Thanks Scott for pulling back some of the allocation curtain.
Can’t imagine the difficulties with allocations.
I do like the guaranteed allocations, which are fairer to buyers, and appreciate wineries that do that, as the first come, first served system probably results in more sales (the FOMO factor) and much easier to manage, as you noted above.
Interesting to hear about the secondary factors for allocation.
Best of luck on the upcoming release!
And hoping there will be an event similar to the Practical Dreamer tour, which was a lot of fun.
Thanks for all the great info Scott! I personally like the guaranteed allocation offering. Less stressful and also I think less likely to panic buy.
I’ve been a big Bard and Tempest fan for a few years and went big on them in the fall release. Haven’t gotten Crane or TK offers yet but hopefully this time around there will be some for some of us eager newer members. I’ve been able to pick up a few here and there through auction and they are great! In the meantime I have lots of Bard and Tempest which are amazing bangs for the bucks.
Also hope to be able to come visit for a tasting this summer.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for this great insight. You all are clearly very thoughtful about this. I’m curious how purchase history between the Fall and Spring release relate. Are they treated completely independently or does one impact the other.
Speaking for myself, I’ve purchased for a while now during the Fall release, but more sparingly during the Spring release as those wines have tended to push the upper limits of my price range. I’m hoping to start “graduating” to add more of the spring release wines so I’m curious how these relate.
Thanks for the positive feedback on the guaranteed allocations. I must admit sometimes I miss the “FOMO factor” on day one of first-come, first-serve releases!
David, for the most part we treat the two releases independently. We have many members who purchase only in the fall and some who only purchase in the spring. We try to avoid saying you must buy X to receive Y. Ideally a member’s allocations over time reflect the wines they want to buy. The key factor here is time. The way to graduate with spring wines is to purchase allocations for wines you want and use the wish request to indicate you want more of a particular wine. We have started limiting the total amount of wish requests for certain wines just so we manage expectations. It’s not valuable to you as a member if we enable you to place a wish request for 12 bottles of Dr. Crane when there’s no chance we can grant you 12 bottles.
Unlike allocations, wish granting does sometimes take into account both fall and spring releases. We take into account people who purchase across the portfolio when it comes down to spreading the last few bottles. That doesn’t affect the allocation…for example, we have some members who only purchase Dr. Crane or To Kalon. Their allocations are based on their purchase history and we would never take that away (except in instances where Mother Nature took it from us). But if we have one bottle left of To Kalon to fulfill a wish request, we are likely to grant that bottle to a member with broader support of the portfolio.
Last point. We created the introductory offering last year, which allows a new member immediately upon signup to access an intro pack of our wines. Typically 3 or 4 bottles…sort of an overview to the portfolio. The exact wines will vary over time. If a member purchases the intro pack, they will receive a guaranteed allocation in the next release whenever that occurs, spring or fall. If a member doesn’t purchase the intro pack, their first release will always occur in fall, which means depending on time of sign-up they might miss the spring release.
Hope this is helpful. As we get into the swing of the release, I will try to check back here regularly. If there are issues, questions, concerns, rants, observations, anything that comes up…don’t hesitate to send me a note at sbecker@realmcellars.com and I’ll get right back to you. Thanks everyone for your support…we often talk about Realm as a journey and you all are a huge part of it…thank you!
Thank you so much Scott! This is quite informative. Looking forward to the release.
One small question: Does the relative speed or placing an order affects wish list grant? For instance, if you buy at 10:01 am on the first day, does it affect wish list grants vs ordering at 11:59 on the last day? Probably not I assume but I always wondered.
Emails from Realm, Abreu, and R-M all within like 15 minutes about releases next Tuesday. Guess I gotta start working on my supervisor sooner than later…
Hi Scott, you mentioned that if you bought Kata you’ll be allocated Bourn. What if you purchased Ghost Dog but not Kata when you (Realm) had the October 2019 release, since that was a wine under the Kata umbrella? Does that result in an allocation of it?
Jeb Dunnuck for this release:
2018 Houyi 96
2018 Farella Estate 97
2018 Beckstoffer Dr. Crane 98+
2018 Beckstoffer To Kalon 98+
2018 Beckstoffer Bourn Vineyard 97
James Suckling posted a video of him doing a virtual tasting with Benoit and Scott. He doesn’t mention his scores but I found it interesting to get a behind the scenes look at how these critics taste with the winemaker right there and watching Benoit and Scott react.
James seemed to particularly like the Tempest and Moonracer but he seemed a little disappointed in the Dr Crane. It made me realize how doing these tastings virtually where wines are being shipped across the world and aren’t prepared / decanted according by the winemaking team could cause challenges. Benoit and Scott were urging him to give the Dr Crane some time but who knows if he did and if this could effect the score.
Here is the link to the video for anyone interested.
JF, timing of order and wish request are not factors in wish granting. When we moved to the guaranteed allocation for a window of two weeks, we wanted people to feel comfortable to place an order anytime during that window.
Josh, Ghost Dog is not a factor in Bourn allocations. Since this is the first time we’ve offered Bourn, we are allocating it very broadly.
Scott, any chance you can share thoughts on the 20’ Fidelio? Is it similar to 19? I’m a little gun-shy on 20’ vintage, as I assume many others are too, maybe you could coach us through it? Any info would be helpful, thanks!
Really cool watching the tasting with Suckling. Thanks for posting David. Interesting to see him knock the 2018 vintage relative to 2016. 2018 obviously still good but there are a lot of “vintages of the century”. Want to be clear, not knocking Realm’s 2018 but the vintage in general vs. 2016.
John, good question about 2020 and I think most consumers will feel the same way about the vintage. A topic for another time to discuss the nuances of smoke taint. It’s been interesting to see different approaches taken by various producers. Generally speaking, white wines are far less susceptible to smoke taint than red wines. We’ve tasted and analyzed '20 Fidelio obsessively since harvest and I can confidently state the wine is every bit as vibrant and fresh as the 2019 vintage. There’s no smoke taint problem with our white wine…I only wish I could say the same thing about the reds, and that’s why we’ve made the decision not to bottle and release any reds. Volume of Fidelio is down slightly because we only used free-run juice out of an abundance of caution. Sometimes we will use a little bit of the first press fraction but not in 2020. The wine is showing typical citrus notes, hints of tropical fruit but still with racy acidity and a kiss of sweetness. I would say the 2019 and 2020 vintages are very similar for our white wine. Comparatively, the 2018 Fidelio was a little more closed on release…we blended a small amount of Semillon in that vintage and I think it changed the complexion of that wine immediately upon release. Today I think the 2018 is much more open but I wanted to give you that context.
Thank you Scott for the reply, and thank you for taking the time to provide such thorough insight into so many different matters. One of many things that sets Realm apart.
I found it interesting too, but the way I read his comments - and have frankly heard from others as well - is that 16’s power is unmatched by any other 10’s vintage other than maybe 13 … whereas 18 is more of a “boringly perfect” weather vintage where balance will shine through (and also purportedly excellent 19 is closer to 18 than 13 or 16). Reading between the lines, the way folks talk about 2018 and 2019 remind me of 2009/2010 (though perhaps flipped).
