Thoughts about online wine purchasing?

Wine 101: The Basics
21

Where I live, there are two good wine shops, five or six with grocery store-type wines, and regular liquor stores.

I am often looking for wines that are not available around here, and K&L, WineBid, Benchmark, and direct orders from wineries are my go-to online sources.

22

I do 90% of my purchasing online, though honestly it is mainly through mailing lists. The problem with local purchasing is that you are extremely limited by the inventory they stock. Only problem I have with online is that I can’t receive shipments in the summer and sometimes winter if it is really cold en route.

23

Haven’t checked back here for a while - many thanks to all who have posted with advice.

In the four months since I began this thread, I have gotten familiar with a number of online outlets (including K&L, BWG, Zachy’s), some list-based resellers (Garagiste), direct purchasing from vineyards via mailing lists (Carlisle, Qupé, Bedrock) - and I’ve even worked directly with an importer who posts here on WB. I’ve been buying in small quantities - mainly to taste - and only holding a bottle or two of some things I like to see how they develop in a year or so. I’ve gone deepest into the 2010 Brunellos - but deep for me is only about a case…total. I haven’t been doing this long enough to have a long range goal - still discovering what I like.

Wine House in West LA has become my local store - they’re close to me, parking is easy, and the place doesn’t feel overwhelming. I’ve had some nice advice from the salespeople, who’ve turned me on to some southern Rhônes and a couple of starter Burgundies that I wouldn’t have found on my own.

Thanks again for all the thoughts and advice -

Doug

24

Old thread, sorry for reviving, but this is false. You can pay for an ad (which has the ad icon beside it so you know), but you can’t pay for a bump in ranking. Anyone who tells you otherwise likely also has a bridge to sell you.

Michael (full disclosure, defending my employer)

25

If it helps any, we own a wine shop.

Yes, we buy direct from some wineries and wholesale through distributors, BUT, there is a good portion of wine we buy online for ourselves because it’s the only way we can get it AND for customers who just can’t their hands on the wine or won’t take the time to go on line and hunt down the wine.

Wine Access and Wine Library occasionally come up with and sell wines cheaper than we pay wholesale. Obviously, we drop those wines as a retailer, but there are some great buys out there.

Costco is also another resource. I’ve run across wines there that tax included were cheaper than what I paid wholesale 3 months prior.

26

Wine Works, Canal’s, Wine Library, and Down to Earth is where I would shop. But I live in PA where retail shipping is a no no. [cry.gif]

27

Online buying is a great marketing tool! I always buy more with a keystroke than when you have to carry it out to your car. I bought a lot from KLwines.com when I was buying South Am, French and Italian, bought some from Wine.com before discovering Garagiste.com for the French stuff & WineLibrary.com for Italian, then FullPull.com for the WA wines. Finally ended back up in OR where I buy from SecWines.com and Vinopolis.com with occasional forays down to StoryTellerWines.com. Local pickup now and I can get most anything I want. Further, the best deals are on Berserker Day, where I can buy a year’s supply if I do not watch myself closely. I usually pick up some new producers to try and then sneak back on the computer and buy some holdover offers from some favorites.
The internet sucks for those of weak willpower. [snort.gif]

28

I ordered a case last Monday online from Wineworks, I said the temps were fine “now”. The order was filled and shipped on Wednesday without checking with me, which I thought was odd given that it would sit at the UPS depot over the weekend, and it wasn’t established that someone would be there on Monday (today, 8/31/15). The temps at the destination are now in the mid-eighties, so the wine is on a truck today and maybe tomorrow in that kind of heat, since in fact nobody was there to receive the wine today. I wrote two emails last week indicating my dissatisfaction and a third email requesting that the wine be delivered to a UPS store. The third email was bounced back to me three times, and the original two emails were not answered. So I feel that there is a good chance that ordering from Wineworks online is a bad idea. I’ve ordered about 20-30 cases online and never had anything like this happen. I realize that nobody on this board was suggesting that I order from Wineworks online, but when I looked on this thread before ordering, I didn’t read these positive comments in that way. I thought I should offer another perspective. I hope these comments are measured, I intend them to be.

I second the vote for Panzer, Down to Earth Wines.

29

I think there is / needs to be a big distinction made between online retailers (often with b&m store) and the ubiquous flash sites or equivalents of. There are plenty of reputable online merchants with excellent service and great selection and price - perfect for purchasing specific sought after wines. Stick to the ones mentioned above or elsewhere on WB. I am a bit more weary of flash sites with deals too good to be true because in the end they often are. As a beginner (still not too far away) they are a very tempting way to purchase wine in a manner that becomes overdone and not necessarily the best in building a cellar or exploring the wine world / developing a palate.

A very good LWS is worth it’s price in gold (often the markup seems that way) for the both the beginner and more advanced drinker if you use their expertise and advice.

30

Was thinking of plugging Carrie and randy when reading the posts before this one. If it’s good, they usually carry it and have very reasonable prices.

~dustin

31

This is a great source of information. I was curious about the online options (other than wine.com) for Massachusetts residents, especially auctions.

32

For the past three years I have been living in Piedmont ,Italy in the area where they produce Barolo/Barbaresco and even if nearly evey Wine imaginable is available on any corner I still find myself ordering wine online every other week. The reason being that I’m always looking for something new something that I have not yet tried. Be it a old vintage or a little lnow producer the online wine world is just amazing.

33

Open an UPS box in a neighboring state.

34

I use JJ Buckley and have had very good success with them and usually a lot cheaper than buying retail in my state

35

Most of my purchases are online. We have two good online stores in town for local pick up. Berserker and emails fill in the blanks along with Full Pull and Last Bottle.

36

If I didn’t buy online, I would have very little to buy. With the exception of BD, most of the wine I buy is aged old world wine. I don’t find that on a retailer’s shelf.

37

Bit of an addendum to the original post and my main concern with buying online: any issues with wine being delivered to very hot climates? I’m imagining once the bottle leaves the vendor it’s going to sitting in some pretty hot shipping warehouses (UPS/Fedex).

38

Most reputable vendors will only ship during appropriate weather shipping “windows”. Really that should be a prerequisite if buying on-line to know their policy and history on that issue. Very hot or very cold are both bad for wine in shipment. It can become tricky for coast to coast US shipments but generally NOW, March is good for most areas for a spring window, and October is usually good for fall.

I recently had a CA winery ship a Berserker Day shipment during a February cold snap, and Fed Ex held it in SoCal for a week due to cold weather. i don’t know if that was done by the winery or FedEx, but I could track it by the number and knew where it was and it eventually arrived safely.

39

I’ve had good luck with Vivino. When there was a problem, their reps dealt with the vendor and straightened out any problems quickly.

40

The benefit to buying wine online is you get access to a much larger and more diverse selection than what may be available to you in your local grocery store or liquor store. There are over 11,000 wineries in the United States alone, not to mention wineries in the rest of the world. You would typically have access to only a small fraction of these wineries in a local wine or grocery store, specifically the ones that have the means to do mass production and have distribution deals or are local to your area.

Shopping for wine online gives you a much larger selection, both in terms of where you shop from and the types of wines available to you. Many sites have more information about the wine too than what you can get at the store.

Shipping can sometimes be delayed due to weather issues, especially in the summer months since a lot of wineries will not ship when it is too hot (or too cold). Most of your purchases are pretty safe since online stores will replace any damaged or corked bottles. I have rarely had any issues purchasing wine online, but it is helpful to know the shipping policies of wherever you buy from.