It’s our 16th Anniversary of the founding of Wine Berserkers on this domain, and that means it’s time for our 16th BerserkerDay - THE SWEET SIXTEEN! As always, hoping to make it the biggest and best ever, and each year it actually HAS been, so let’s keep the perfect streak going! It’s been a rough year for retail, and even worse for the wine industry, so while we might not - for the first time - beat past sales records, we can still make a HUGE difference as Berserkers buying wares from the big day to support these small (often tiny) businesses during such a difficult financial time.
REMEMBER this one is NOT on Jan 27th - we’re moving it to Jan 31st so we can still have it on a Friday, which often seems like the perfect BerserkerDay day of the week.
Last year’s BerserkerDay is posted here - BerserkerDay 15 Master Thread (Jan 26, 2024) WOW! WE DID IT! RECORDS SET ACROSS THE BOARD! - giving you a ‘preview’ of all the offers that made the record day of sales what it was. We finally surpassed the $2million mark in total sales, as this event continues to grow in scope and popularity, so let’s continue to set records and have another crazy event!
Starting this thread, as I always do, for ongoing info and discussions about the event, and giving everyone time to prepare for the MADNESS THAT IS BERSERKERDAY!!!
This will be the principal thread for all discussions related to BerserkerDay 16 bd16 - a buying extravaganza unrivaled in any other wine community, anywhere. One day (two, if including the Grand Cru Crü and Monopole Crü Advance Purchase Day) where over $2million in wine and wine-related goods are sold to eager wine lovers throughout this community. (ANOTHER new record set last year!) Plenty of unique, fun new features this year, thanks to the feedback received from our BerserkerDay Council in the hard work they put in with surveying buyers and sellers during last year’s massive record-breaking event.
WHAT IS BERSERKERDAY? First of all, BerserkerDay (full history posted below) is a celebration of the founding of this amazing and vibrant community of wine lovers around the world, and it started on the first anniversary of our founding, 16 years ago. The idea is to have a day-long celebration by introducing wine and wine-related products to the community at large, at deals that you CANNOT find elsewhere, primarily because those making the offer are so small that they don’t have ‘sales’. It’s a fantastic way to introduce yourself to some new small wineries (and be in direct contact with the winemaker and/or winery owner in the process!), in particular, and I can attest - as can thousands of others who have bought on BerserkerDay - that I’ve found some of my favorite producers this way.
How does BerserkerDay work?
Anybody - registered member or not - can view the BerserkerDay subforum (where you are now) and the offers that wineries, retailers, and other wine-related product sellers will have posted. It starts approximately 7:30 am PST on January 31st, and each offer will have its own thread. I will be posting them in chunks of approximately 10, in intervals of approximately 20-30 minutes. Threads from prior launch groups will NOT bump to the top of the forum when replies are made, preserving the current launch group’s space ‘in line’, pegging that launch group at the top. One exception: the Sponsors of BerserkerDay (back by popular demand, as those who were Sponsors last year want very much to do it again!) will have their larger, pictorial listings pegged at the top of the BerserkerDay forum during their sponsored timeframe, as we did last year.
Discussion - as always - is HIGHLY encouraged. That’s part of the fun! Share this event with your friends, on your social media accounts! Our Twitter handle is @WineBerserkers for those that tweet, and the more you share, the more fun we ALL have here!! I want to see some tagging on Facebook and Twitter, folks!
(Offers are made by the wineries, businesses, retailers, etc, and each offer has its own specific order parameters, which will be outlined in the offer itself. Wine Berserkers does not take any orders, has no e-commerce capabilities, nor licenses to sell wine, so each offer posted will have the directions on how to order)
Categories, specific to BD16: Last two years we had just two categories - Newbies and Sponsors - and we’ll repeat the same this year, as it worked beautifully. This year we’re guiding a small selection of Newbies through the process so they won’t be overwhelmed (hopefully), and I will guide them early on.
Tags: This year we have a series of tags that help you quickly sort through the offers - we’re asking all our sellers to stick with just this group of tags, for efficiency. This way, if your interest is, for example, Washington wines, you find one listing that has Washington wines, and there should be a tag on that thread that will immediately direct you to OTHER offers that have the same tag, rather than sort through the 100+ threads.
Sponsors - We will again have Sponsors, sellers who are pinned for one-hour slots, at various times of their selection. You’ll see them here in the BD16 forum, as ad-like graphics up top which link to their post. All Sponsors this year will launch just after the first time slot, at 7:35 am.
