Walter Scott Wolfpack

WINE TALK
21

I did not realize that they were removing many of the bottlings from general access. I logged in to check and many bottlings are now Wolfpack Only. This is disappointing to me. I buy 3+ cases of WS a year and want to pick what it is that I buy, Although I do buy a pretty broad selection. This is turn off to commit to $1300 a year for the right to access all the bottlings. I guess I will be buying a lot less wine from Walter Scott and buying what I can find from other retailers who carry it. I’m disappointed by this change in direction.

Sean

22

I have actually purchased two mixed cases each of the last two years. However, I prefer to choose the wines. This might dissuade further patronage.

23

Concur with what others have said, huge fan of these wines, would probably commit to buying at least a couple cases a year but that includes me being able to pick my own wines. Seem like good folks and appreciate trying to do something different but from my side it’s a little disappointing because I don’t think I can commit that kind of money and give up the choice of what bottles I’m receiving.

24

Based on this thread, WS May want to rethink this plan. Much easier to retain satisfied customers than to turn them off and have to find new ones.

25

Maybe. Walter Scott has a loyal following. It might not include the small minority of consumers geeky enough to regularly participate here. I totally get the attraction of direct sales to a committed customer base generating a reliable/predictable revenue stream. Walter Scott is popular enough that it’ll probably work out.

RT

26

In the past two weeks I bought a mixed 6-pack to see what the fuss is all about. I wonder if I was only seeing a few of their wines? I detest wine clubs that give you no choices and have a minimum of more than one case per year. We popped the cork on their entry level chard and pinot and thought they were pretty good. Laid down the other SV chards and pinots for a few years, so I guess they will be one-off trys down the road. Cheers!

27

Thank you all for your candid posts on our new membership program, the Wolfpack. The response has been amazing, and we are humbled by the number of signups in the first 24 hours. We recognize that it is a significant commitment. It’s been incredible to have so many join us.

I’m writing to share our thinking as well as assure you that our wines will remain available beyond the Wolfpack. We are seeking to welcome more people who prefer to buy in a membership format. We don’t want to alienate or turn away those who don’t.

Over recent years, many winery visitors have asked about a membership/club. For years we resisted, preferring to have an informal, personal connection with everyone on our mailing list. As the winery slowly grew, so did the mailing list and so did the requests for a membership program.

Growth brought challenges.

Up until now we have done two annual releases, our Willamette Valley bottlings in September and our Vineyard Designates in March. The March release has grown to include as many as a dozen wines; too many to give the story behind each the attention it deserved.

Some of our vineyard designates are produced in small volumes and sell out on release. As our mailing list grew, this became more and more frequent. It’s a good problem to have but it also created a problem for some of our longest standing customers; if they weren’t “quick enough on the draw” they could miss out on a vintage of their favorite bottling. We needed a way to ensure that their loyalty and support were rewarded. Ken has other small production bottlings in the works, each presenting the same allocation challenge.

These challenges got us thinking about changes to our release schedule and creating a membership program. We have been working on this for months, researching what others are doing and brainstorming new ideas. We studied the way the world of shifting purchasing habits, the way different generations buy and how online memberships and retailers are changing the way we spend money in the wine industry and beyond. This led to the change to a quarterly release schedule and the creation of the Wolfpack.

While it surely won’t resonate with everyone, the concept of the Wolfpack is sincere to us. It is a more substantial commitment than an ordinary “wine club” and is intended to be a true, honest connection.

Memberships/clubs do not work for everyone and we are acutely aware of that. Some of you have been big, long term supporters of Walter Scott. Others are “new friends” recently acquainted with our wines. We are incredibly thankful for your support and will ensure you have access to our wines. We are not turning our backs on anyone.

We’ll be participating in a Zoom Event organized by Charlie Fu on Saturday May 30. We hope you’ll join us. While we’d rather talk about vineyards, winemaking and the resulting wines we’re happy to talk about the Wolfpack, our thinking behind it and the business of wine too.

28

I was pretty hyped by this and immediately signed up to support them, but I don’t love how many of the wines have become “wolfpack only” now. I just convinced a friend to order a one-of-everything case and he wouldn’t have been able to do that this week. I could see things like Rock Salt being club-only, but not all of the SVDs.

