Dear Costco:
I was alarmed yesterday to learn from a colleague—the estimable Jeff Siegel, aka winecurmudgeon.com—that Costco has drawn a new line in the 100-point-scale sand, and henceforth will not stock any new wine retailing for $15 or under unless the wine has earned a rating of 90 points or higher.
Presuming this to be the case (and Curmudg is a professional journalist; I trust his sourcing), I must ask: Have you lost your palate and your mind? Was the Costco wine director sidelined by a sizzling hors d’oeuvre, or have you just decided to toss in the towel on having any sense of authority as a wine purveyor?
Setting wine-merchandising policy based on critics’ ratings sends quite the message to your customers and the wine industry. It says you don’t have the sense or sensibility to judge wines for yourself as they walk in through the wholesale door. It also says that corporate-Costco doesn’t have much confidence in its floor staff being able to express what they actually think of the wines they sell (note: not good for self-esteem).
It comes as no surprise that Costco chooses as crutches the usual 90-point suspects: Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast. Does it concern you that not one of these “critical” media offers transparency as to its methods? They are all sausage factories, taking wine in one end and spitting numbers out the other. As if their methods or results of WA, WS and WE were even comparable! The false precision of scores belies the fact that some wines are judged blind, some not blind; some are rated on a trip here or a trade tasting there, others in the clinical glare of the office at the end of a hard day; some are even rated via tasting sessions with winemakers or winery reps pouring. About the only things the three media sources have in common are: A) a commitment to rating wines in the absence of food; and B) a belief that there are too many wines to be handled by panels (not that Costco cares a wink about letting customers know that the numbers are generated by “beat” critics, not magazine panels). And true to your sell-by-numbers mentality, it appears on the Costco website that only the highest rating for any given wine deserves to be shown. Why am I not surprised?
Rather than continuing to spank you for a clutzy corporate gaffe, let me instead send some praise Costco competitors. First we have Whole Foods, which has the vinous moxie to pick and tout a roundup of “Top Ten Summer Wines” (starting at uner $9 and including two of my personal faves: Bonterra Rosé and Vinum Cellars Chenin Blanc). Nice job, Whole Foods. What are your top ten summer wines, Costco? Or should we just ask straight away for your top ten scoring wines are?
And let us actually praise the big daddy of online wine, none other than wine.com. Why? Aren’t these the guys who tattled on other retailers who were shipping wine outside of prevailing state laws? Well, yes. But they also happen to be trying to make some very progressive changes in the way they use ratings to market wines to customers. Specifically, at some point this summer, wine.com will be adjusting their ratings page to make clear that scores are given by individual critics; in other words, they are planning to account for the fact that not all wines rated by the Wine Advocate are judged by Robert Parker, and therefore should not all say “RP,” and that wines rated by “WS” are also the output of single critics, not panels, and so on.
This may not seem like a big deal, but I think of it as a significant if subtle vote for transparency, a step toward improving customer awareness. And after they clarify the critics behind the scores, maybe wine.com will adjust their policy of showing only the highest ratings. And maybe after that they’ll list the alcohol-by-volume so we can all see how many of the 90-point reds are actually high-octane reds….
Ah, I am getting ahead of myself. The point for now is this: Costco, your 90-point cutoff policy for new placements is an insult to your customers, to the industry, and to wine itself, whose character has never successfully been quantified by any data other than price. Have a little more pride in what you do, thank you please!
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June 4, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Sonadora
Only 90 points and above SUCKS as a policy. So many wines never even receive a rating, but they somehow aren’t worthy just because the winery didn’t send out samples to the big critics to get them scored? Pshaw. Plus, I’ll take my local retailer’s suggestion over a 90 from a magazine any day of the week.
June 4, 2009 at 3:24 pm
John M. Kelly
Tish – is your wine glass half-empty? Well, mine is half-full. I see this move by Costco as perhaps the greatest thing ever to have happened in the modern wine era. Don’t you think this devalues the whole points-based approach?
June 4, 2009 at 7:10 pm
wrtish
I do see your point, certainly. But for incidents like this to truly devalue the whole concept of points, regular people need to hear about it and change their perceptions. Indeed, with scores, ratings on the 100-point scale still lend to people perceiving scores as a very consistent, accurate, authoritative and independent thing…. As a whole, of course, nothing could be less true. But people ARE catching on.
