Wine-related auction to raise funds for a couple of causes in Beirut following the monstrous explosion there recently.
Lots of lovely-looking lots, including a 6 bottle vertical tasting case of Musar from TWS, vintages selected by @PierreM (between 1977 and 2005).
If it’s anything like the Aussie charity auction following the devastating fires there at the start of the year, prices will skyrocket way beyond my reach, but it won’t stop me bidding on a couple of lots.
I was looking at that vertical from TWS but I already have the three youngest ones. I suspect that '77 alone will push the price of that case sky high. However this means that TWS has sneakily tucked away bottles of Musar '77, '93 and '95.
As well as donating to this auction for Beirut I have just received an email from TWS offering a 12 bottle Lebanon case (Massaya, Hocahar and Tourelles) at a significant discount.
“I have spoken to Musar and also heard from another supplier, Tourelles, and asked them how The Wine Society might help. They both said the best way is by generating more sales for their wines which in turn contributes more to the Lebanese economy.”
You have to laugh. The Wine Society asked how they can help their Lebanon suppliers. The suppliers say the best support would be increased sales of wine.
The Wine Society agrees, puts toghether a mix case which immediately sells out. Clearly the Society wants to help, but only by contributing a miniscule supply of wine for the offer! You have to wonder why the Society bothered to put together the case, the email campaign but clearly have next to no stock availible.
Maybe a 6 bottle case would have been better, but if all the stock they had / could arrange was in this offer (Hochar still available), then still great to see TWS make the effort.
Yes, perhaps it is a website issue. But yes, terribly strange to put all this effort into such a ridiculously under-stocked offer.
I know we had the infamous Bin 5 issue but that was formally launched before the email went out and survived about 4 days. As far as I know, this was launched simultaneously with the email and seemed to be immediately out of stock.
You’d think that any offer which the Society deems worthy of being the focus of an email marketing campaign would have sufficient stock to stand behind it. If not, just quietly put the case on the site with the discount in the discounted case section and it will sell out in due course anyway.
Hi guys! More info incoming (and we’re doing our best to secure more stock too) but just wanted to apologise for how fast this sold out.
It was an utterly phenomenal response from you - we had a large amount of stock but demand from members wanting to support Lebanon has been so great that sales quickly exceeded even our most optimistic forecasts and the case sold out in record time!
Please bear with us while we try to secure more stock - I’ll update you all ASAP.
Of course the good news is that it means the offer is doing exactly what it is meant to do. TWS and any other merchants stocking Lebanese wine are going to be desperately trying to get more stock and ultimately that means more exports from Lebanon. Though I’m not sure how capable the port in Beirut is for shipping them right now. But the point is there is suddenly fresh demand for Lebanese wines which has to be a good thing for them in the long run.
I think the plan was to use Tripoli as Lebanon’s main port until Beirut is up and running again, although if it (presumably) has a smaller capacity, anything that is not inbound food and raw materials will have to wait its turn.
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