In an effort to differentiate themselves from the other flash sale sites that have popped up like weeds in the past few years, vitis.com says (from their site):
For each wine we offer our team carefully selects the ideal recipe pairing, clearly explaining why the two go so well together. After all what is more magical than wine and food paired perfectly together?
We also tell you something of interest about each of our wines in our Discover section. We may write about the grape variety, the wine maker, the appellation or the history behind the wine. Learning about wine should be just as fun as enjoying it – with Discover we make facts easy to swallow.
All of our wines are chosen, tasted and vetted by our expert wine tasting panel. The Vitis Wine Tasting Panel is comprised of two Masters of Wine and a WSET Diploma holder making it one of the most accomplished in the world!
In my (very limited - I only found it last week!) experience, they seem to offer more wine-geeky selections than many of the others, such as the 2006 Quinta Senhora da Ribeira VP up now, and the 2003 Nicolas Joly Clos de la Coulée de Serrant Savennières offered last week. I ordered the Savennières, since I had wanted to try it when I saw it on Lot18 last year but they were unable to ship to my state. Free shipping for most offers looks like it starts at 2 to 4 bottles. I can say customer service has been great - when I placed an order and wanted to add an extra bottle after the fact they handled my request promptly and professionally.
Something that isn’t prominently featured on the site and that I haven’t explored myself beyond cursory reading is their hold policy. Apparently you can specify during the order process to have your wine held in their facilities indefinitely as a personal “cellar”, and they will ship it on demand. And since you’ve already paid for shipping when you bought the wine, I don’t believe there’s an extra charge. It seems sort of like just an extended version of the “weather hold”, only it’s the “when I feel like it” hold.
Their referral program is interesting, too: you can redeem first-purchase credits from referrals for Reidel glasses (1-2 referrals per glass, depending on the style). If you’d like to help me earn glasses, here’s my link:
http://vitis.com/wine?code=L3xF8I
Disclaimer: I have no connections to this site whatsoever, I’m just a happy customer.
EDIT: Got an email, coupon code FORBES0312 for 10% off any order through 16 March. Enjoy!