Abfüllung ·
Newsletter ·
Let's talk about bottlenecks.
Dear friends of good wine,
when a winegrower hears the word bottleneck, a pleasant tingling runs down his (or her) back - after all, it is the quintessence of beauty and goodness through which the wonderful wine comes to us.
But in the last twelve months, the word bottleneck has taken on a whole new dimension... with a pretty concrete impact on our day-to-day winemaking, because in English the word »bottle neck« is used for bottlenecks. And we have more than enough of that at the moment! We had already reported that the bottles were running out a bit. We've solved the problem (although the color doesn't always stay the same).
However, if such an elementary thing as a normal bottle can no longer be bought thoughtlessly at the push of a button, winegrowers get a little nervous. You toss and turn in bed at night thinking about things that you thought were impossible a year ago.
So what does the savvy entrepreneur do? Of course, he thinks about the extent to which it makes sense to stock up. Just as exciting as on the stock exchange (is the price falling or rising?), but a little less practical, because blocks of shares do not need storage space.
We thought back and forth and then decided to buy the bottles with a bulk shipment to be on the safe side, instead of stretching the shipments (as usual) over five months. That sounds perfect in theory and was actually a good decision. Because on the one hand we can sleep again and on the other hand we were able to buy the bottles at an incredible "bargain price" of only 40% price increase compared to the previous year (currently it is 80% more). Everything done right, we thought.
Until the pallets with around 150,000 bottles rolled into the yard all at once. It is said that some people lose themselves in the bottle. At times we were worried that we would lose ourselves under the bottles. But with every bottling we see a little more land again...
Next, our closure supplier spontaneously closed the location in Germany in October 2022. This means that there are only two closure suppliers in Germany that can meet our needs. Of course, we immediately got new offers - and swallowed dry when we saw the answer. A delivery time of 9 months would effectively have thrown the entire annual rhythm (which we have been following with only slight deviations since 1788!) off track.
So we looked further, accepted higher prices and, thank God, found an alternative. However, this alternative didn't come as quickly as planned, so we're bottling the new wines much later than usual this year. The good news: That doesn't affect the quality... The bad news: We have to be nose-to-nose for longer than expected live among the many empty bottles.
Our new price list (valid from 01.05.) cost us a few hairs tousled. But we think that we have found a good solution that ensures that we can all continue to live and enjoy. After all, that is the declared goal.
And oh, there are some delicious new wines this year... the freshly bottled Chardonnay is our senior chef Otmar's favourite. It almost seems Mediterranean, with a wonderful fullness that reflects the sunny year 2022. The Pinot Gris is also worth tasting, because these vines love the sun, and their feelings of happiness from the hot summer of 2022 landed directly in the glass.
In this sense: Challenges or not ... long live the enjoyment!
Greetings from the Palatinate
your rotating
Counts of Weyher
Counts of Weyher
PS The new prices are valid from May 1st, 2023 . Until then, the old prices are still valid - if you also want to stock up :-).
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