"Naked Wines"...what's the deal?

A non-wine-drinking friend gave me a voucher he received for Naked Wines. Judging from their web site, at least, they purport to be sort of a crowd-funded VC group for winemakers, both foreign and domestic.
Needless to say, I’ve not heard of most of the labels they’re promoting, but this voucher lets me get a mixed case for under $70.
So, I’m wondering if anyone has any experience or thoughts on this outfit? At less than $6 a bottle, it seems worth at least the introductory order, but I’m curious whether they are legit, and whether there’s any real QPR to be found.

A friend also gave me a voucher. I think they are fine for the casual drinker that wants to try different wines, but I prefer to buy what I like now.

There was a very long topic about Naked Wines a year or so ago on another board I frequent. The comments about wine quality were mixed, as one might expect regarding ‘value priced’ wine.

What was unique was that Naked has members (Angels I think they’re called) who are either really passionate fans or rewarded in some way for prostelitizing. When many negative posts started to turn up in the topic, suddenly there were a mass of newbie posters showing up to defend Naked. First-time posters who must have been alerted by Naked’s subscription to one if the services that lets a business know when they get net mention. It was really obvious what was going on.

Worth also noting that in the UK, Naked Wines has just been bought by the largest nationwide retailer, Majestic. How that affects the US operation, I do not know.
I would second Peter’s warning. The concept is cool but the execution strays a bit too far from it.

Furthermore, their pricing is not the value it purports to be. I would suspect that they employ that classic marketing strategy of pricing up to discount down.

Here’s a link to another forum where someone tried it out:

http://forums.wineloverspage.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=53946

At the same time, my UK pals tell me that the Majestic selection has been going downhill for a long time.

Best line from that WLDG thread: “This is a wine club for lonely people.”

Naked and afraid

Not sure this matters much but when I saw this I thought first of Naked Winery, http://www.nakedwinery.com/

Apparently not connected to Naked Wines, but I wonder why there is not some lawsuit on one side or other of the pond over this same/almost identical name.

The Oregon based Naked Winery makes some decent wines, but I haven’t tasted or drank them in a few years.

I had them confused and wondered why no local wines were featured.

I was a Naked Wines angel for about a year. Customer service: A+. Prices: reasonable. Ease of ordering: outstanding. Problem was…I found the wines to be mostly uninteresting - and decided I wanted to spend my dollars elsewhere. Got an instant refund of the funds I had on deposit - and that was that.

Well, I bit on the introductory case…at less than 6 bucks a bottle, I figured what the heck. Bottom line, the 5 wines I’ve tried so far just haven’t been good enough to justify the experience so far. A Lodi Malbec (of all things) was the most interesting, a Cali Viognier a bit hot but decent, and several other reds were just generic-tasting. My impression is simply that the wines may be inexpensive, the service good (it’s definitely not a scam), but you’re not likely to get much value for the money.

From the wine geeks I have spoken to, the wine quality matches what you are paying. The reality is that some of the wines are made intentionally for the Naked audience by a winemaker, while other wines they offer are really just bulk juice sourced by the Naked team to fill a need. You aren’t really benefiting from cutting out the middlemen. Just like the $6 wine you buy at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s, some of them will be good and some of them will be terrible.

That’s my understanding too Damon. I know of one winery that is a real, small producer but I have also heard that several of the other winemakers that they claim to support are not really making the wine at all. It’s being sourced from all over the place.

I took one for the team by redeeming one of those vouchers. Plus, I was really curious about the wines and how it worked. It’s basically a wine club that makes you feel like you are part of something. Out of the case of bottles there is only one drinkable wine, two wines that may be on par with yellow tail and the rest went down the sink. Now it’s time to see how good that money back guarantee is.

The sad thing is that if they had drinkable wines, it could be a massive money maker. I’m not sure who is giving some of those wines the reviews they are getting in the site, because some were horrific.

I don’t think this club was designed for folks who would frequent a site like this.

Ouch.

It’s easier for me to take a chance at Grocery Outlet and hope the bottles weren’t abused somewhere. Yesterday I grabbed a mixed case of Cairdean RRV Chard and Perry Creek Zinman Reserve for and avg of $6.74/btl. Worst case scenario they are a party wine for the non-wine geek crowds. The big mark down in the Cairdean made me paise but at the price it was still a no-brainer. I think at least the zin will be worth it as previous bottles from same producer showed quite well.

That’s how it works. The “Angels” get freebies and incentives to post glowing reviews of the wines.