June 4, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Larry Chandler
Does anyone know the sales of wines that have not rated 90 points or above? Maybe they will become like BevMo and rate the wines themselves just to push sales. “Well, we got a good deal on these pallets of wine, so let’s give it 90, no, how about 93 points?”
June 4, 2009 at 7:12 pm
wrtish
Yes, BevMo’s practice of slapping its own scores on wine is arguably even worse than Costco’s. Ditto Sam’s in Chicago (where they love the number 92, apparently, for their own must-move specials) and of course those online marketing geniuses at Wine Legacy and Wine Express.
The Internet is helping expose the inefficacy and outright hypocrisy of scores… but it will still take some time.
June 4, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Alfonso C
Interesting post, Tish. Thanks for reporting this.
June 4, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Carmel
I think this is a tad bit harsh. Costco may not really know any better–only selling wines with a high rating sounds good on paper–it appears that they are only providing the best to their consumers. Granted the consumers impressed by this may not realize that those rating them have no actual authority. Costco is aiming to be a low-cost leader. Whole Foods has an obligation to be more discriminating as they are targeting an audience that demands it. Whole Foods customers will know that a rating is just a critic’s opinion. Maybe Costco is counting on that distinction?
The whole rating system is probably rigged anyway. Isn’t wine a subjective matter for the most part?
June 4, 2009 at 7:22 pm
wrtish
Thanks for the comment. I admit I am more passioinate in my anti-ratings rants than most people, but I think I need to be to make my points stick. The whole problem with ratings is more complicated than any one incident or post can cover. Costco is a huge wine retailer, and in their corporate materials they like to present themselves as being arbiters of good wine. I am merely pointing out that if 90-points as a requirement for placements is how they set standards, then I’m not buyin’ it.
June 4, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Carmel
I think that’s fine. I can be a bit of a food snob and I hate to see places like Walmart promoting their produce as high quality when clearly it’s not. However, I must realize that I’m not their target audience. I think the rant should has come across more toward Costco for using a poor system as a marketing tool, when it’s really more toward the points system itself.
June 4, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Tim Elliott
Does this mean they will stop selling Cameron Hughes because he doesn’t submit wines to the usual suspects? I doubt it… plus, they sell a lot of plonk in big bottles/boxes.
I love your satire tho
June 4, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Mark Koppen
They are going to have one SMALL wine department from now on…
Rampant stupidity – unbelievable.
June 5, 2009 at 8:02 am
brian tannebaum
Moronic.
Costco has that row of wine still in it’s cardboard boxes, stacked up, for usually under $15. I’ve tried many of them, bought them for big parties, and enjoyed some that I’ve never heard of. Most wines under $15 don’t rate a 90 so I can’ only believe they will be severely diminishing their stock. Maybe that’s their goal.
June 5, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Jeff Siegel
I will have an update on this on Monday, Tish. The plot thickens.
June 5, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Don Williams
Could it be that Costco knows that the wine ratings will be received by very large wineries owned by large corporate wine sellers. I have noticed that some wines-wineries always seem to receive higher ratings after the winery is purchased by one of the big 2-3 companies.
I wonder if that is also going to apply to their house label?? it does make one wonder.
June 5, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Clinton Stark
I’m not sure this is fact, yet? Our local Costco carries plenty of sub-90 pt. wines in the 80 pt range for $7/8/9, that are great value.
Not sure I’m sold on the validity of the story.
Costco does have a history of pinching suppliers. High quality, low price. But guess who’s margins get squeezed? And who (the supplier) has to foot the expense for the liberal return policy? Still, we go once a week to Costco. They have a great wine selection (check out Merryvale Starmont Cab for $17.99)
June 6, 2009 at 6:54 am
wrtish
Yes, Costcos do carry sub-90 pt. wines under $10. THat’s the natural order of wine, as most <$10 wines lack the sheer oomph to climb over that intensity threshold in the usual critic's palate. Tthe practice/policy outlined here is supposedly being applied to new placements. The jungle is getting fiercer, and this seems to be one way Cotsco is knuckling down….
