Peter those RC and LT prices seem extremely âreasonableâ (accepting that the term loses all meaning in this context). How do they handle the release? Lottery? Best customers? Random luck?
For the last few year : lottery and/or on the best customers list of the official importers in the province of Quebec and Ontario. I am not aware how in works in the other province.
In the mid 1990sâŠyou can buy them easily. I remembered clearly LCBO needed to do a fire-sale ( at discount price ) for LT 1994.
True enough, but those prices wonât be the actual retail prices to someone who had connections and bought through âofficialâ channels from an original source.
Are only retailers/wholesalers able to enter the lottery? Iâm neither, just an enthusiast that would definitely buy at those prices above. Please advise, thanks!
Residents (or those with a mailing address in Ontario/Quebec respectively) only. Or, as Peter C. suggests, happen to be a long-term baller buyer from Halpern in Ontario (As all imports route through the LCBO property, they insist on keeping a small allocation from Halpern) or the QC importer.
So, if your someone like Geddy Lee or Moray Tawse, maybe you get your 3 or 6-pack of each GC every vintage direct from Halpern. The LCBO in itâs best âfor the people of Ontarioâ socialist suit lotteries off the tiny amounts it is allowed to keep (likely only 6 bottles of DRC, down to maybe somewhere between 48-96 bottles of Corton or Ech).
I have picked up bottles from the lottery system (never more than 1 bottle in total per vintage) over the years and while frustrating as it is impossible to get more than 1 of something or know what you may or may not get allocated at all, the prices are very good vs. 3 tier system. As far as I know due to LCBO being very sticky about privacy laws, the lottery winners are the only 1st time buyers in the world that DRC canât track for re-selling purposes. I believe the LCBO agreed to prohibit DRC sales via auction in Ontario a few years ago as an olive branch since they wouldnât release the lottery âwinnersâ names to Halpern or DRC.
So my La Tache will end up in my belly or IF I wait long enough and the $ is right, in the US or Hong Kong.
I have a friend who is on the Wilson Daniels direct list. Pricing is better than retail, but only just. 5% to 10% is typically what he sees compared to W-S. Heâs only getting lesser wines at the moment, so perhaps there is more headspace for the top winesâŠbut I was not impressed by prices so far.
Curious if âdirect listâ mean he gets to acquire directly from Wilson Daniels, or does WD sell to their top tier retail accounts who then sell to your friend?
But yeah, we have the highest alcohol prices in the EU and some of the highest prices in the whole Europe.
The alcohol tax on wine is âonlyâ 3,83⏠/ litre, i.e. 2,87⏠per 0,75 l bottle of wine - no matter how cheap or expensive it is in the retail.
But we also have that alcohol monopoly which has a fixed price margin of 1,51. That means that whatever the tax-free purchase price is, they add either the minimum margin of 1⏠or 50% of the purchase price to the wine.
Then we also have VAT that is 24%. So whatever the price of the wine at this point is, the final retail price gets bigger by 24%. And of course that VAT is tax on tax, so you also pay 0,69⏠VAT on the alcohol tax (24% of 2,87âŹ).
You can also easily count that the minimum price for a non-product around 5,00⏠here. Thatâs a product that initially costs nothing, gets the minimum monopoly margin of 1âŹ, alcohol tax 2,87⏠plus 24% VAT. Then you either have to pay for the bottle to be included in the deposit system or an extra environment tax for bottles that donât have the deposit.
Assuming there is any truth to what has been posted here, these would have to be pre-flipper prices.
The wines would then be flipped for about five [to upwards of ten] times as much money.
Again, assuming that these are actual channel prices, I donât know how [or why] de Villaine & the Leroy sisters could [or would] put up with this nonsense - they canât be getting a whole lot more than 10% or 15% of the final sale to the consumer [s/p the flipping].
They ought to just build a great big fortified vault in Vosne - like de Beers has in London - and sell directly to the public.
Force the ***-Michelin restauranteurs and the billionaires to make an annual pilgrimage to Vosne if they want the good stuff.
Are only retailers/wholesalers able to enter the lottery? Iâm neither, just an enthusiast that would definitely buy at those prices above. Please advise, thanks!
Anyone with an Ontario address and of legal drinking age can participate. But chances to win are fairly slim.
Assuming there is any truth to what has been posted here, these would have to be pre-flipper prices.
The wines would then be flipped for about five [to upwards of ten] times as much money.
These are actual prices but you will not legally be able to sell any bottles you won. Waddington, our only licensed auction house in Ontario (not including any fundraising auctions), will not accept any DRC products. I anticipate that sooner or later they might put a similar ban on some of the spirits we see recently auctioned off for a multiple of the original sale price.