If my neighbour’s selling his shiraz for $50 a bottle I’d better be at least the same price or people will think mine’s not as good. Welcome to the way small wine makers tend to fix their prices.
It should be no surprise. What a wine costs is how a majority of drinkers judge quality. They drink the label and the price tag not what’s in the bottle.
Wine makers ignore this at their peril. But with 2500 of them Australia wide they cannot all sell their total production at $50. Their art is to sell what is left over without ruining that high price image.
Originally there were retailers who sold surpluses with a wink and a nod as cleanskins. Then there was a period of disguising so-called bargains with bottles hidden behind paper bags. Occasionally things get so tough for a winery that they let a retailer advertise a massive price reduction.
As a purchaser of wine just remember how the discounted high price was originally fixed.
Each retailer to his own gimmick I suppose.
At Glug Wines we are confident we can find enough customers to keep our little business going by relying on our own reputation for providing value-for-money with wines we make and blend ourselves and buy from others.
