The Next Great "Subscriber's Only" Buyer's Op

[Roy Hersh]

Coming soon to FTLOP Subscribers will be a fine mix of Ports, of which there is also a great value oriented, inexpensive Douro wine too, from QUEVEDO Port.

I am so happy to be able to bring the Ports of Quevedo here and I have been given a guarantee that FTLOP will have an advance "exclusive" on these and we will be the very first in the USA to have them available to us.

To make things even better, I must say the pricing is ABSOLUTELY out of this world and I am blown away how Quevedo and their new importer and the retailer we'll be buying through to get this done in as many states as possible, have worked with me to keep pricing to a remarkable level.

As an extra added BONUS for subscribers, you will be seeing pricing which will include DELIVERY to your door-step. So the price you see, is the price you get to put these into your cellar at. This makes the pricing even that much better. When you see what these will normally be selling for at retail, you realize the cost of your subscription if FREE when you buy a case of Quevedo through this offering.

If interested in being able to take advantage of these VPs, Colheita, Tawny, LBV etc. please do not wait to sign up for your subscription. Once this goes live it will be too late. There is also a really cool feature, which will be mentioned only to subscribers in the upcoming newsletter which will make this one of the truly greatest offerings we've ever done to reward our subscribers. It is a "gift" that will make this something really special, as FTLOP was a part of helping Oscar Quevedo to get into the USA. Trust me, you don't want to miss this. But I wanted to give those fence sitters, a chance to take part in this buying opportunity because the non-subscribers will not see this in their mailboxes.

Delivery of the Ports will be either late May or early June. More details to come in the newsletter. Start saving now. Minimum buy in is a mixed case and the prices make this very easy to achieve. I know there will be some buying many multiples of cases at these prices!

[Glenn E.]

Okay! Okay! I'll drop my check off on the way to the vet tomorrow morning!

[Andy Velebil]

having tasted through his range of Ports a couple of times there isn't a bad one in the bunch. I don't know what's in the offering (I gotta wait like everyone else), but his Colheita's and especially his 2007 Vintage Port all rock. There goes the budget

[Eric Menchen]

Shhhhhh! Let's just keep this a secret.

[Glenn E.]

It's probably wishful thinking, but there's one Quevedo Port in particular that I'd love to see in the offering. But I believe it is a family reserve so I'll have to be happy with the one taste I had last summer!

Roy, check your mailbox! (The physical one, not the email one.)

[Roy Hersh]

Sorry Glenn, for this inaugural effort, I tried to choose Ports that were more affordable and had enough quantity to make it worthwhile, so the 1968 Colheita that you are alluding to, is not part of this offering.

There will be many others that make this very worthwhile though.

[Roy Hersh]

Oscar just added a nice sweetner for this deal. For those purchasing at least a mixed case of wine/Ports, there will be a sample pack of 5 (ea. 187 ml) individually bottled 2007 Ports that were vinified by grape type, as a gift from Oscar to FTLOP subscribers. How cool is that?

[Glenn E.]

Awesome!!!

[Andy Velebil]

Oscar just added a nice sweetner for this deal. For those purchasing at least a mixed case of wine/Ports, there will be a sample pack of 5 (ea. 187 ml) individually bottled 2007 Ports that were vinified by grape type, as a gift from Oscar to FTLOP subscribers. How cool is that?

That's so cool.

For those that don't know, being able to taste the individual grape varieties is a very rare opportunity. And even more rare outside of actually visiting a producer yourself in Portugal. I've been lucky to have tasted individual grape types before and all I can say is it one of the most education things any Port lover can do.

[Eric Menchen]

So if I order two cases, do I get two of those samplers?

Either way, this is great.

[Roy Hersh]

Eric,

Most likely it will be one "bonus pack" per order, but there is a small chance that for anyone buying 3 cases or more (and there are some very reasonably priced offerings here ... one under $10 and others under $20 ... yes, DELIVERED price, that a 2nd "bonus pack of 5 2007 varietal Ports may be included. I say maybe, because this is not yet a done deal.

