Home made vs store bought wine: where the pennies go
I frequently mention that I enjoy brewing beer for the process but make wine so I’ll have it. Sometimes I’ve mentioned I used to sell wine at a commercial store, that I’ve a serious passion for wine, and that I even occasionally collect a bottle or two. Bill and I have each had times where we mentioned, on this blog, a bit of the economics of home made wine. Today I’d like to share something that few people are aware of: the quality and price comparison from home made wine to store bought wine.
Home wine makers know perfectly well that a bottle costs them between 2-5 bucks (depending on options we’ll talk about later) per bottle, after equipment is considered. What shocks most people is when they taste their first well-made home made wine and realize they’ve paid over $15 or $20 (sometimes more) for bottles that aren’t as good! The assumption is that somehow the product they buy should be superior to the ones they make.
Sure, we aren’t likely to make a bottle of wine that will compare to the cult Cabs of Napa or the best Bordeaux has to offer. They do make some big money on those wines, and the cost of those wines to produce is beyond what many of us will see in a lifetime. Thanks to “The Grapevine,” a wine industry magazine, we have a breakdown of the average bottle of wine — guess what? Our home made wines cost the same as the $20 bottles do!
Sure, you could download and read (I encourage you to do so, it is a very interesting magazine), but I will sum up a portion here. Of the $20 spent on an average bottle (assume domestic, import fees aren’t included in this analysis), under $6 ($5.83 is the cited average) is the cost of the grapes, winemkaing, barrels, tanks bottles, labels, corks, capsules, shipping, storage…
From there, the wine maker makes around 33% selling to a distributor ($8.67). The wholesale price is another 35% to 45% markup ($13.33 on average at this point to the retailer), then retail markup is around %33 over wholesale for about $20. Side note: CT state minimum is 30% markup. Unless something odd happens, sales/box prices/etc are still netting the store 30%.
What this means is that (regardless of how we feel about it), almost 3/4 of the price of a bottle of wine is going to people who’ve handled it, not the producers. What’s the other 1/4? Bottles aren’t cheap — I hunt for new bottles at reasonable prices, but my cost on some fancier bottles I’ve seen, even buying by the truck load as wineries would, is up over $3 each. Cheap bottles, cheap labels, … okay, let us just assume the least expensive cost on the winery’s supplies. Out of the nearly $6, half of that is going to be packing, labeling, etc., and that brings us to around (or under) $3 per the contents of the bottle.
Hm, that’s about what it costs us when we make wine, isn’t it? Only we’re paying for the labor of a manufacturing company to make concentrates, or we’re paying the wine maker to create the product that goes into the bottle.
The simple conclusion: it is better to be a wine maker.
« Kamil Juices have arrived! | Home | Closing early on the ‘eves! 2 PM! »
-
-
Recent Posts
Tags
Advintage all-grain beer beer brewing blackberry port black ipa Brewer's Best chocolate port citra connecticut ct extract extract kit French Collection grain homebrew home brew home brew all grain kit home brew beer homebrew kit hops how to Kamil Juices learn to make beer learn to make wine limited edition make beer make wine malt Mosto Italiano pick your own grain PSA IPA psa ipa kit by brewer's best recipe rj spagnols rj spagnols RQ white labs wine wine class wine kit wine kits wine making winexpert wyeast yeast
Leave a Comment