An Open Letter and Invitation to Lettie Teague

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I recently read an article by the award winning wine journalist Lettie Teague in The Wall Street Journal.

In it, she writes:

“I found better values in the white wines than the reds. At least half a dozen whites were particularly notable, including 2010 Paul Pernot & Fils Bourgogne Chardonnay ($20), which had all the mineral quality of a good Puligny-Montrachet, and the dense, well-structured 2010 Méo-Camuzet Bourgogne Blanc. There were classic 2012 Chablis made by well-regarded producers like Patrick Piuze and Christian Moreau. Both their basic wines showed the crisp, flinty character of the region. There were some disappointments, especially among the reds. The 2010 Domaine Ponsot Bourgogne Cuvée du Pinson Bourgogne and 2012 Frédéric Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Clos Prieur were charming and lithe but others were one-dimensional. With pleasant aromas but little left to savor, they offered only the most fleeting impression of Burgundy.”

While I am pleased that Lettie was fortunate enough to taste and enjoy Ponsot, who is an excellent producer, I can't help but feel that the article perpetuates the belief that it is hard to find values in red Burgundies. The sad truth is that there is, unfortunately, a great deal of truth behind this sentiment.

The reason though is not that the Burgundians are not making great entry level wines, it is that our own antiquated and highly inefficient distribution system makes European wines at all price points more expensive than they should be.

In short, to reword the great bard, “the fault dear Lettie is not in the French wines but in our own inefficient distribution system.”

As anyone who has visited European wineries can tell you, a wine that costs you $10 (net of tax) at the winery costs $25-$30 in the United States at traditional retail. This is because the wines are sold to an importer who sells them to a distributor who sells them to a retailer who sells them to the consumer.  The price goes up at each stage along the way.

There are a lot of great entry level wines that would be $20 or less that end up costing $30 or more as result of this inefficiency.  

Full disclosure, I have a slightly different model in my business, Fass Selections.  I call it Direct to Consumer.  I buy from the estate, sell direct to the consumer and pass on the savings from cutting out 2 layers of distribution (30-40%) to my customers.  Those $30 wines are $20 when I sell them (to be fair, I also sell a fair number of $100 wines for $60, but that’s off topic).  

There are a lot of great unrepresented wines out there, including a good number of Burgundies that I can source and sell for $20-$30.  Why?  Because the market for Burgundy is crowded and it’s hard to sell another $35 wine without a lot of work.   For some importers, they often have to dredge the bottom of the barrel to find a producer willing to sell wines at $8 that they can market in the States at $25.

When your wine store cuts out 2 layers of middlemen, the world of Burgundy values is a whole lot different as you’re saving 30-40% on each bottle.  It’s a lot easier for me to find undiscovered gems to sell at $25 because I can pay more than $8 per bottle  because I’m much more efficient.

Of course, I’m not asking Lettie to take my word for it.  I’m extending an open invitation for her to drink some Direct to Consumer wines with me.  To quote a more modern poet, “Welcome to the New Age.”