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Wine Price Notes
How wine prices are displayed within the Wine-Searcher database
of price lists from 32,435 wine merchants.
- What do the Icons stand for?
 = Primarily a retail business.
 = Full e-commerce website with online ordering.
 = World-wide delivery (see below).
 = Wines may not be in stock but can be sourced; fulfilment may take longer.
 = Merchant has a product-specific page (deep link) on their site.
- Tax Handling
- We display prices as we receive them; we neither remove nor add any taxes. For example, for our USA merchants, prices listed on Wine-Searcher exclude sales tax. For countries in Europe some merchant price lists may exclude sales taxes, but most will include them. We show the tax status of each list in the 'description' information.
You may find it helpful to look at the sales and excise tax rates in the European Union and in the USA.
Note: sales taxes are not always recoverable by trade or overseas customers – make sure
you check the position directly with the merchant concerned.
- Average prices and price ranges
- These calculated prices exclude sales taxes. For more information on this process please look at our Average Prices and Price Ranges page.
- Exchange Rates
- Wine-Searcher uses inter-bank rates to convert currencies and updates them daily. If you are purchasing wine from abroad, be aware that credit card companies use a slightly less advantageous exchange rate than inter-bank.
- Excise and Import Taxes
- Wine-Searcher does not adjust for Excise taxes. Some merchants quote 'in bond' prices (i.e. Excise duty unpaid) – see the 'Common Abbreviations' section below. These taxes are usually much lower than sales taxes.
- Does the merchant have the wine?
- On average, we renew all prices three times per week directly from
the websites of the sellers, and (in theory) they had
the wine when our software visited. However,
most merchants do not have 'real time' price lists (a few update their lists only seasonally) and recently reviewed wines can sell out very quickly. We therefore cannot guarantee the retailer has the wine you want. Contact the seller directly to confirm stock availability and please let us know about consistent problems. While we know that every list will have the occasional inaccuracy, we remove from the site those price lists which are always misleading. Within the Pro Version of the website, we show the date we obtained each entry (directly underneath the price).
- The merchant's price is different from Wine-Searcher's
- This may be due to the fact that the merchant has supplied us with a tax-exclusive price list. Additionally, the prices of some highly traded wines do fluctuate quickly.
Some merchants have tried 'Bait and Switch' tactics (listing wines they do not stock at attractive prices); we remove such lists as soon as we become aware of them.
- What does 'World Wide Delivery' mean?
- For merchants we list as offering 'World Wide Delivery', we do not guarantee they will deliver to every country (although they will deliver to most). For example, there are import restrictions in countries where there is a government monopoly on alcohol sales
(such as Canada and some Scandinavian countries). Furthermore, some non-US merchants will not deliver into the United States because of the complexity of regulations which currently exist. It is best to contact merchants directly to confirm their position.
- Can the merchant deliver the wine?
- Click the merchant's name to view delivery areas. Within the US we show the home state of each merchant. Check the
Wine Institute's list to see if merchants in that state are permitted to deliver to you.
- Local Delivery Charges
- Delivery charges are described where possible (click the merchant's name to view). International shipping and taxes are complex, so please contact the merchant for full details.
- Sort Order
- Wine-Searcher puts wines in price order, so this tends to put halves before bottles, which are before cases.
- Auction Listings
- For auctions running live over the web, we typically list the current bid price; for auctions that occur on a particular day we show the low estimate. Wines that are being sold by auction are identified by the word 'AUCTION' displayed in front of the bottle size. You are able to search just the auctions (or alternatively just the retailers) by using the 'Show: Auctions Only' option (e.g. search for Dom Perignon coming up at future auctions). In some auction situations, sales taxes can be non-recoverable.
- Bottle Sizes
- The following are the standard sizes. Where we are unsure of the bottle size, a '-' is used. (Note: Our software does occasionally confuse case and bottle prices. We make every effort to keep such errors to a minimum).
| Description | Liter |
| Miniature | < 0.250 |
| Quarter | 0.250 |
| Half Bottle, H/Bottle, Demi | 0.375 |
| H/Liter | 0.500 |
| Pint | 0.650 |
| Bottle (spirits and some older bottles in 0.700 litre size) | 0.750 |
| Liter | 1.000 |
| Magnum (2 bottles) | 1.500 |
| Marie-Jeanne (3 bottles) | 2.250 |
| Double Magnum, D/Magnum (4 bottles) | 3.000 |
| Jeroboam (Burgundy/Champagne) (4 bottles) | 3.000 |
| Jeroboam (Bordeaux), Rehoboam (Champ) (6 bottles) | 4.500 |
| Imperial, Methuselah (Champ) (8 bottles) | 6.000 |
| Salmanazar (12 bottles) | 9.000 |
| Balthazar (16 bottles) | 12.000 |
| Nebuchadnezzar (20 bottles) | 15.000 |
| Melchior (24 bottles) | 18.000 |
| Primat (36 bottles) | 27.000 |
- Common Abbreviations
- Wholesale merchants, auction houses and brokers use a range of abbreviations. A full list of common wine terms and abbreviations is available. Some of the most frequently used, in alphabetical order, are:
| Description | Name | | BN | Base Neck Fill |
| BSL | Bin Stained Label |
| DC | Depressed Cork |
| DP | Duty Paid |
| IB | In Bond |
| LS | Low Shoulder Fill |
| MC | Missing Capsule |
| OWC | Original Wooden Case |
| RWC | Rewaxed Capsule |
| SOS | Signs of Seepage |
| TL | Torn Label |
| TS | Top Shoulder Fill |
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