June 6, 2009 at 11:47 am
bruce nichols
Shallow approach on Costco’s part, yes. However… this sadly, is what most wine shoppers are looking for. This piece really is preaching to the choir. What percentage of all Costco buyers are reading this, or any blog, on-line subscription, e-magazine etc. Don’t get me wrong, I fight the ratings all the time, but bottom line is ratings drive sales.
That being said, a local merchant here in Naples, Florida has a rating system he explained to me when I asked why none of the wines he selects for the store included ratings from the Big 3. His reply: “I have my own two-point rating system. 1 if I like it, 2 if I don’t.” Gotta love it!
One other point. I have bought wine from Costco many, many times. Never once in all those visits did I see someone on the floor who knew anything about wine.
June 6, 2009 at 11:52 am
Randy
LOL!!! To Costco… Good luck with that one dudes. As the wine industry becomes mor aware of the joke of the 100-point scale concept, a corporate giant leans even more towards the numerical score monkeys. Great job Costco! But what did we expect from a bottom-lining, “profit center” org like costco. This was they don’t have to do any homework themselves, rather rely of people who don’t really know bout the ART of grapegrowing or winemaking. I will never buy another bottle from them. Atta boys, giving even more unjustified power of OUR products to a few “Keyboard Connoisseurs” like RP, WE, WS; those who write about wine as if they’ve actually spent a day in the vineyards or an hour as a cellar rat.
And the sad but true story continues…
June 6, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Gregg Burke
I think this is fantastic. This only strengthens my resolve to not use points of any kind in my wine shop. This really shows how silly the 100 point system has become. What is the difference between 89 and 90? I am happy to say that I have been able to move alot of wine that most people have never heard of and not because of scores, but because I taste almost everything that comes in and I have been able to find alot of wines that over deliver. So I salute Costco’s decision. Keep up the good work.
June 7, 2009 at 12:19 am
Robert
I worked for Costco for twelve years and I think this is a good thing. They are trying to position itself as a quality wine retailer. They company gets hit with hundreds of wineries trying to move their wine through their stores. Some are good, some are not.
The whole idea is to move a large volume and make some money at it since they only mark up the wine 10-15%. If they have pallets of not-very-good-wine it is going to sit on the floor and take up space, while they could better use the space to sell a better wine and offer the best wine for people who pay a memebership to get lower prices. If they have to use a point system to help the consumer identify that these wines are of good-high quality at a great price, so be it. Most people who shop at Costco are not educated in wine, the wine industry, what the scores mean, etc. They know what they like, they identify with varietals and labels, and might recognize an appelation or two. The point system helps the member make a choice.
No conspiracy, no hype, just something that works, much to the chagrin of wineries and sales people that are not producing a quality product.
June 8, 2009 at 9:07 am
Sunny Brown
Costco wines are based on sweetheart deals with companies like Constellation. et al. If anyone out there thinks for one second that the wines they “choose” will change in any way they are fooling themselves. They will still buy based on how many skids they can get at a lower price than the local wine shop. Costco says they will use Advocate, Spectator and Enthusiast. How long after the Menage a Trois scores below 90 in all three do they start using Tanzer, Robin Garr, The Conossiuers guide and eventually Uncle Joe’s Crazy Wine Publication to make sure that they have a 90? This is merely a PR move to take advantage of the score hounds out there and to make their industrial-made wines look more attractive and nothing more.
June 8, 2009 at 3:11 am
STEVE HEIMOFF| WINE BLOG » Blog Archive » I am not a sausage
[...] learn, via The Wine Skewer blog, which itself learned it from The Wine Curmudgen blog, that giant retailer Costco “has told its [...]
June 8, 2009 at 9:10 am
Ron McFarland
There are probably other wine shops out there with similar modes of selection. At some point consumers will venture down the street or across town and discover a wine shop with staff who know the wines, know how to communicate with all consumers and make this part of their wine shopping experience.
Points will always be with us, it is the perception of these points that are facing a new day. The move by Costco only matches what their customers are putting in their shopping carts.
