https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2023/12/flaviar-acquires-wine-searcher
Will be curious to see the changes to come
Flaviar’s relationship with RNDC makes this acquisition even more interesting - will Republic be able to (or even want to) manipulate how pricing and availability are presented on Searcher? Certainly hope this doesn’t weaken the tool that Searcher has become…
4 Likes
What is Republic/RNDC?
I’d expect pricing to go higher. And perhaps a competitor to rise out of the ashes.
1 Like
Congratulations to Martin Brown and the whole Wine-Searcher team. Martin has been at this for nearly a quarter of a century!
I think there is a lot of opportunity to disrupt wine commerce in consumer-centric ways that are also good for the entire eco-system. Jules and current team at WS are terrific.
11 Likes
Can you share any guesstimate of what Wine-searcher’s revenue is? I hope this a good M&A precedent for cellartracker!
It is not for me to comment on their business and their revenue.
5 Likes
RNDC is one of the largest distributors in the USA of alcohol.
1 Like
Initial reaction is, I’m scared this will eventually or over time nerf the quality of the product we all lean on so heavily, no matter what added value the partnership intends.
My pipe dream is they are in it to democratize alcohol sales across the United States and chip away at the inequities created both by state laws and the three tier system (in addition to providing relief to the great problems of logistics and shipping). I’m sure there are still many hurdles, but W-S could effectively become the new framework of the national alcohol marketplace far beyond a simple link to a website (after which customers must read 14 pages searching for shipping information).
3 Likes
on the surface, certainly doesn’t seem a win for the consumer that a distributor would control the search tool.
12 Likes
I agree, it is certainly my hope that somehow this makes the product better. One could imagine many ways that access to more data through Republic could be pretty powerful.
On the other hand, one could also imagine many ways that Republic could change the product to increase their business that aren’t good for consumers.
Wine Searcher has been insanely disruptive in the market. Radical pricing transparency around the world has been transformative for consumers, retailers, and wine producers. While this has been super helpful for wine buyers (like me) to not only find the best prices for wine, but to find wine that otherwise would be impossible to locate. I’m not sure which is more important, honestly. Wine Searcher has also made internet-based wine distribution a viable, powerful business model, again with both positive and negative ramifications. I’m sure that Wine Searcher has contributed to the rise in prices on some ‘hot’ wines as retailers are able to rapidly do price discovery to assess how high consumers will really go.
Will WS change for better or worse? We’ll find out.
6 Likes
This will never happen in my opinion given the complexities of wine laws.
6 Likes
And, more importantly, because of the political influence of distributors and retailers at the state level.
9 Likes
All of this plus the fact that RNDC’s own site states their company vision as, “To be the national distributor of choice of beverage alcohol producers who value the three-tier system.”
Everything adds up to power brokers gaining another edge until a better, more consumer-driven option emerges… then that’ll get bought up by X-company offering millions. Rinse, repeat.
2 Likes
I don’t think there would be much incentive for wine-searcher to burn resources to battle legislation. Their model works already.
I was expecting one of the bigger wine data holders to hit the market soon with AI/LLM-based wine recommendation/sales agents. I kind of thought CT would get there first.
I know as a consumer I would much rather get my recommendations based on an enormous dataset of user experiences rather than an enormous dataset of user purchases. Any comment @Eric_LeVine ? 
3 Likes
I like data. I like AI. I like putting the consumer in control.
6 Likes
It seems like all the replies assume that RNDC has bought Wine-Searcher, but it is actually Flaviar.
Flaviar and RNDC have a partnership, but these are distinct entities as far as I can tell.
3 Likes
To be clear, Republic is primarily a huge national distributor of wine and spirits. They are one of the biggest beneficiaries of the three-tier system. They have spent massively through political donations to influence states to make sure that the three-tier system is strengthened and not eroded. There is no chance that they will do anything to undermine that.
3 Likes
Well, I love the product, even though there are a lot of ways it could be even better.
On the other hand, if this is some anti-consumer move here that’s going to make it less useful, it would probably save me a lot of money, since WSPro is such a siren call to buy way too much wine.
5 Likes
Who is Flaviar?
Let me google that for you.
They are an online spirits club/ecommerce seller of spirts/whiskies, etc.
Which does not in any way diminish the consumer risk of a single company with self interest controlling the search function for other retailers. In best scenarios perceived trust of search neutrality is eroded.
3 Likes