Are magnums worth 3X. the price.

I bought my first magnums from Alban years ago and I occasionally buy some from Saxum. Those wineries price their magnums 2X the cost of a 750. Makes sense.
When I bought my first SQN magnum set, two 750s cost $340, but magnum set was $950. I know magnums often come in nice wood boxes, but even the SQN estate box is
only $80 more a bottle and that is for arguably better wine not even considering the cost of the box.

I just saw the thread about the Scarecrow release. A 750 bottle is $400 and a magnum is $1500. Conventional wisdom has always said the bigger the bottle, the better the wine, but I wonder if that has really been proven (if that’s even possible)? Why would someone pay $1500 for a magnum of Scarecrow when you could buy two bottles for $800?

Resale value. Champagne is even worse. Basically if I see mags for 2x retail I almost reflexively buy.

Scarecrow mag pricing is ridiculous. Mags do store wine for longer, but that markup isn’t worth it unless you have cash to burn or are flipping it. Mags for champagne, top Bordeaux, or even things like Produttori are all good, IMO, assuming there’s not price gouging.

Who said the bigger the bottle the better the wine? I believe magnums are - according to who knows - the “ideal” sized vessel from the perspective of aging wine in terms of the liquid/head space ratio. To me, that means different but not necessarily better unless you want to age it longer than the ideal drinking window of a 750.

Once you get into the 2x+ pricing, clearly you are dealing with Baller wines for people who wanna really Ball by walking in with a Maggie of some cult. Most wines do not have that kind of multiplier on a magnum format. This is pure marketing and hype BS.

Robert, it’s almost like you’re referring to someone on this board… [wink.gif]

check out the vig on the screamer mag… [scratch.gif]

LOL, not intentionally, but well… :wink:

And I’ve been known to do this upon rare occasion.

no. a bit more than 2x is all I will pay

2.2x is about as high as I can justify.

Champagne is where I focus on magnums.

I haven’t bought any 3Ls just yet, kind of worried about how to store them in my cellar’s bulk section. I have bought quite a few magnums the last couple of years and most of the ones I have are just slightly above 2x the cost of a 750. It would take a special vintage (kid’s birth year maybe) for me to pop for a 3L if the pricing was way out of wack.

We love magnums during the holidays with family or for other special occasions.

Even the Lafite Rothschild I bought in mag was only 2x of 750ml. 3-4x is ridiculous.

One thing to add is that for Champagne it is a bit different than for still wines. Since the bottle is also where the secondary fermentation takes place, in a magnum the fermentation will take place over a longer period of time. Additionally, there will be less exposure to oxygen during disgorgement, so there really is a difference in the wine for Champagne. For still wines, it is all about aging. Regardless, once you get to 4x the price of a 750, that has to purely by a status/exclusivity thing.

Clearly for some of the cults the mags are priced for scarcity and for playing to the “Oh, you have the Unobtainable Cellars, too? But do you have it in magnum like I do?” crowd where only a few are made and having one is a status symbol. Not my game.

I do like mags, though, and will often pay a $5 or $10 vig, but I have a hard time justifying any more than that.

The first large format I ever bought was a 3L of 1990 Banfi Brunello relatively soon after release. I think maybe the 750s had just had a price bump or something due to a big WS score (I’m not sure), but the 3L was at my local shop for about triple the price of a 750, so I jumped on it. We opened it at a big dinner for my in-law’s 50th 5 or 10 years ago, and it was delicious! K&L just had some ‘17 Beaucastel mags marked down, too, where the 750s weren’t (or were sold out), so I paid less than 2x for those as well. I think those are the only large formats I’ve ever saved money on compared to 750s, but that’s my kind of pricing - the “bulk” discount!

presumably you avoid en primeur :smiley:

Robert often speaks about himself in the third person. Just an observation.

That covers a likely large percentage.

Wow, that’s a great point that I never considered. Thanks!

Only if it’s a Bocksbeutel.

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