June 8, 2009 at 11:54 am
The Juice Factor
It’s obvious that Costco is streamlining it’s buying and selling of wines. I believe their feeling is now any moron can do their buying and selling for them thus eliminating any wine buyer or floor salesmanship that was previously employed. So now their accountant can buy the wines” by the numbers of course!”
June 8, 2009 at 12:24 pm
St. Vini
Probably a bit of a tempest in a teapot…Costco is presented with thousands of wines, has only so much room on the floor…This is a way to cut through some of the clutter and simplify their decision. They generally like placements that are mass produced/marketed and I’m sure that if a rep walked in there with something new that had 89 points and offered them some sweet pricing, that Costco would take it…
V
June 8, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Samantha Dugan
This is very good news for our shop indeed. We have a Costco a couple of blocks away, needless to say, we make it a point not to have the same wines, (cannot get the same discounts they get, plus we focus on smaller, more artisan wines anyway) so if a wine ends up at Costco, we no longer carry it. They can weed out the “winners” and we can gather the rest..hooray.
June 8, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Bartholomew Broadbent
This is an interesting discussion. Although I respect Costco’s philosophy, in practice I doubt they will stick to this philosophy for the long term, simply because one of the fastest growing categories of wine in America is Vinho Verde and this is a wine that will never receive a 90+ point score from the publications unless the publications start basing scores relative to other wines in a category.
Our own Broadbent Vinho Verde was selected by The Wine Spectator as one of the “top 15 value wines for Summer drinking” yet it didn’t get 90 points because of the nature of that wine [Food&Wine also ranked it "one of the top 10 wines to buy by the case for Summer drinking" but Costco doesn't take them into account].
It is interesting that The Wine Spectator would rate a wine as one of the “top 15 value wine”, a review that should trump any score, yet doesn’t pass the bar at Costco.
Again, I think they will eventually make exceptions. They have a VERY good and educated team of regional wine buyers and this philosophy will help as a guideline but can’t possibly stand up to the test of time. In theory it is good and it says that they are committed to quality but exceptions have to be made.
June 8, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Charlie Olken
I am not sure I would call this a tempest in a teapot, but rather a tempest in a teapot in which I don’t swim. When was the last time that the majority of posters here bought wine at Costco? The Olkens buy toilet paper there and batteries, we buy cans of tuna and Bruce Aidells sausages. In other words, we buy commodities, not specialty items. No one would argue that Costco does not move a lot of wine, but they cannot be interested in the wines that Sam Dugan carries or that we buy for the most part.
And if you go into Costco and see a genuine bargain on some wine you like, well good for you.
But, this Costco gambit, if it even takes hold, is not going to kill the 100-point system. That system will die when something better comes along. There are not enough Sam Dugans with great little wine shops in the world to kill off the current rating system or to prevent the next best thing from taking its place.
When people send money to Parker or the Wine Enthusiast or Connoisseurs’ Guide, they are not paying for points, they are paying for judgment. That is also what a good wine merchant offers. And in Sam Dugan’s case, it is judgment with a catch. She will sell you all the wine that’s good to drink just as long as it is not sold at Costco. She is making a strategic business decision when she does that. For better or for worse, Costco is dong the same thing.
June 8, 2009 at 8:17 pm
John M. Kelly
“…much to the chagrin of wineries and sales people that are not producing a quality product.”
WHOA pardner! You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the ***k do you think you’re talking to?
One, I have yet to see a wine of any quality produced by “sales people” – by definition. Two, I and a whole bunch of people with gigs like mine are making products that have qualities – and quality – unmeasurable on anyone’s 100-pt scale. And would never be found on the shelf at Costco even before implementaion of the 90pt+ policy.
As a guy who’s out there every day actually trying to move my little bit of wine through the stupendously efficient 3-tier system, I can tell you that many buyers for retailers are looking for ANY excuse to say “no” to picking a wine – especially in this economy, where leaner inventories are the norm. (I am using a broad-brush generalizaton here – thank you SO much to all you out there who have said “yes” to our wines!) St. Vini probably has it right.
