TO YOUR WEALTH
World’s priciest wine club debuts
The oldest wine store in the US on Thursday uncorked what is likely the most expensive wine club in the world — one that will run you $15,600 a year. That’s $325 a bottle. After getting hit with the super-sized bill, you might need a good drink.
Acker Merrall & Condit, which has been in business in Manhattan for 197 years, is hoping there are enough wine lovers with a deep affection for the grape — and equally deep pockets.
The fee shocked even industry insiders.
“I don’t know of any wine club that has a $325 bottle,” said Kevin Zraly, author of Windows of the World Complete Wine Course.
Zraly oversees the Sherry Lehmann wine club — where the most expensive bottle is $50.
“We’ve talked about going to $100 a bottle,” Zraly confided.
Acker Merrall’s timing for a pricey wine club would seem to be perfect.
Wine sales have recently outpaced beer sales, according to a Nielsen report, and the number of wine clubs has risen commensurately.
The number of wine clubs has gone up about 25 percent, to nearly 100, over the past two years, according to WineClubReviews.net. The company tracks small to major clubs, including WSJ wine, Winc Wine Club — focused on $13 bottles — and the recently introduced Martha Stewart wine club.
Acker Merrall previously had a wine club that didn’t reflect the company’s elite status, said Chairman John Kapon, whose family has owned the company for several generations.
“It became a wine of the month or one of those other clubs,” Kapon told The Post at a tasting of the pricey wines. “It didn’t have the heart and soul of the company, which is me.”
Acker Merrall’s new monthly and quarterly subscription wine service offers four pricing tiers, starting at $30 a bottle.
The wine club is the first of other brand extensions that Acker Merrall, an auctioneer of fine wines, is considering, including wine bars and opening more stores across the country, Kapon told The Post.
“We are positioned to do great things beyond our backyard,” Kapon said, adding that “there are a lot of people who don’t know the Acker Merrall name,” but that “will be changing.”