Preview Day/Early Purchase Offers
On January 30th, Thursday, Grand Cru Crü and Monopole Crü members will have access to the Pre-Launch forum to see ALL the offers, and plan their buying strategies. NO PURCHASES CAN BE MADE FROM THAT FORUM, and violators stand to lose the ability to participate in future BerserkerDays. There are, however, ‘Early Purchase Offers’, wherein BerserkerBusiness members, in a separate forum, can sell their offer on the same day as Preview Day, Jan 30th. Only Grand Cru Crü and Monopole Crü members will have access to Preview Day and Early Purchase Offers, everybody else (guests and registered members) will be eligible on Jan 31st. Both will be open around the same time. All Preview Forums listed herein close at 8pm Pacific for housekeeping. Grand Cru Crü and Monopole Crü members will be sent a group-wide Private Message announcing the forums opening.
Auctions
Auctions will commence around 2/3pm, finishing in at 8pm Pacific. Save some money for auctions, as many of our participating wineries and businesses offer auction items to the community, as thanks for the benefits they get during BerserkerDay, since there is no cost to participate (there is no cost to participate because this maximizes the discounts offered to the community! Rather than take a percentage of sales, the auctions are the way to financially support the community, throughout the year, and are a lot more fun than taking a slice from the deals being offered!).
The Unicorn Raffle Returns!! As always, we’ll have a ‘unicorn bottle’ raffle, one I procure from JJ Buckley, up for raffle. With a certain number of tickets sold, I’ll add another bottle…could be same, could be different. Furthermore, we will have a number of JJ Buckley gift cards to give away as well, and this year we’re doing much larger amounts on those gift cards!! Also, if we meet a certain ticket sales amount (and I have no doubt we won’t), a portion of all raffle proceeds will go toward a charity of my choice, so we can give back as well, and that way anyone who buy a raffle ticket will have something upon which they can claim they ‘won’ 
Raffle Thread Here
Best part, we’re going to do this LIVE - I will Livestream the event and post a link for all to watch their names (hopefully) be selected! Last year’s raffle posted here
HISTORY OF BERSERKERDAY:
WHAT IS BERSERKERDAY??
For those who do not know, BerserkerDay was named for the day it was founded at its current location on the web - January 27 - with the URL wineberserkers.com. Each year, historically on the 27th of January (though now changing because of size, interest level, and transactional volume), I invite wineries, retailers, and other peddlers of the wine industry to offer berserk deals on their wares. Each is posted throughout the day, in groups of about 10, in roughly 30-minute increments, spreading out the fun throughout the day, ending with an auction of even more fantastic items. This day of deals is a fantastic way for those ITB to give back to consumers, and also the reverse, as many, many new and exciting wineries/producers/wines are discovered by Berserkers on BerserkerDay, with purchases made, and discussions from those who might have experience with them. There is NO revenue sharing or cost to any participating winery or retailer, as to do that would raise the prices in the offers - this way, the maximum discount is given to all those who show up on this magical day. It’s also a way for me to give back to what makes Wine Berserkers what it is - the community! All the fantastic content on WB is from you, and here’s a way for me to setup a virtual party for everyone - current and future community members.
For those interested, here’s a thread on the original BerserkerDay, from 2010
History of Wine Berserkers: It’s a common question, so I like to list the history during BerserkerDay. The name ‘Berserkers’ actually comes from Mark Squires (the image below shows when/how the original group of 15 or so was named by him), before the word that bore our community became a banned word on that website and forum. Our growth has never stopped over the past 16 years (there was half a year on another domain name as well) and the community peaked over 30,000 members, until I purged the membership of ‘dead weight’ (those who haven’t posted or logged on in a while) when moving to the new system and interface you see here.
This year, be sure to tell your friends, as I’m opening the BerserkerDay 16 forum up to anyone who wants to see it - you DON’T HAVE to be registered (unless you have an order that requires you to PM the winery, in that case, you better register!) to see the deals. We’ll have a Twitter hashtag of #berserkerday and bd16 and hope that you can post your favorite threads on Facebook as well on the 30th. PLEASE help point it out to me, so I can see when folks are sharing. My Twitter handle is @toddfrench, so please tag me, and on Facebook, I’m easy to find.
Please reach out if you have PR expertise, as we really want more wine lovers to know about this amazing and wholly unique event
Bloomberg: (from 2024)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-01-04/top-shelf-hop-water-whisky-drinking-resolutions-sotol-cocktails-berserkerday?srnd=undefined
Forbes: Where To Find The Best Wine Deals: BerserkerDay January 27
Orange Coast Magazine: https://www.orangecoast.com/booze-blog/todd-french-celebrates-10-years-of-wine-berserkers-worlds-largest-online-wine-community/
Facebook shareable event link below:
2025-01-31T15:30:00Z→2025-01-31T08:00:00Z
