State of the Wine Collector w/ Charlie Fu, Los Angeles

With a lot of economic uncertainty in early 2023, the fine and luxury wine space has remained relatively robust. Charlie Fu, an LA-based lawyer, wine collector, Wine Berserkers moderator, and caviar purveyor, gives us his thoughts on the state of the wine-collecting market. From Dry January, how they find new wines, navigating price increases, and Berserker Day, Charlie provides a good overview of wine collecting from his group's point of view. 

Detailed Show Notes: 

Charlie's background - LA-based collector, lawyer, caviar purveyor, and @clayfu.wine on Instagram

• He has a few thousand bottles of wine in his collection

Wine collecting group

• ~5-6 people meet for dinners in downtown LA
• Total group ~20-25 collectors
• Mostly early 30s-mid-40s, mostly male
• Focused on Burgundy, Rhone, & Champagne

Dry January has become more common

Finding new wines

• Recommendations from people in the industry, friends (including from IG), other collectors
• Someone they know personally and trust
• More guarded response when it's retailers recommending

Wine pricing

• Seeing secondary marketing pricing dip at the top end
• Retail release pricing keeps going up
• Secondary premium key to keeping collectors buying a "relatively good deal"
• He believes incremental price changes are less shocking than large shifts
• People want to know why the price is escalating; communications are critical to significant price changes
• There are thresholds when people stop buying - relative value, secondary pricing, and personal decisions on value

"Everyone's always looking for alternatives to Burgundy"

• e.g., Willamette Valley Pinot and Chard are seen as "Burgundian"
• e.g., Walter Scott as a white Burgundy substitute

Where people buy wine

• Retailers w/ an existing relationship where they offer reasonable pricing
• Brokers & auctions for the secondary market
• Domestic wineries mainly bought direct, "as long as it makes sense"
• Wine.com gets a reasonable allocation of high-end wine, but not flash sale or other sale sites

Mailing list/allocation systems

• People don't like forced purchase quarterly - e.g., the wine club model
• They prefer the optionality of offering systems
• Too much choice in an offer gets challenging - w/ no US vineyard hierarchy (vs. Burgundy), it's hard to distinguish between the wines

Collecting groups has not shown interest in wine investment

Wine Berserkers

• Site upgrade in Aug 2022 took some time to get used to
• Berserker Day - 2023 was the biggest ever
• Now two days, Preview day for "Grand Cru" subscribers
• Tips for wineries: 
• Be active before Berserkers Day (e.g., Goodfellow Winery from Willamette Valley was very active and did well on Berserker Day)
• 150+ listings need to have a good offer and stand out with a good description and potentially catchy one

Collecting trends

• Natural wines have had their phase
• More small production wineries, often connected to more famous ones, e.g., sons/daughters of prominent winemaking families

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