Chateau St. Jean Cab Sauv Cing Cepages 1996

[Jason]

The whole celebrity wine thing causes many problems for everyone.The dist will make more enemies than friends because of it. Often times it is the winery itself that makes a demand like the 10 to 1 rule you are seeing. This is where a good relationship with the local Ch. St Jean rep comes in.If you have a track record of being a good CSJ customer, than let him know you can't handle 30 cases of other wine right now. By some cases and give him a CSJ tasting night or another special.
Just be aware that the distrib could be stuck in the middle on this one.If he throws you a bone on the Meritage and you don't deserve it, the brand could be yanked and taken to another distrib, depending on your states laws.
The other factor working against you here is that you are a retailer. Its a safe bet that CSJ wants these cases on wine lists rather than buried in someone's cellar.
Relationships are everything here.