2 Total Wine Winners!

Well not exactly. I have never understood the price point of some of these wines they sell.


2020 River Road Family Vineyards and Winery Chardonnay Un-Oaked - USA, California, Sonoma County (6/13/2021) $14.00
This is some seriously bad Chardonnay. I have never liked un-oaked Chardonnay and this one is no exception. Can’t really get a fruit profile and thin wine with an easter egg dye feel. One of those wines they have out at Total Wine hoping you buy it. Can’t believe this costs more the Columbia Crest H3. (70 points)
Please give me: Columbia Crest H3, Kendall Jackson, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Wente Riva Ranch for less.


2019 Vennstone Pinot Noir - USA, California (6/13/2021) $19.99
Another Total Wine winner! Cherry, jam and mild spice. Doesn’t dirnk like a Pinot Noir which another poster stated but when I buy Pinot Noir I kind of want to have it taste like a Pinot Noir. Thankgoodness both of these Total Wine wines were not purchased as I would be out the door for almost $36.00. (81 points)

Please give me: A to Z, Willamette Valley Whole Cluster Pinot Noir or Erath.

A “Drink this not that” promotion would be a great promotion for a local bottle shop in the vicinity of a TW

Yup… and I’m betting the shelf talker said “Winery Direct” and the label indicated T.Saranty Imports.
Tom

For sure winery directs on these. It is amusing in MN due to the liquor laws that many shops now sell and advertise Total Wine Winery Direct wines and sell them much cheaper than Total Wine. Butter Cream Chardonnay is a big seller.

I thought a fairly sizable amount of ‘winery direct’ offerings were bottlings created solely for TW to sell? Obviously not all, but enough that they could get some kind of markup that would not be competed away by other shops.

Yup… the wnry-direct bttlgs are often created strictly for sale at TW, often coming thru T.SarantyImprts which is, as best I can tell, another TW creation.

In NM, the TW wines must come thru a local NM wine wholesaler. For the three TW stores in NM, the shipments are consolidated by TW somewhere,
there is a bump&go at the (small) distributor’s warehouse in Albq (which is not altogether legal) and off they go to the three TW stores.
By law, the wines this distributor carries (for TW) must be available to any retail outlet here in NM. But when one local retailer tried to obtain some of
these wines, they were given a price list that made it impossible to undersell any TW outlets. The legality of this in NM is probably illegal as hell.
One of the factors in TW’s success is it being able to push the boundaries of what is & is not legal in the various states. Thus far, I’ve not had
a TW Wnry-Direct wine that I thought was worth Keith trying to sell.
As far as TW goes…pfffttttthh…as Bill the Cat would say.
Tom

I go to one near me for an occasional bottle and for some mixer level booze. Always makes me sad to see the volumes of glop they are selling to people.