Hey Guys - Firstly thanks so much for the feedback! I really appreciate this - as you all know we value your input quite a lot as WineBerk members and friendships as well for many. It’s why we still, after several years offer the WBERK5 discount.
A few things -
New Wine Saturday’s highlight all of the unsold wines of the week. We tend to publish a majority of products on Saturday but a lot of wine gets published periodically throughout the week. It started as Re-Cap but it gained so much attention, that we start to also publish new wines just for the email.
Also - we don’t recycle wines either. We just tend to purchase a lot of the same wines over and over again as those tend to sell quite quickly. So when you see Arnoux-Lachaux every week, it’s actually a new bottle.
I’d love to know what you are seeing that is so highly above other currently available wines? Our goal is to always improve, making the site more user friendly, faster, transparent, offering free shipping across the US, various temp controlled methods for getting wine to anywhere, even during the summer or winter and other things.
As I mentioned above - we really appreciate the feedback!
I’ve met and drank with Thatcher a few times. I’m not a customer (yet) but the dude is straight up and smart.
I appreciate a retailer who responds quickly and is genuinely receptive to feedback without being defensive. So many online sellers hide in a weird shell or have a bunker mentality.
I’m sure I am far from one of the biggest buyers from Thatcher, but I’m happy with what I’ve bought as well as the reasonable rate for coast-to-coast refrigerated shipping. Have industry friends who are quite satisfied as well, including some with six-figure spends.
I’m a bit surprised by the comments. I have about 10 bottles I’ve purchased over the past 6 months and keep finding some really well priced bottles that I add to my order.
Communication has been quick and they just offered free domestic shipping for orders over $250 through the spring.
Without actually getting my wine…they seem like they’re a site I have added to my regular rotation.
Though I am buying very little wine at all these days, Thatcher’s is one of the few mailing lists I still get. Some items are priced better than others, but that’s the case with every retailer. As others have said, service is excellent and the shipping approach is a huge plus for me.
Their private client service is pretty top notch; I’m sure they have much bigger clients as they get a relatively small amount of my overall spend but I’ve gotten excellent and very responsive service.
Thatcher and Courtney are very nice and their team provides very good customer service. I’m a customer. I’ve also found a novel solution when they offer a wine at a price I don’t want to pay - I don’t buy it.
Everybody wants something for nothing these days. You want high end burgundy that, pay up. I see super reasonable prices across the board on their website. When I was a buyer at a shop in the burbs of Boston, a dude walks in and said I used to buy Jamet CR for $35 a bottle in that late 90s. I smiled and replied i paid .99 a gallon for gas in the late 90s. He looked super annoyed and bought my last 2 bottles at $169.
Back to Thatchrrs, Dureuil Janthial and Alesandria are in stock and dirty cheap compared to what you find around massachusetts. Looks like i found a new online shop!
It wouldn’t be WB if the initial point of a comment was lost after the 3rd or 4th reply. I’ve only had good experiences buying from Thatcher’s and will continue to do so when the offer makes sense. Buy with confidence.
That said, my comments were more relating to the value that a shop provides in the marketplace. Does the fine wine consumer need another place hawking every cult producer known to man for market to market+ prices? I don’t think so. Is that a good way for a retailer to make good money? I’d imagine it is.
What I think the US consumer needs is what I thought Thatcher’s used to be which is somebody with connections in EU buying quality wines at EU prices and importing them, bypassing the 3 tier system and selling them at good value. Similar to the gray market wines you see a lot from WHWC and Envoyer and Skyliner and places like that. Like I said I bought a bunch of stuff like that from Thatcher’s a couple of years ago. My question about what happened to them is because their business model seems to have shifted to what seems to be more lucrative just like the other 50 places I get emails from every day and choke at the offers.
Yeah, any of the Rully 1er cru rock. My favorite being the Chapitre. Super seductive and has an unbelievable freshness. La fosse is a close second. The Mercurey is great too but does have the depth that the 1ers have.
The Rully blanc dont make it to Massachusetts any more. If they do its miniscule quantities. I loved the Puligny but havent had it in years.
@ThatcherBakerBriggs Thanks for coming in and posting. After your post, I thought about my reply and my choice of words I posted could have been better–to say I was ‘turned off’ was a poor choice. On some of the things I like, you are higher but I did some looking tonight and there are too some wines that I’d buy if I was putting a box together–you’re competitive on those and that’s cool.
Further, I was unaware of the $250+ free shipping (which is a cool gesture, I appreciate that–when did you start that?) and the 5% off, too. Those do help people like me, who don’t consume a lot, who don’t have large monthly budget (for instance, I won’t be buying Selosse or E-O, as those wines have left my comfort zone) and who want a shop that works hard to find stuff and do some ancillary things like reduced/free shipping and a discount for a community such as ours.
