XChateau is a podcast about all things wine, from vine to your glass. We tackle the business of wine and keep you up to date with new and exciting developments in the wine industry.In this episode, Robert Vernick and Peter Yeung interview Brian Retherford, founder of Claudine Wines, a modern, American micro-negociant.  We discuss the wine market inefficiencies that make a negociant model possible, how the wines of Claudine differ from the wineries’ wines, and where the best deals will be going forward. Other topics covered in this episode include:Brain’s background - 15 years in the US Army, now a cybersecurity consultantStarted by doing a Crushpad project - micro winemaking project that ended up being too expensive with insufficient qualityTypes of negociant modelsBuying fruitBuying bulk wineBuying finished wine in a barrel - Claudine’s main focusBuying bottled wineMarket inefficiencies in the wine industryTakes 3-4 years from harvest decision to selling wine, which creates supply/demand mismatchesOther opportunities: tasting room that burnt down in the fires, the winery decided not to release a wine it made to focus on the core region, yield variations year to year creating more wineWhat can Claudine put on the wine labelTry to be as specific as possible - using the AVA, but can’t discuss producer, winemaker, or vineyards usuallyOften shares a copy of language with winery before releasingSustainability of the businessKeep small scale (3-5 barrel projects) and do more projects vs bigger projectsFocus on higher-value - if a similar wine could be bought at Costco, won’t do the projectCurating great product and building customer trust over timeDifferences between Claudine and the winery’s wineMight be the same - “the last 100 cases off the line” or already bottled wineSome wine that didn’t make it into the final blend and have extra barrelsThe wine bulk marketBifurcated between top juice and commodity winesThe upper end is more competitiveWinery options other than negociants to sell excess wineDon’t produce (often not done b/c the marginal cost to produce is small)Lower price (not a popular option in the US)Sell to flash sale sites (e.g. - Last Bottle, WTSO)Wine gets “poured out” or destroyedClaudine customer demographicsCA - had wine events pre-COVIDNY, Boston, Kansas City - where Brian used to liveBrian knows about 1 in 10 customers nowSkews older in the age groupUpcoming deals - likely good opportunities by focusing on deepening relationship in NapaIf you loved this episode, we would love for you to subscribe, rate, and review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, cheers! Get access to library episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.