At least the X-Novo Chardonnay is still available, so not everything good is locked up.

29

All of the SVD’s will not be “Wolfpack Only”!

They are off the Website now as we redesign our Release Schedule.

Going forward, each Quarter we will release 3 to 5 wines to the Wolfpack and then for website sales, so you will see more bottlings available soon.

We’d be happy to explain this in better detail and see what we can do to allay your concerns either one on one or via next Saturday’s Zoom Event with Ken and Erica.

30

I think the MRR structure makes perfect sense for a winery to adopt in this environment. The amount of people who already buy 2+ cases of WS a year has to be a decent number, and it smooths out the annual financial hit for these consumers while providing the winery more revenue predictability. That’s great for everyone in these times of uncertainty.

I am generally not a fan of wine clubs (I was in zero until now) but I signed up. Ken and Erica are very deliberate and precise in their approach to winemaking and running a winery. I’m confident they’ll make this well worth it.

31

I’m assuming this model would benefit the winery more than a traditional mailing allocation list?

32

It might make sense for more people if you could choose between reds-only, whites-only or mixed. I think that’s how Ramey does it.

33

I have been a supporter for the past few years. I personally do not like the idea of a wine club if that is the only way to have access to the wines. If it works for them so be it

Perhaps a tiered approach where the “wolfpack” have 1st access then look at releasing to older customers who have ordered 1-2 cases a year for a period of time. Then what remains might go to the rest of the mailing list or on the web site.

Think of a way not to alienate your good customers who may not want to join a club and at the same time achieve your financial goals and stability (which of course is critical and not a “bad” thing)

34

This is not a poke at Walter Scott, but the idea of buying 2 cases of wine every single year from a single winery baffles me. I drink a lot of wine (every night), and have a fair bit of wine stored, and I don’t think there is a single winery from anywhere in the world where I buy that much wine every single year. That adds up fast! Even my favorite wineries, like Sociando, Baudry, Lanessan, in some years I bought 1-2 cases but not all years. I bought no Sociando or Lanessan in 2011 or 2013, for example. Gonon was perhaps the only winery where I bought two cases year after year - a case of the St Joe and one of the Iles Feray - but then my allocation got cut to 6 and 6. Hard to do that with more than 1-2 wineries without getting swamped. I bet folks here are sitting on tons of Bedrock!

35

Agree again. I’ve done it less than a handful of times in 30+ years of buying. Always in control of the specific bottlings and vintage. My better half and I consume a decent amount of wine…10 - 15 cases per year.

And again, if the shoe was on the other foot considering their liquid and loyal following…I’d be right on board with Walter Scott’s approach.

RT

36

And it’s going to be more than 2 cases because it’s buy two cases to then get access to buy your favorites. So if you buy the two cases plus one additional of your favorite wines you’ll need to drink a bottle every 10 days or so just to maintain. Seems like a lot to ask over a long period of time.

37

Here are a few points to address all of this.

  1. This has nothing to do with the Wolfpack. We needed to change our release schedule. We have been releasing 6 wines in the fall and close to 12 in the spring. We have huge cash hits 2 times a year and needed them spread out. We also wanted to allow people to focus on 5-6 each quarter rather then be overwhelmed by 12.

  2. We have been asked to start a membership or club for years. They will not work for everyone on our mailing list. We don’t expect it to. That will not mean those that don’t join will not have access to our wines. We will always take care of people. We always have.

If any of you have questions, concerns, want to continue to purchase the wines in the format you have always purchased the wines in, please… email me. Call me. We are here, we are always going to take care of people as we have from the beginning.

38

That’s cause you buy from wineries that only release 1-3 wine labels a year. If you were buying burgundy , German riesling Or even certain champagne growers (cedric bouchard for example) you could easily be buying 2-3 cases a vintage due to all the wine released

39

Not so, Fu.

I buy a lot of Baudry, Joguet, Breton, Plouzeau, etc. My only membership is Bedrock, but my Lordy, Morgan makes like 100 wines! I self-limit on Bedrock to like a case per year, which means I don’t always get access to some super-premium releases. I’ve always found those in the after-market or trades with friends.

40

Sorry I meant in demand wines that you actually want to buy up and down the line and that you can’t easily find at wine searcher at release pricing :stuck_out_tongue: