Wine Crasher - really?

Niv, I have to ask you something about your website. I just clicked on the box for Burgundy and got this:

“Wine label revealed after purchase” - seriously? You really don’t expect members to buy Burgundy without knowing the producer, do you?

But it has 91 points.

Garagiste way ahead on this and one reason they lost me as a customer.

trust me!

So do a lot of wines (and I get that you’re being facetious). I’m just saying that the idea of being the lowest price is great, but not knowing until you checkout isn’t going to fly with a lot of members because quality and style is VERY producer dependent. For example, there are lots of members who enjoy Burgundy but fans of a more acidic and lean style won’t want fruit bombs.

My favorite line in their description of the business model:

“We reveal all the relevant information about a wine, but we only reveal the wine name and label after the purchase is complete.” (Emphasis added)

Nice to know that the producer is irrelevant once you know the score and the region!

It is a baffling business model, isn’t it?

Technically if you wanted to learn the Producer you can copy and paste the Robert Parker Quote into google and it will show the wine results.

Your avatar is very political

I think he posted in the thread on the Commerce Corner that the blind method allows the seller to offer a discount without doing so publicly (which presumably will either dilute the wine’s brand, hurt the seller’s ability to sell wines at normal price, and/or start a price war etc.).

I think some variant of this model exists/has existed in other businesses. I have my doubts about it’s effectiveness in the wine business because as important as ratings have become, people still buy wine in substantial part because of its locale/history/producer/characteristics not captured in ratings, especially for burgundy (as people in this thread have pointed out). I suspect some variation on this method of selling wine might be more effective on a mass market scale than for the average forumite on this board.

That said it’s an interesting experiment and good luck to him.

Denis, you know we buy the POINTS, right? This site merely takes emotion out of our decisions.

I have never, ever understood this business concept. And i find it totally insulting to the consumer. 99% of the importers/wholesalers could care less what you sell their product for, as long as you pay on time.

From the Wine Advocate, no less!

I can see it working for hotel rooms.

I don’t see a mass market for premier cru Gevrey. Maybe Bordeaux or California cab.

The clientele he is trying to reach is the less sophisticated. Probably not the berserker crowd.
However if I dont know Leroy from Chevillon this might connect.

I noted the buyer is allowed a change of mind–after the name of the wine is revealed–for a $5 restocking fee. Even so, I agree with what many have written–the producer is the most important piece of information (and not just for Burgundy). This may be modeled after Hotwire and Priceline, but when I’m using those services for a hotel, I’m mainly concerned about price. I’m only using the hotel room to sleep and shower and probably not using any of the other services. I’m renting the car as a method of transportation and don’t care if it’s a Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan, etc.

So it costs me $5 to NOT buy wine from Wine Crasher?

Uh oh Niv - not looking good at all, especially considering it was never pulled from stock at all at the point of the reveal.

Wonder how similar Niv’s IP address is to Jonathan Fed’s?

However, that is a fairly good idea.

I get that it’s like Priceline. But I think that is also a horrible business model. I’d never obligate for a hotel room without knowing the hotel and its location. Life is too short. Why would anyone buy something as personal as a wine without knowing the name of the producer? OK, maybe if it was 50% off the lowest Winesearcher price, people might take a chance. Personally, while I wish you all the best, I cannot think of a single person I know that would even consider buying wine without knowing the producer.

We covered this in the initial thread when Niv launched it in Wine Talk last week. That thread was subsequently pulled and he became a Berserker Business. Google the tasting note. The savings per bottle off low web basically covers the shipping. Not a bad deal, just not anything real exciting.

Haha I am brand new here, obviously as that was my first post