For now, our wine shop ONLY accepts orders placed in 6- or 12-bottle increments. Please mix-and-match your wines into 6- and 12-bottle-sized orders only – thank you! All wine futures orders are shipped by the case. (12 bottles)

The reason our pricing is so good is because we sell you the wine either before or shortly after it is bottled. We only sell in full cases. This maximizes our efficiency and allows you to access the best priced wine on the planet. The trade-off to getting a $100 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon for $20 is that we will ship the wine to you in 1-3 months depending on the timing.

When De Négoce first launched in May 2020, the wines offered were still in barrel – this was a key feature of our model and why the wines are so well-priced. Quite a few wines are still offered this way; however, our growth has enabled us to get further along in the bottling cycle and we now offer recently bottled wines as well. Please read the release email closely to determine which state your wine is in and for the approximate ship date. Bottled wines usually ship 3-6 weeks from offer while unbottled wines can take 6-12 weeks to ship after the offer. Some take longer due to difficulties bottling in the Fall (it’s tough to bottle wines during harvest due to all the yeast flying around).

Yes, wines are available for purchase in the contiguous U.S. only excluding AL, AK, AR, DE, HI, IA, KS, MS, ND, RI, UT, WV.

In most instances, we purchase wines that have already been barrel-aged and are ready to go into the bottle. Once a wine is bottled it experiences “bottle shock” where, during the process, the wine picks up oxygen which temporarily forms compounds that act as a layer on top of the wine and muting its flavors and aromas. Different wines take different amounts of time to move through bottle shock. Good rules of thumb are as follows:

1. Bold, structured (high in tannin) Cabernets similar to those from Napa Valley or Walla Walla (as well as bigger, brawnier Syrah’s and even Zinfandel with lots of extract and oak) – 3-4 months to get through bottle shock. However, it’s very likely, particularly in good vintages, that the wines will improve greatly over the next 8 months as well, further coalescing in the bottle and getting more complex.
2. Medium-bodied reds like a Pinot Noir or Zinfandel – usually 2 to 3 months to get through bottle shock before settling in to gain complexity and bottle bouquet over the next couple of months.
3. Medium to full-bodied whites like Chardonnay, Rhone Whites, or barrel-aged Sauvignon Blancs – usually two, sometimes three, months to get through shock and then, depending on the wine, possibly several more months of bottle age to add complexity and bouquet.
4. Light-bodied whites like stainless steel fermented Sauvignon Blanc – 6-8 weeks in bottle and they are usually good to go but barrel-aged/fermented versions with a bit more stuffing will need another couple months and continue to develop additional complexity and bottle bouquet.

This is the date the wine goes into the bottle…see above for drinking timeline recommendations.

Wine is stored in either barrel or tank in an oxygen-free or “reductive” environment. When wine is transferred from tank/barrel to bottle, it picks up oxygen which creates compounds that act like a layer or blanket on top of the wine, muting its flavors. As well, filtration can break up phenolics that then need to coalesce again in the bottle. So, depending on the wine, getting through bottle shock takes anywhere from 4-6 weeks for light whites to 3-4 months for big reds (more on this below). 

While red wines take longer to move through bottle shock, high-quality reds that will age well also benefit from additional time in the bottle to develop mid-palate complexity and bottle bouquet. A good rule of thumb for high-quality Napa Cabernet is a good year in bottle before opening. Certain vintages, like Napa Valley Cabernet in 2013, are powerfully structured and are significantly benefitted by 3-4 years in bottle. It doesn’t mean you can’t drink and enjoy them before then; however, you are likely missing out on considerable complexity and approachability by not doing so.

Foils capsules were originally conceived to protect wines in damp cellars full of critters like boll weevils that feed on cork. However, given today’s modern storage conditions, those are likely no longer a threat. As well, the “technical closures” that we use to seal our wines are not an attractive food source for critters. The truth is capsules today are merely decorative and nothing more than an added expense. Given that, and the fact that 99% of capsules and are non-recyclable (polylaminate or dual materials are not recyclable), I decided to leave them off.

Technical closures can be made from cork that has been cleaned to be free of TCA (mold that causes “corked” or “cork-taint” aromas) such as a VINC or DIAM or plant-based solutions such as Nomacork that are naturally TCA-free. An additional benefit to these closures is predictable “oxygen transfer rates” are engineered into the closures allowing us to match the wine with its optimal closure, emphasizing early-drinkability in some wine and ageability in others. Having bottled literally over a thousand wines from around the globe under various closures and running multiple tracking tests of various closure on the same wine, I believe few in the industry have the experience with technical closures as our organization.

This information is located at the bottom of the product page for that wine.

However you want. The technical French pronunciation would be “duh nuh gose” but I like it with a little panache -  “day nuh go shay”.

No, the companies are completely separate. I founded Cameron Hughes Wine in 2001 and sold the company to Vintage Wine Estates in early 2017. I sourced the wines for CHWine while I started up Holy Grail Steak Co. (www.holygrailsteak.com) but left the company to start de Négoce

in Spring of 2020. I no longer have any association with CHWine.