How to pay the fair price for your wine

When choosing wines to buy wine shops or restaurant, the question always is “is this wine going to be a good value?” While value of a wine can depend on a lot of factors and personal preference, one thing every wine buyer can check for is what the fair price to pay for a specific bottle is.

A bottle of wine can be sold at various price points depending on where you are shopping. Whether you are buying directly from the winery, from local shops, online retailers, online auction or at a restaurant, you are likely to see a good range of prices on the same bottle of wine.

Let’s say you are at a local shop and come across “2013 Dom Pérignon Champagne” (#3 most consumed wine on CellarTracker in 2023) for $240. If you do a google search, you will see

• $215 Vint Wine & Spirits Marketplace

• $245 from Total Wines

• $280 from wine.com

• $299 from GetWineOnline.com

Let’s take a look at another US wine, 2022 Caymus Cabernet

• $55.99 from total wines

• $68.97 from Total Wine

• $74.99 from Wine.com

• $79.95 from BuyWinesOnline.com

Pricing Information available on CellarTracker

So what’s the fair price to pay for the bottle? This is where CellarTracker’s pricing insights comes handy. CellarTracker subscribers can see:

• average value of the wine the community has paid for (purchase price of wines vs. list price)

• price of the wine from auction

• average price from retailers

Between all three pricing data, you are better able to determine if the price you are being offered is too high or a good deal.

Understanding pricing information on CellarTracker

To better understand pricing information in CellarTracker, note that community average value could be slightly lower than what you typically see at shops as CellarTracker accounts for historical purchase data. Another factor to note is that wine with age usually has more premium and wine prices go up and down in value. This means any price point slightly above community average value and around auction value could be considered fair.

• if you see prices similar to the community average value, this typically indicates that it could be a great buy/at a fair price

• if you see prices higher than the community average value but similar to the auction or retail prices, this could be a good buy at a fair price

• if you see prices being significantly higher than both community, auction, and retail price, this means there might be a better deal.

Download CellarTracker now and try searching for a wine to get pricing insights!

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