How much wine samples really cost for export. The numbers wineries never add up.

"How much do samples cost us?" is a question that, in the wineries I work with, almost always gets the same answer: "we already have the wine, so not much".

It's the wrong answer, and I gave it too before doing the maths.

I'll use the default numbers of our calculator, which are those of a mid-sized winery: 500 bottles a year shipped as samples, 7 euros production cost per bottle, 18 euros average shipping per bottle (around 8 within Europe, around 25 to the US and Asia), 18 euros selling price.

With these numbers the calculator returns 19,425 euros a year in sample costs. Here's what it's made of.

The wine: the line everyone counts

500 bottles at 7 euros is 3,500 euros of production cost. Everyone knows this, and it's the part everyone treats as "free" because the wine is already in the cellar.

But that bottle had a selling price. Every sample is one bottle fewer on the price list: at 18 euros, that's 9,000 euros of revenue that never comes in. Sellable wine, in our calculator, is about 30% of the total cost.

Logistics: the line nobody adds up

Shipping, packaging, pickup, paperwork. At an average of 18 euros per bottle that's 9,000 euros a year, and in the calculator logistics weighs about 55% of the sample cost.

It's the line that surprises people most once it's written down, because it's spread across dozens of small shipments and none of them looks expensive on its own.

Duties and VAT

Outside the EU a sample pays duty and, in many cases, import VAT, even when declared as a sample. In our model duties (~5%) and VAT (~10%) together are one seventh of the cost. On some non-EU markets they're much more.

Time, which never makes it into a spreadsheet

From the buyer's email to the bottle on their table it often takes two or three weeks: packaging to source, an alcohol-approved courier to set up, excise documents, pickup. In those weeks the buyer has already tasted someone else's wines.

This cost isn't in the 19,425 euros. But it's the one that loses markets.

What changes with the 100 ml format

Somelì fractions one bottle into 7 tasting experiences of 100 ml, in an inert atmosphere with Coravin Vinitas® technology, with the wine intact for over 12 months. With the same 500 "tastes" a year, the calculator brings the cost to between 2,914 and 6,799 euros, depending on the markets you ship to.

The saving, between 12,626 and 16,511 euros a year, comes from 4 places: you ship 7 times fewer bottles, packaging weighs a few grams and fits standard express services, duties and VAT are paid on one seventh of the volume, and 6 bottles out of 7 stay in the cellar to be sold.

Bastianich, which works this way with its own sales network, told us it achieved a net saving of about 80% on the cost of wine used to present new vintages. It's the number I see most often, between 70 and 85%.

How to run the numbers on your winery

The calculator has four sliders: bottles shipped per year, production cost, average shipping cost, selling price. Put in your numbers and look at the result. If you want a precise quote on your volumes, it arrives within 48 working hours.