inventory is still undelivered. CT users refuse to mark the PC bottles as lost or delete them, a common emotional sentiment after a loss of a loved shampoo bottle.
- What do people buy from Garagiste
Top 10:
Fattoria Galardi Terra di Lavoro Roccamonfina IGT 0.9% Bottles purchased (5,756) / Remaining (4,776)
Domaine de Saint Siffrein Châteauneuf-du-Pape 0.6% Bottles purchased (3,477) / Remaining (2,542)
Domaine du Pavillon de Chavannes Côte de Brouilly Cuvée des Ambassades 0.5% Bottles purchased (2,947) / Remaining (1,752)
Nicholas Cole Cellars Camille 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,618) / Remaining (789)
Azienda Agricola Le Ragnaie Brunello di Montalcino 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,568) / Remaining (2,111)
Jean Bourdy Côtes du Jura Rouge 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,328) / Remaining (1,697)
Renegade Wine Co. Reserve Red Wine 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,280) / Remaining (604)
Azienda Agricola Sant’Elena Ròs di Rôl 0.3% Bottles purchased (2,124) / Remaining (627)
Boudreaux Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 0.3% Bottles purchased (2,002) / Remaining (1,292)
Terreno Chianti Classico Riserva 0.3% Bottles purchased (1,938) / Remaining (859)
Regional breakdown (top 12)
Burgundy 10.1% Bottles purchased (63,169) / Remaining (35,518)
Rhône 9.3% Bottles purchased (58,123) / Remaining (33,042)
Washington 8.4% Bottles purchased (52,067) / Remaining (23,571)
Bordeaux 8.3% Bottles purchased (51,545) / Remaining (31,070)
Loire Valley 7.5% Bottles purchased (47,005) / Remaining (21,197)
Tuscany 7.2% Bottles purchased (44,971) / Remaining (25,915)
Piedmont 5.6% Bottles purchased (34,834) / Remaining (22,892)
California 3.5% Bottles purchased (21,743) / Remaining (11,200)
Mosel Saar Ruwer 3.2% Bottles purchased (20,220) / Remaining (12,294)
South Australia 3.2% Bottles purchased (19,708) / Remaining (9,324)
Oregon 2.8% Bottles purchased (17,146) / Remaining (8,420)
Languedoc Roussillon 2.2% Bottles purchased (13,751) / Remaining (5,898)
Expected: most of top 10/top 12 are French/Italian imports with Washington being the leading source of domestic product. Based on my casual buying from Garagiste and reading some of the threads here, I think this shows 2 things. One is that Garagiste’s audience are considerably more sophisticated than your average consumer (plus CT effect on top of that) and two is that in that $20-40 range it’s not just the cost that matters but the combination of product and cost. Most of the producers on the top 10 list are relatively obscure, at least considerably more so versus a “conventional” top 10 (see the Costco breakdown below). As much hate as Garagiste’s concept of a mystery wine or non-mystery but obscure producer (with flowery prose in tow) receives around here, clearly there’s something to it. Gamification of wine retailing ftw?
On the domestic side, Garagiste doesn’t offer much of an advantage versus another retail alternative in either product or cost. Small allocations and more expensive product aside, domestic wine can be acquired from many different outlets and there are quite a few influencers who dilute the Garagiste “effect”. I believe in the domestic segment Garagiste competes on price plus the convenience of autopilot buying and shipping. This is why Washington is ahead of California on the list - business relationships in one’s backyard are cheaper/easier to establish and maintain, thus driving volume/price of product.
Fun fact: in the right hands (and for the right price) German Riesling could sell as well as just about “anything” from California ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Why can’t Michael Skurnik / Terry Theise do a mystery basket of Riesling every 3-6-12 months? I’d subscribe!
- What do people buy from Costco
Top 10:
Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 1.5% Bottles purchased (7,737) / Remaining (1,496)
Seghesio Family Vineyards Zinfandel Sonoma County 0.7% Bottles purchased (3,993) / Remaining (1,270)
Bodega Norton Malbec Reserva 0.7% Bottles purchased (3,522) / Remaining (965)
Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon H3 0.5% Bottles purchased (2,641) / Remaining (635)
La Crema Chardonnay Sonoma Coast 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,237) / Remaining (458)
Folie à Deux Ménage à Trois Red 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,235) / Remaining (438)
Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon Don Melchor 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,178) / Remaining (1,108)
Château Pontet-Canet 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,106) / Remaining (1,695)
Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay Grand Réserve 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,053) / Remaining (429)
Antinori Villa Antinori Toscana IGT 0.4% Bottles purchased (2,040) / Remaining (679)
Very different picture from Garagiste. Everything on top 10 is positively reviewed by pros, from well-known and easily recognized brands/producers with both domestic and imported product mixed in.
Regional breakdown
California 37.5% Bottles purchased (200,150) / Remaining (64,652)
Bordeaux 9.2% Bottles purchased (49,080) / Remaining (31,785)
Washington 7.0% Bottles purchased (37,359) / Remaining (10,640)
Tuscany 5.6% Bottles purchased (29,692) / Remaining (12,656)
Mendoza 4.3% Bottles purchased (22,769) / Remaining (7,365)
South Australia 3.9% Bottles purchased (20,740) / Remaining (6,692)
Rhône 3.3% Bottles purchased (17,739) / Remaining (7,566)
South Island 3.2% Bottles purchased (17,032) / Remaining (3,401)
La Rioja 2.3% Bottles purchased (12,218) / Remaining (4,615)
Oregon 2.0% Bottles purchased (10,828) / Remaining (3,022)
I expected California to be #1 and Bordeaux in top 5. Interesting to see Tuscany ahead of likely cheaper stuff from Argentina and Australia.
![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}