Majestic Wine's 6 bottle policy.

No not in the wine trade, just a very satisfied WS "Shareholder" for the past 15 years, I also cherry pick from the major supermarkets, Majestic very occasionally, independent wine retailers hard to find in my area, Wine Rack have just opened but they're on a larger scale I guess. But I do tend to find that time and time again I'm most satisfied with the WS wines, and they continue to win awards from the wine trade for their service. Great wines fair prices excellent service, result good value.

Chris 

No picture HH.

Tony,

If you like Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc you should try this one. It's delicious.

Mista H - the 'duty' on wine (Excise duty), is calculated on the basis of alcohol content so shouldn't vary according to the value of the wine.  However the cost of the wine plus the duty, plus shipping costs, and the retailer's margin is then subject to another tax i.e.  VAT, which as the term implies is based on cost. So you do pay more to HMG on more expensive wine.  

I think its a bit unfair on majestic. I find them excellent, they also accept returns if you don't like the wine. The 6 bottle allows discounts. They are also very successful? If you don't like their policy then dont buy .

You could bring a bottle Saturday, how about that ?!  ATB Peter

Maybe even six 

1/     Tony was ready to spend £44 on wine,all these clowns at Majestic had to do was stick his money in the till and give him a bag for his 2 bottles. About 90 seconds of work tops. Stuff Majestic i say.

2/     Would anyone like to give me a breakdown of costs on the Aldi £2.99 bottle. You say £2 is tax,leaving just 99P for everything else. With my simple brain in gear the wine itself works out at about 3P

Mista H

Mista

if you'd read the postings above, you'd understand that Majestic couldn't sell him two bottles - the nature of their licence precludes it.

Point taken Goon. Have to say that bit in Rods post i only skimmed over. Some of these laws go back to the stone age.

Its the same thing when you come back from Calais to Dover on the ferry. A voice comes over the tannoy system to say we are now entering UK waters so we are shutting the Duty Free. Bonkers

Mista h

PS.....Nice teeth,are you a dentist?

Far from it - my teeth aren't very good at all, and they weren't even eight years ago which is when that photo was taken.

I think it's been a while since you could buy anything duty free on channel crossings.

As explained it's against the law for Majestic to sell less than 6 bottles, so for the 2 bottle sale the company might risk a huge fine or even losing it's resale licence.  

Perhaps the employee of Majestic could have explained the reasons a bit better and not left a potential customer nonplussed and now a potential non customer.

In defence of The Wine Society...again!

Rod, I don't understand your grouping of the WS with Costco? One is a non profit making organisation run by members for members established over 140 years ago, the other very much a profit orientated multi product outlet with presumably shareholders to please?

The current WS quarterly list has, to pick one example, over 40 Rhone Reds ranging in price from £6.75 to £89 per bottle, i.e. pretty much something for everyone. Older vintages are also available at higher prices. Not many independent wine merchants will offer that range, and Majestic may struggle. "Their Exhibition" range of wines selected by and bottled only for the WS is tremendous quality and value. You also have their guarantee that if you are dissatisfied they will replace the wine.

Their opening offers of new vintages direct from the producer is another service for those you wish to invest in a particular type of wine.

I think they're pretty unique, and shouldn't be confused with simple online suppliers, or wholesale cash and carry outlets.

Anyway back to work.....

Best

Chris

Good reply Jota. Or maybe even a large sign within each of their shops explaining the situation,then customers would know exactly whats going on.

What amazes me is that most large retail chains have their own legal dept,and i would have thought they would(if they wanted to) have got this stupid rule kicked into touch by now.

Mista h

Chris, I agree, the Wine Soc are best for many things, but they do not have quite the buying power that Majestic does, and although it is 'not for profit', so is Waitrose (part of the John lewis Partnership) and this does not make them by any stretch 'cheap', although they nevertheless offer good value.

Costco, on the other hand, get lots of small parcels of the very finest wines, and they sell them very inexpensively, with the lowest margins (often less than 10%) of pretty much any good wine seller in the world, so they are on a parrallel in one sense, and completely different on another. Majestic definitely constitute a half-way house between these. Their six bottle policy, explained above (although quite why not in the store Tony visited is a mystery), may also help keep some overheads down, which helps their prices.

