Have you received your DRC Allocation?

WINE TALK
41

Fair market can be found at winemarketjournal.com for current auction pricing.

42

Transparency creates a fairer market, sure. That said when demand outstrips supply, coupled with consumers thinking they are getting what they consider acceptable pricing on their allocations, they don’t feel compelled to feed transparency. Quite the opposite.

Edit: I’m not judging. I’m not sure I’d do anything different.

43

I haven’t picked up my DRC allocation yet because my helicopter has been in the shop.

44

Not in the USA, but all done in the UK and 2017s were IIRC a few pounds less expensive than 2016s - I assume that’s just down to exchange rate fluctuations.

45

I feel your pain. Looks like I’ll have to choose between my full DRC allocation or my annual Ferrari trade-in. If this keeps on, I might even have to start flying commercial with the plebes.

46

If you get any allocation of DRC then price isn’t a matter and you’re not getting gouged if you pay the price…

I know what the wholesale is for RC is and what it fetches… $4kish wholesale that sells for $18k on the secondary market…

Again, if you can afford it and find it, quibbling over the price is an exercise in futility as there is someone behind you ready to buy…

47

Yep - largely done and dusted in Europe…

48

Sounds like maybe the OP is getting an offer to buy from the retailer rather than an allocation. Those with long standing allocations as I understand have been buying for eons or somehow been let into the club. I sincerely doubt anyone who is in that fight club is going to tell the secrets on a public full name forum. Transparency is nice but this game isn’t built on it.

49

I don’t think it’s especially mysterious. If you live in a market with a direct importer, you have to be a client of that importer. The domaine is quite keen to have new clients, and above all drinkers, get access to the wines, so the doors are perhaps not so firmly closed as you think.

50

You just have to buy a load of stuff you don’t want to get it. :wink:

51

I’m assuming the “secret” isn’t so secret of course, it’s usually money. Spend enough and get a bit of a discount on DRC. How else would you prove to the importer your a drinker? The interesting question is what’s enough and that’s not going to be talked about publicly I’d guess. If you are “allocated” leftovers you are going to pay some degree of the markup, if it was easy the direct info would be out there and more would be doing it.

I’m not disputing anything as I have no real knowledge here, just many years (for some reason) of reading about a wine I have no expectation of ever even trying. I just find the whole thing rather fascinating.

52

How do we know if the new vintage is even any good? Maybe someone needs to Pobega one or two bottles of La Tache to let us all know…

53

The 2017 La Tâche is, to put it mildly, pretty tasty champagne.gif

54

Now to just find a bottle [wink.gif]

55

Appreciate all the info from you Charlie. The vintages I got were 2014 and 2013. I was definitely surprised at the prices - I expected them to be much lower - but they weren’t any worse than auction so I took them. Also being new to these retailers I knew I couldn’t afford to not take what they offered me and expect them to offer me something better next year. So that’s the main reason I was starting this thread to see what kind of price points others in the US have been offered by their retailer. I didn’t expect that would be very secret as we talk about different retailer pricing on other wines all the time.

56

Well, I won’t be opening mine for a little while… [snort.gif]

57

Of course price matters. It’s the same reason that list prices on US wineries matter. Why would I buy my allocation every year, good vintages and lesser vintages, as well as be compelled to buy other wines I may or may not really want just to stay on the list, if the price is the same I can cherry pick exactly what I want in the market at any time? Affording DRC doesn’t mean you’re stupid with money. Usually quite the opposite.

58

Yes you’re right. I’m not taking about a direct allocation from an importer. In Europe it’s a one tier system and the prices are quite reasonable - if you can get an allocation. And I understand there’s a special list with WD in the US where you can also get an allocation at reasonable prices.

But the best the rest of us can do is have a good relationship with a retailer that gets an allocation from WD. Those are the prices I’m interested in talking about.

59

The direct allocation price in the UK for Corton was just under $400 this year. Because of the 3-tiered system in the US, even if that’s the price WD sells to the distributor, the restaurant would still be paying at least $525 from the distributor, maybe more. If they were giving the restaurants such a great deal, why would they funnel the bulk of the allocations to the restaurants when they could sell it to retailers for more? But I’d love to be proved wrong if anyone has any ITB info on what merchants are actually paying.

1 Like
60

i don’t have exact numbers for you, those are simply approximations to give you an idea of what i believe the wines you mentioned to cost in an ideal circumstance. what is an acceptable price for you is certainly up to you to decide.