June 8, 2009 at 9:18 pm
bruce nichols
Charles,
Agree, but I think many of the same people who buy Costco’s “commodities” may put their wine purchases in the same category (as sad, or appalling, to some as that may be). I certainly don’t want to chastise these bargain hunters for looking for best price, but I also doubt they are as obsessed with pedigree, label hunting, etc. as the wide world of wine bloggers. I rally against the big box stores as often as I can not so much for their love of ratings or anything else, but for the absence of passion the “little guy” merchants who care about each and every bottle they stock on their shelves. But it’s tough for them to compete with the buying power and ability to markup wines at 14%.
June 8, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Charlie Olken
Bruce–
Sure it is hard for them to compete with Costco. I can’t compete with Marvin Shanken and his full page ads in various places, any one of which costs more than my yearly advertising budget.
We choose our niche and start competing. It is as simple as that. I am not owed a living by anybody and neither are wine merchants. Sam Dugan, who sounds like she runs a very cool wine store, nevertheless is in business because she chooses to be.
You are exactly right. Wine is a commodity, and we already know that most wine, even decent wine of the type I review, is consumed within days of its purchase, much of it bought at grocery stores (at least here in CA). The existence of Costco’s wine section is just part of the overall fabric of wine consumption.
And while many folks treat wine as a commodity, I doubt very few here do, which is why I view the concerns over Costco and the amazing claims that its actions will lead to the end of wine ratings to be just a bit farfetched.
June 9, 2009 at 3:09 am
Samantha Dugan
Okay, I have not stepped foot in a Costco since I was about 19 years old, (I just turned 38 and back then it was called Price Club) and it had little to do, (then) with the things or quality of the stuff they stock, it was more a general sense of “yuck” about the greed, stuffing faces with samples and I thought the people in there were rude…banging into one another with the carts stuffed with vats of Mayo and Ketsup, it creeped me out so I quit going.
None of that was the store’s fault, nor is the reason we choose not to stock the same wines, (and Mr. Olken…you are correct, good or bad) we stopped stocking the same wines when distributors started selling the wines to them, at such a HUGE discount, that they could sell them for less then our wholesale price. Like I said, not the store’s fault and I give them credit for being a discount store that seems to have some cred as it were…cannot remember the last time someone recoiled (like they do about WallMart) when someone mentioned Costco.
That being said, Costco is still a brand, a brand with a red tag appeal. People going in know that and many winemakers I know don’t want their brand in any way linked to Costco’s brand. It is for those people, that I believe our store does a service.
Do I think the Costco deal is going to kill the scoring system currently used for wine…probably not, but I think they might move more wine if we got rid of that system. Just the tasting notes, let people read those and see if there is something there that sounds interesting or simply delicious, I just feel that numbers tend to skid away from personal taste and lean more to status. I fear that the more status drinkers, the less long term wine lovers….and that, that I am 100% against.
June 9, 2009 at 6:32 am
90 Points of Costco Wine « WineZag
[...] and reports at Wine Curmudgeon, Steve Heimoff, and The Wine Skewer surrounding the Costco policy rumor flare up have defended, but more often maligned the point [...]
June 9, 2009 at 7:44 am
adamjapko
Costco is battling a 0.2% retail profit margin on shrinking sales volume. The new conservatism in consumerism that is plaguing all retailers has produced a 28% decline in operating results on a per share basis for their third quarter compared to the same quarter last year. They need to tweak everything and exclusively inventorying wine at the right price points and rating levels makes sense for them. Costco should not care less about the injustices in relying on the 100 point scale for exacting communications about a wine’s component flavors or aromas. It might disadvantage certain producers and sellers, but that’s the breaks in this world of consumer advocacy and open capitalism. There are plenty of places to go besides a warehouse that sells socks and caskets alongside wine to develop preferences and seek buying advice.
June 9, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Twitted by marycressler
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June 15, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Dennis Schaefer
I also picked up on the story from The Wine Curmudgeon site and then did my own rant on it. Oddly enough, Tom Matthews, editor at Wine Spectator got fired up enough to leave a comment about it.
http://www.examiner.com/x-11305-Kansas-City-Wine-Examiner~y2009m6d11-Wines-at-Costco-Going-for-the-big-scores
Of course, WS has an ax to grind in this mess. But go figure.
June 19, 2009 at 10:34 am
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[...] A Memo to COSTCO, on Learning of Your New 90-Point Low [...]