I sell wine for a living, but not in the UK, so no connections etc, but there is no way I would buy wine from a supermarket in Britain (maybe in France though). I know what their demands are, and quality is a very, very long way down a list which is headed by production volume. Tesco, Aldi and Lidl, for example all have a minimum pipe-fill of 25,000 cases. This rules out around 95% of all the wine producers in the world, and - frankly - absolutely all of the good ones.

But then, I am guilty of buying vegetables and bread in supermarkets, which is an exact alternative example of getting crap for convenience. Life is too short to be expert/connoisseur/selective about everything.

Earlier in the 'wine drink' thread I posted a cost analysis of wine in the UK and got, quelle surprise, roundly condemned with "snob" comments and so on, so I can't really be arsed with it much more.

However, I remain surprised that people who, almost by definition, are prepared to pay generous premiums for hi-fi equipment and recordings are still prepared to buy, and consider bargains, wine that can only possibly have been produced by industrial methods, by staff on minimum wages (or worse in some countries) from absolutely everything than can be shaken from a vine (leaves, sticks, mud, insects, as well as fruit of various stages of mouldiness) designed to produce the maximum crop  possible (inevitably involving fertilisers, fungicides and pesticides). This is the reality of how cheap wine is - has to be - made.

Really not very much more need be spent to avoid all this and open an avenue of flavour and quality (and staff welfare and respect for nature) people might not dream of. 

It is still possible to imagine, or experience, arriving at a dinner party to be met with hosts boasting of how little they have "managed to spend" on the wine. Well, you wouldn't eat the food if they boasted of how little they'd spent on the meat...

But if you like something, then you like it, and that's great. Wisdom, after all, is the acceptance that taste is subjective. More people buy Justin Bieber records than even Gallo White Zinfandel. Good luck to all of them.

Anyway, cheers!

Rod

Excellent post Rod, very illuminating, great to get informed opinion. I must admit that after posing to have my photo taken for the identity card at Costco last summer, I haven't set foot in there since, now I have a good enough reason!

Best

Chris

Rod

Tell me to mind my own business if you want,but what are the cheapest/dearest wines you sell ? and what are they called ? Got any Aldi type £2.99 specials !!

Mista h

Nothing special whatsoever about a bottle of wine for £2.99 Mista H!

As has been pointed out, ex-VAT, this is £2.39, of which the UK govt take £2.00. When you take out the various packaging and distribution costs, even if this bottle is sold at zero margin, of the 39p, the cost of the wine itself is now no more than 10p. It costs more than that to take mineral water from a spring.

To answer your question, our least expensive is €5.50 (no alcohol duty to speak of, on wine, in France). It's a perfectly nice and very drinkable Provence Rosé (as we're in Provence ourselves and buy direct, there are economies here. They deliver/we collect, only an hour away either way).

The most expensive we have currently is €15,000 (Domaine de la Romanée Conti, Romanée-Conti 1990). Which I am perfectly sure is worth every penny - so long as you have a vested interest in losing more pennies than your accumulated wealth accrues, that is.

Actually, I have tried this wine twice and it is genuinely very delicious, but the truly absurd price simply reflects the degree to which demand outstrips supply. There is a very real desire for the most expensive of anything, which helps propel the price up yet further.*

There is not sixty million dollars worth of paint on a Van Gogh canvas.

*in fact there is such a significant risk of any remaining bottles of this wine/vintage being fake, that a great part of what we/they charge/pay is spent on guaranteeing authenticity of provenance. Google "Rudy Kurniawan trial" for more.

I take great pleasure in drinking inexpensive young fruity wines (especially from Southern Italy and Spain). If agricultural land prices are cheap, then very drinkable and quite well made wine can be had for €5 - €6. This would become around £7.50 in the UK. I would rather drink beer or water than wine any cheaper than this. I have helped make wine, and on that evidence I would really countenance others start thinking the same. Doubtless this makes me a snob, sorry.

Cheers!