At a recent tasting event, a "Platinum" Two Masters member made a comment and suggestion.
The comment was centered around the shipment he recently received. One wine was the Realm cab - a spectacular red. The other, a far less expensive, less robust, red.
As you know, at Two Masters we work hard to deliver true value to our members. Our Platinum members pay $100 per month for their wines. Our objective is to ship this member two wines that 'retail' for about $150 combined. Thus, when pairing another wine with the Realm cab - a $125 retail value wine - the second wine must, by definition, have a retail value of about $25.
Intellectually, our member understood the process. It made sense. But, he suggested, the juxtaposition of these two very different wines 'felt' wrong. That made sense too. Side by side, they were so different he 'felt' they didn't belong together.
So we discussed the challenge: Some big, bold cabs are pretty expensive. If, on our journeys, we find a spectacular cab, Two Masters wants to share it with you. Which will result in a second bottle - most likely not a cab - of a far lower retail value. The math has to work this way.
We kicked around the idea of shipping only one bottle - if the one bottle exceeded a retail price of $125. This idea was quickly shelved - our member wanted two bottles! We completely understood!
Then we discussed the idea of NOT shipping the expensive cab at all. The proposed idea: No matter how great the wine, if the retail value exceeds $100, Two Masters will not ship it. After an extensive discussion, we decided we didn't like this option either. There are many stellar cabs we won't ship - they are simply over-priced. So we ignore them. But we come across a few, now and then, usually between $100 and $150 retail, that we absolutely LOVE! And believe you will too.
And so an idea was borne: A quarterly "Ultra-Platinum" category. No more than once per quarter - four times per year - Two Masters will ship to the member two bottles of these more expensive, robust, BIG cabs. However, if we don't find two worthy wines in a quarter, we will wait until we do. Then they will ship. Our objective would be to ship two cabs (or cab blends) that retail for about $300 combined - at a member price of $195.
So we'd like your opinion. Does this sounds like a good idea? Would you consider adding an "Ultra-Platinum" quarterly membership to your existing membership? Please let us know. With your feedback, we can continue to make Two Masters Wine Club the premier wine club in the nation. Thank you!
Terry Liebman
