Wow! Best Wines buys Wine Exchange!!

WINE TALK
1

All Socal folk will be interested in this, if they’ve done any wine shopping in OC: (jut received via email)

Hello! Kyle and Tristen, Best Wines’ innovators, are never want for passion or action. They have made an incredible mark over the past two years, including the announcement below of their acquisition of famed Wine Exchange, where they worked for a combined 30+ years. Please let me know how I may assist with further details or interviews.

Best wishes,
Valory

Valory Reed | Veedot | valory@veedot.com | www.veedot.com | 949-363-3624 | Twitter | 24721 Cutter Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

BEST WINES SHAKES UP WINE RETAIL WORLD WITH PURCHASE OF WINE EXCHANGE

SANTA ANA, CA – January 5, 2014 – Best Wines, one of America’s most dynamic companies on the premium retail wine scene since opening its doors just two years ago, announces the acquisition of premier independent wine retailer, Wine Exchange. Wine Exchange, and its website Winex.com, continues to be one of the pioneers in premium discount wine retailing since its inception in 1982. Best Wines managing partners, Tristen Beamon and Kyle Meyer, were both intimately familiar with Wine Exchange having worked there for a combined 30 years prior to developing Best Wines.

Best Wines Group, which includes Best Wines Online, Napa Direct, and BW Direct, will fold the Wine Exchange entity into its portfolio increasing the tailored wine experiences across its client channels. “Wine Exchange is a renowned name in wine retailing. We are proud to spotlight this brand and take Wine Exchange and Winex.com to new modern heights, including renaming our store in Santa Ana this Spring,” shared Beamon, CEO of Best Wines Group and former General Manager of Wine Exchange. Meyer, Best Wines Group Director of Operations and Purchasing added, “At Wine Exchange, we were one of the first to create a wine experience, not just a sale – such as crafting daily stories with our offers and the Hot Legs video reviews. I am excited to wear the Wine Exchange name again and give it the ingenious Best Wines touch.”

Steve Zanotti, former Wine Exchange Owner, will continue as a trusted voice, reviewer and writer with the new Wine Exchange for Best Wines Group. “I am happy the Wine Exchange name will continue and thrilled I can focus on the experience of wine for our customers,” commented Zanotti.

The Best Wines acquisition of Wine Exchange will be final as of March 1, 2015. In the interim, Wine Exchange will continue business as usual. In March, Winex.com will unveil a new look and brand experience, yet pay homage to its 30 years in business as a leading force in wine sales. “Though we are closing our doors in Orange, our customers’ expectations will be surpassed in the hands of the Best Wines Group,” said Zanotti.

Best Wines Group is a multi-faceted company showcasing premium sourced wines from around the world for multiple channels including retail, wholesale, import, and distribution. Owners Tristen Beamon and Kyle Meyer are renowned for their business creativity, insight, palate, and personable touch. Whether in-store or online, they break down the mystique of wine into approachable, understandable, and ultimately – highly enjoyable – experiences. Best Wines Group share their award-winning wine selection via video interviews with the world’s top wine talent, newsletters, their innovative website – bestwinesonline.com, and cutting edge retail store located at the corner of Warner and the 55 Freeway in Orange County, CA. For further information call 1-888-817-8880 or email winex@bestwinesonline.com.

Contact: Valory Reed of Veedot
Email/Phone: valory@veedot.com, 949-363-3624

2

Wasn’t their departure messy a couple of years ago?
I seem to remember that there were issues, now they are buying it?

3

Big movement here, but makes a lot of sense for both sides.

4

Wow… Very surprised to hear this. But we’ve all seen the inventory go down and down since they lost their lease.

Best wines has good stuff, I guess I’ll be shopping there now.

5

Great, the good burgundy release pricing at winex will now be going away. Boo.

6

Wouldn’t Best Wines be able to adopt the same relationships Winex had, thus making the pricing similar?

7

I think that this would be the primary reason for the transaction. Maybe a small driver for best wines is brand but the contracts and the relationships of winex is where most of the value is.

8

That’s the hope, but nothing about best wines current pricing structure indicates they’d pass along those savings instead of increasing their margins.

9

Best Wines Online sits right on the crowded 55 freeway, yet you can spend 15 minutes – with a GPS device in hand – trying to actually get there once you drive past it. It’s got to be the most confusing street / driveway / parking area I’ve ever seen.

Or maybe it’s my Asian half that just sucks at driving? Thanks, mom.

10

Explains a lot…

So no new WE store? It never added up anyway.

11

Just bought a case of wine from Best Wines Online (1/1/15) and still have never received an email confirmation? [scratch.gif] I log into my account…and it shows the transaction paid, and shipping date, but still no email with track # or anything?? I HATE retailers that don’t provide emails throughout the whole transaction! :angry:

12

Unusual as I always get two emails. One is a confirmation and one a credit card type receipt (I think, I’m still not sure why two).

Very surprising news given what seemed to be some bad blood when Tristan and Kyle left WineX. But I know WineX has been having a very difficult time finding a new location after being told their lease was being terminated. So the merger may have been related to that. I have largely stopped shopping at WineX and mostly buy at Best Wines simply as I like Tristan and Kyle. Very nice outgoing, down to earth, friendly guys (as is the rest of their staff). I can’t stand Zanotti, who is a pompous a–hole with no personality and down right rude to people. I hope he isn’t going to be in a customer service type role at Best Wines as almost everyone I know who shopped at WineX had similar feelings about him. Unless he changes his ways, which I don’t see him doing. But who knows.

Regardless, I am glad for Kyle and Tristan as this hopefully means a lot more business for them, and thus buying power.

13

I have been a regular customer at winex for years, and I’d have to agree that most of the guys who answer the phone there are/were rude. They were good at their jobs, except for the customer interactions part.

14

Apropros of the thread on commercial/corporate-owned wineries…

From the press release:

increasing the tailored wine experiences across its client channels

I know, I know, it’s selection, pricing and customer service that will win the day, but how do you all feel about buying from folks who spout this corporate gobbledygook?

15

I think we should take that topic offline and parallel path it, maybe see if we can solution it then loop back. I’ll set up a bridge.

16

I’ve been to Winex before and found the same rudeness in person. One time, I was purchasing $500+ of various Bordeaux (which I realize is small potatoes for them, but was a large purchase for me). I guess the guy working there assumed that I was done, as he starts ringing me up, and I tell him that I wanted one last bottle, a 2010 Leoville Barton and I asked where I could find it. He shoots back rudely, “well I hope that I don’t have to go to the back to get it!”.

Luckily for him, I found it out front, and he didn’t have to make the journey to the back of the store to get the $150 bottle of wine that I wanted to purchase [head-bang.gif]

17

I dunno, it’s almost…iambic. I’m getting a Matthew Arnold vibe off of that.

Increasing the tailored wine experiences
Across its client channels
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

18

Weird, I’ve shopped at Wine Exchange hundreds of times. While the service has never been affirmatively great, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience. It’s kind of solid and pleasant, I’d say.

I never really learned anyone’s name there, so I can’t really tie it to particular guys, but it’s mostly been the same half dozen or so guys and I’ve had no problems.

19

LOL. We speak fluent Press Release…

20

We have finally now heard the result of where Wine Exchange will land and in what form. After several years of attending weekly tastings and getting to know the good people of Wine Exchange, I am happy to hear that it will continue in some form. The Saturday tastings have been very informative and useful in expanding our family’s knowledge of wine. I hope that the new owners will keep some of the features that Wine Exchange’s customers have come to appreciate.