Value for money

What are you really paying for when you buy wine? (and who you are paying it to?)

Have you ever really thought about what you’re actually paying for when you buy a bottle of wine? Or who that money is going to? Are you getting a good quality wine for your money? (I will be discussing the definition of “good quality” wine in later posts)

Normally, before you ever get your hands on a bottle of wine, it has gone through a number of “stops” along the way before landing on the retail shelf. Generally, vineyards sell their wine to an importer, who then sells the wine to a distributor, a store or a restaurant, who then finally, sells the wine to you, the consumer.

Each of these “middlemen” (between you and the vineyard) has to earn money on the wine, which increases the ultimate retail price that you have to pay.

To keep things simple, let’s say that you pay 100 kroner for a bottle of wine in a supermarket (a pretty reasonable price for an average bottle of wine in a supermarket). But who is actually earning off of that 100 kroner? And how much are they actually earning?

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It’s unfortunately quite normal that a vineyard only receives 25-30% of the price you paid for their wine. So when you pay 100 kroner for a bottle of wine, you are actually purchasing a wine that has a quality worth of 25-30 kroner.

Now ask yourself – would you normally want to buy a bottle of wine that costs 25-30 kroner? Probably not. At that price, it certainly isn’t a good quality wine.

But that’s kind of what you’re doing when you buy a 100 kroner bottle of wine. The remaining 70-75% of the price you paid is going directly to the middlemen (i.e. importers, distributors, retailers, restaurants, etc.)

At Château Wines Direct, we are proud to say that 100% of the price you pay for our wines goes directly back to the vineyards; back to the people that put the time, energy, knowledge, technology, creativity and passion in to making the wine itself. Our prices are the exact same as you would pay “aux caves,” directly from the vineyards themselves.

So next time you are shopping for wine, think twice about what you’re paying for (and not paying for!) and who you are ultimately paying it to.

Cheers!

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Mikol Brandis

My interest in wine started 20 years ago in New York City when I took a wine tasting course with Master Sommelier Andrea (Immer) Robinson, one of 32 Master Sommeliers in the world and the first woman to ever be named best sommelier in the United States by the Sommelier Society of America (1997). It was an exhilierating, eye opening experience to say the least, and became the unforgettable beginning of my journey in to the wonderful world of wine. Around the same time, my father and his wife moved from Washington, D.C. to Provence, France, to follow their passion and became wine producers. Over the years, their hard work and dedication to the art of wine making has given me the privilege of being able to get up close and personal, even hands on, with the wine making (vinification) process. There is still so much I want to learn about wine, which excites me! And now, a big part of my journey, which I hope you will join me on, is Château Wines Direct. Cheers!