The Price of Wine

We all know it … Burgundies are expensive … and can even be very expensive …

A part is that the domaines have increased the prices significantly, but in reality, this is not the full picture.

The formulas used by many importers and restaurant accounts contribute significantly to the increase in what I like to call the percentage game.

Many wine merchants say that they take the same 50% markup as they always have … hence, indicating nothing has changed … but it has.

The percentage game

Calculating wine prices can be complex as we have transport, VAT and taxes of different sorts… but to illustrate the percentage game, I only look at the domaines’ price and the price markup done by the first link in the chain … in this case, called the importer.

For example, let’s take an Aligoté that is gradually hyped by the media (me as a journalist), and we see how the prices and revenues of the importer change as the prices increase …

Looking at the table shows that the importer’s revenue is far from constant, and, in fact, is “exploding” as the price of the bottle of Burgundy increases.

To me, it is hard to justify this increase for any wine, and for the hyped wines, there is little to no risk of not selling the wines … hence, cashing in 50 EUR by selling an aligoté seems excessive.

The Yada Yada

The importers, the traders, the restaurants will claim that the calculation above is not correct … but ask and judge for yourself … to me this has been the truth for more than 30 years.

And this is why many Burgundies are getting outside normal peoples reach! A Burgundy costing 20 EUR per bottle from the estate is suddenly 20 EUR per glass in the restaurants.

But yes, there can be corrections … but at large …

Next article will take on the restaurants in a equally simple calculation!!