More control? yes. Better tasting? yes. Cheaper? no way.
3 lugs of CV stuff here start at $150 and go up from there.
100 lb CV frozen must starts at $200+$60 shipping and goes up from there.
MLB is about $30+ shipped depending on strain
A couple of malic tests are probably $10+
Yeast, additives, oak etc. are another $10+
So 6 gal finished wine from fresh starts around $200 and from frozen around $310 That's about $7+ per bottle for fresh and $10+ per bottle for frozen not including equipment. Moving out of CV might double those costs.
The most expensive kits at my LHBS are CC Showcase and RJS En Primeur. Both can be had for about $130 or just over $4 per bottle.
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For me, the breakdown is as follows..
For my dealer, a high end price would be (per lug) $38-$42. Most years it is much lower and sometimes the price below the $30 per lug price) So, my 3 lug batch comes to about $114 - $126 on the high end.
This should yield about 7.5 gallons or about 29 bottles of the finished stuff. This brings the grape cost to $3.93 to 4.34 per bottle.
For me, there is no shipping. I pick them up from my local distributor (about a 45 minute drive).
An acid test kit ($7.95) will perform close to 20 tests. This cost, then is about .40 per test. If you test twice per batch, this works out to .80 per batch (or about .03 per bottle)
Yeast 2 (pkts) runs about $2.50 per batch (or about .09 per bottle)
Oak is about $6.00 or (.21 per bottle)
A pound of k-meta works out to about $8.00. A pound will be spread out over (at least) 5 or 6 batches when you also factor in the washing of equipment and bottles. This works out to .045 per bottle.
MLB costs me about $30 for a 66 gallon batch or 8 three lug batches. This translates to 3.75 per batch (or .13 per bottle)
so...
grapes 3.93 - 4.34
test kit .03
yeast: .09
Nutrient .02
acid(avg) .02
Oak .21
kmeta .04
MLB .13
So, my Total cost per bottle is $4.47 to $4.88 (and most years even cheaper than that). With the exception of what I call specialty grapes (imported or hard to find), I have never had a per bottle cost top $6.
Of course this is due to my location. I live in the NYC area where there are a TON of good, solid, old world folks (and thus a big market for all things winemaking related). I also have a good relationship with my distributor (over 25 years).
In my post, what I was trying to do is to simply put forward the notion. Even if you have to drive a long way, perhaps it will be worth it. Even if you have to pay for shipping, perhaps you could work out a deal where it will be worth while.
A I am saying is that worth looking into...
