I have been a very active on-line purchaser of wine for over a decade. I got starting with WineLibrary, was very active with Cinderella (plus some of the other flash sites, back when the offers were great between 2009 - '11), and then expanded into Crush, Chambers Street, Garagiste, Down to Earth, and other “niche” importers/retailers. I have also been on the mailing list for years of other national retailers such as K&L, Bounty Hunter, Kermit Lynch, Empire, etc…. So why is it that, after a very long, active, and expensive history of buying wines on-line that I never heard of WineAccess until this week? They have a twitter account with over 4,000 followers, but not a single “tweet” and a Facebook account with over 3,400 “likes” but not a single posting. Yet they claim to have been around since 2000 and have tens of $ millions in sales. Anyone know anything about them? Are they legit? Anyone have any good/bad buying experiences they can share? Thanks.
What about WineHunter?
Have you PM’d him?
They’re legit but they focus more on providing a Winesearcher type function to attract customers and then using that info to drive direct sales. Unlike most of the vendors you listed I don’t think they have much inventory to browse.
I’ve been using them for quite a few years now with great results. It started when I lived in PA, they were/are one of the very few able to ship to PA. The prices on what I bought were very good considering that tax and shipping are included. I’ve never had an issue with them.
They used to ship to Texas then stopped. I still get emails.
I have ordered about 3`4 times from them over the last few years. Once in a while they email decent deals. Shipping and communication have been fine, as have the wines.
I have not…is he involved with the business? Thx
I’ve ordered a few mixed cases from them based on their email blasts. Most of the time I’ve been very pleased, but I’ve learned to take their hype with jeroboams of salt. If you sign up, read between the lines and on winesearcher for comps before hitting “buy” because sometimes their prices are very good and sometimes only average. They introduced me to Stolpman Angeli at a very good price, as well as Winter, Melanson and Bugay.
I have bought from them for the last 5 years and have been very happy. Agree with reading through the hype but they are one of the few retail emails that I always read.
I have bought wines from them for about 3 years. Generally Very happy- They introduced me to Tensley Syrahs, Vellum Cabs, Chad wines, Matthews from WA. However recently they were touting Britt Nichols as an up and cooming winemaker. I bought a mixed case of her 2013 Rutherford ad Stags leap…at about 30 a bottle. Well theey clearly OVER hyped her…
I tried the Rutherford and was VERY disappointed, its young so I hope they come around…
What I am saying is buy known wines- have a track record…
Roger
Their emails are often hilarious. The often blare things like PARKER’S 98 POINT VINTAGE OF THE CENTURY in their subject lines, and they outdid themselves with a recent 07 Cristal mailing hinting that they had the inside track on this being WS #1 WOTY, and I don’t think it even made the top 100.
When I sold wine in Jersey, it feel like there was a tenuous business link to Tanzer, and maybe a wholesale operation in the tri-state area as well. But memory may betray me on that one.
Your memory is intact, Jim…if a little fogged up.
I haven’t checked them out in years and it looks like their model has completely changed. I believe when they started out, they were something like winesearcher.com, in that they had a lot of wine stores around the country in their network and you could search for wines as you would do on winesearcher. Additionally, I believe they also created/hosted websites for a lot of wine shops using the same exact website design for all of them, just swapping out the info for each store and inventory. This was back in the days when online wine retail was just getting started. Eventually, winesearcher came to dominate as a wine search engine and stores started to develop and maintain their own websites.
As Jim mentioned, there seems to have been a link to Tanzer in that full IWC reviews were posted along with the wines when available.
When I signed up to Tanzer’s old site, from the first day until now I’ve got daily emails from WA, even though I can’t buy from them as I am outside of the US.
Occasionally they have a good offer but mainly I haven’t tried to get them stopped as I often enjoy reading them. The emails are often written in quite a breathless, over-the-top style, as Jim says.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. So would you view WineAccess more as a Garagiste or Down To Earth type of business, where they are trying to source/discover interesting new wines and sell direct to the consumer with very informative, though often over-the-top, emails…or are they more like a WTSO, Last Bottle, Cinderella flash-site, where they are trying to sell based on a discount and free shipping?
Aren’t they associated with Sussex Wines and Petit Pois?
That’s right (Hi Glenn!).
We got a lot of great stuff from them when I was at the Princeton Corkscrew ca. the late 90s. The offerings nowadays are a blend of wines I remember them importing (most of which were very solid) and the breathless Parker-point deals from the West Coast. Also what appear to be a couple of private labels - CHAD has always seemed like one.
I just ordered 4 bottles of a wine that WA claims to be 2012 CREO reserve. $ 29 a bottle, we’ll see. Like I said i have been generally pleased with their wines with the exception of the Nichols wines.
Roger
I feel like this is much more of a cautionary tale about not buying a whole goddamned case of wine from a producer you’ve never tried before, rather than anything negative about WineAccess!
2013 Three Graces Clos du Val for what seems like a great deal. $25 per if you buy a case. Drops a bit from there. In for 6.