Port price at auction

[LOUISSS J]

My publication is partly a questioning and a release of my frustration.
I sometimes see you talking about the prices of Ports in auctions (or otherwise) but I can never compete with what I see. In Quebec (Canada, Montreal) the prices I see are often much higher and despite the price I pay it is sometimes a bargain for me. From memory, the examples I can give are: And these prices are good (CAN $)
Fonseca 1992 at $160 in 2015 and $200 in 2021.
Fonseca 1994 at $200 in 2015 and $225 in 2021.
Taylor 1994 $220 in 2015 and 2021.
Taylor 1970 at $600 around 2020 (at the SAQ… not a good price)
The only REAL bargains I've had are Fonseca 1970 at $200, Vesuvio 1994 at $110 in 2014 and Dow magnum 2000 at $150.
Also last week there will be an auction with 2 Fonseca 1977. I'm sure the final price will be at least $350 or even $400 each bottle. I am lucky to have another auction where there will be a lot with several bottles of Port with 1 Fonseca 1977 and I believe I can win the lot where the Fonseca 1977 would come back for around $300... which is still not a bargain for many of you.
I don't understand why the price in Northeast America is so high compared to Europe (or sometimes USA). I am condemned to pay more for my Ports...

[Al B.]

Hi Louis

I don’t know exactly why your Port prices are so high, but my guess would be that it’s due to the government control over the provincial market.

In the EU you can arbitrage prices really easily. If you can find a bottle of F77 being sold by someone in Germany for $100 and know the price you could sell it in France is $120 you can buy in Germany, sell in France, pay some postage and make, maybe, $15 profit.

This keeps pricing reasonably similar all over the EU and, to some extent, countries outside but physically close to the EU.

My understanding is that you just can’t do the same thing in Canada. You couldn’t buy at auction in BC or even in Maine and ship your wine in to Quebec because of government controls. Since you can’t just buy a cheap bottle wherever you find it you end up paying a huge premium for the rare bottle that the SAQ or someone else has already brought in to Quebec.

I guess your only options are (a) travel to the US regularly and bring back as much Port as you can each time you return or (b) move to Portugal!

[Glenn E.]

I don't understand why the price in Northeast America is so high compared to Europe (or sometimes USA). I am condemned to pay more for my Ports...

Prices in the US North East are generally very competitive with the rest of the country. I often find that New Jersey and New York have prices that are better than what I can find in California, but I often have difficulty shipping from those states to Washington due to Prohibition-era laws that are disrupting the free market for alcohol to this day.

I generally do not buy in Washington because our alcohol taxes are much too high - to the point that it is generally less expensive to buy in California, pay all taxes there, and then also pay for shipping to Washington than it is to buy in Washington.

And as Alex said, prices in Canada are pretty significantly impacted by your provincial liquor boards. Few things make much sense once you get the government involved.

All that said, part of the reason that prices are higher in North America than they are in Europe is the cost of importing. I've done a significant amount of that myself and it generally runs $15-$20 per bottle. That may not seem like much, but remember that when an importer is providing you with that service, they're going to charge more than that in order to make a profit for themselves. One of my favorite white Ports is 13 EUR in Portugal... by the time I get it imported and delivered to my house it has cost me around $30-$33 per bottle. If I compare that to prices online in the US for something similar... they're about the same.

Similar math seems to work for most Ports until they get to be 40+ years old. At that point they must seem really valuable because they're old to merchants in the US because the prices start to increase dramatically here but not as dramatically in Europe.

[Andy Velebil]

First, buy all the 1970 Fonseca and 2000 Dow's mags that you can afford. They won't get any cheaper, ever.

As for pricing, it's hard to specifically state. Bu there are some usual reasons;

- Shipping costs to the states
- local/state/federal taxes
- the 3-tier system in the USA
- Overhead. Few people factor in the high cost of rent/mortgage in certain USA cities. Which aren't anywhere near as expensive in other areas of the world.
- Marketing and personnel costs in the USA. Not just salary, but think of how many more people you need to have to cover the USA market vs a significantly smaller amount in a small European country.

All these and more may cause price differences. Hope that helps a bit.

[LOUISSS J]

First, buy all the 1970 Fonseca and 2000 Dow's mags that you can afford. They won't get any cheaper, ever.

Yeah! I had a big chance to buy them at this price. They were from the SAQ... I don't know why it was so cheap.

Thanks for all the comments...I feel my anger and my sadness go down.