We're trying to keep this very aggressive for FTLOP Subscribers and there's still some last minute logistical issues we're dealing with. Please be patient, as the offering will be in the upcoming newsletter which will break at the beginning of next week.

[Glenn E.]

Heck, I'd probably order some of the samplers if we could! But selling them probably isn't legal from the IVDP's point of view, while distributing them as free samples along with an order is.

[David Spriggs]

Oscar just added a nice sweetner for this deal. For those purchasing at least a mixed case of wine/Ports, there will be a sample pack of 5 (ea. 187 ml) individually bottled 2007 Ports that were vinified by grape type, as a gift from Oscar to FTLOP subscribers. How cool is that?

That's very cool! I'm looking forward to this offer.

[Tim Swaback]

Just out of curiosity Roy, how long is the buyer's op available for? I have some $$ saved up for this but I just dipped into it to get one of the Crasto Nacional bottles on WTSO. I get paid next Friday. Thanks for the help and for this Opportunity!

[Roy Hersh]

This will be open for subscribers the entire 2nd week of May.

[Roy Hersh]

SNAFU ...

I hope that everyone who reads this specific post will respond below, as by tomorrow dinner time on the west coast, a FINAL decision must be made. We've run into a minor dilemma that we can use your input to put to bed. Thanks!


The importer came to me with pricing and we finally wound up in the happy zone. Then shipping costs were built into the equation when we found a GREAT retailer to handle the shipping to all legal states (you know who you are). The pricing still came in where I felt this was a worthy buying op for everyone. Now the sticking point.

Adding on the bonus pack (5 ea. 187 ml bottles) has caused an unforeseen issue. We've now found that the extra cost of shipping is about $12 for those 5 bottles. As I had mentioned we have tried to provide a delivered price ... you choose which products will fill a 12 bottle case in order to reach the minimum order (12 mixed bottles, NOT a minimum based on price) and the shipping cost is included for all. But the "bonus case" shipping cost now makes some of our pricing on a per bottle basis, look less GREAT, because many people won't think ... "oh yeah, that is a delivered price" and will just see the bottle price.

I am considering, taking the bottle pricing down to the raw selling price and advertising that and going back and having people pay the shipping cost for the number of bottles they order (still w/ a minimum of 12) and the additional $12, but in that way ... EVERYTHING will be more transparent.

I can't promise which way we'll go with this, but I am asking for your feedback and it will be seriously considered when making our final decision tomorrow late day. Thank you all for helping. I prefer to be upfront about all of this! Thanks.

Your thoughts?

[Eric Menchen]

Either way works for me. I'd slightly prefer the shipping cost broken out as that would match nearly all of my other purchases. Also, I suppose if someone didn't want their bonus pack for the $12 shipping, they could opt out of that? Me, I'm all over it.

[Andy Velebil]

I'd suggest leaving out the shipping cost, selling the bottles in a "traditional" retail way. Which I prefer anyways since shipping is a cost I typically ignore and doesn't factor into my buying (unless it's extremely expensive for no reason. I.E. shipping a case from the east coast to west coast using ground service is typically about $30/case. So if it's $50+/case ground then I've got issues). Then advertise the free bottles with the fact an additional shipping will be $xx.xx for the free sample bottles.

Solves two issues.
1- People will get a "lower" cost per bottle on the surface, making it a more lucrative offer on the surface (as everyone knows a shipping cost will already be involved anyways)
2- People have the option of paying for the sample pack to be shipped if they want one, or they can refuse the sample.

[Marco D.]

Not a big deal, but if I had to choose, I would probably separate the shipping costs out...

[Eric Johnson]

I'd lean toward splitting the shipping out separately, but it's not a deal breaker. It's just nice when the per bottle price seems cheaper.