Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/101495
METRICS Hurst says he and his partners Bill Hambrecht, Paul Dolan and Dan Carroll liked Wine Spies because it essentially started out as ���three guys and a server��� yet has stayed competitive against other companies that debuted in the flash channel while announcing multi-million-dollar rounds of investment. Hurst and his partners, who purchased 50% of the site, see Wine Spies as another way to reach customers in addition to the traditional three-tier or directto-consumer routes. The website won���t serve as ���an inventory dump��� but rather a way for people to connect with brands. ���The Internet is a great facility for that,��� Hurst says. He says the Wine Spies likely would undergo a redesign and some other changes to enhance the feel and touch of the site to essentially ���pour a little fuel on the fire��� that Seeber lit. Leading the flash channel Invino accounted for about a quarter of all the flash offers in 2012. The company doubled the number of domestic wines it offered and took the lead in that regard. Tony Westfall founded the company with his wife Danielle in 2009. Today he says the two employees who handle sourcing have close to 2,000 sample wines to choose from at any time, depending on what best fits the company���s goals. ���We get wine all the time, and a very small subset of wine comes onto the site,��� Westfall says. The wines may be curated for quality, but it also doesn���t hurt when Invino can offer a 1997 Harlan Estate for almost half off. Westfall says that type of wine, sourced through auction houses and private collections, isn���t a substantial part of the business, but having it ���elevates the level of curation for our high-end buyers.��� Invino���s membership has doubled every year, Westfall says, adding that its most dedicated members are ���older, rich white men.��� The channel is not suited for every winery, but Westfall says many wineries find it effective and efficient for moving a lot of wine in a short amount of time. He says that could mean excess or obsolete inventory as well as new brand launches. The company has built quite a few strong relationships with wineries by helping them navigate the online market, Westfall says. ���It���s a business that���s not going away any time soon.��� ���Andrew Adams 16 W in e s & V i ne s JANUARY 20 13 Satisfied wineries using flash T wo Napa Valley wineries with very different business plans both had their wines offered frequently during the past 23 months. Burgess Cellars, a 15,000-case familyowned winery in St. Helena, Calif., had 53 offers through flash sites during that time. Owner Tom Burgess said he believes almost all of those offers were through Wines Til Sold Out (WTSO.) Burgess said the winery has a library of 30 years of vintage wines, but consumer tastes have changed to favor wine made in a style to drink soon after release. He said the winery uses WTSO to move its older vintages while conducting a separate marketing strategy to sell its current wine releases. X Winery, a negociant based near the Napa County Airport, had 63 offers through flash sites. Winemaker and CEO Reed Renaudin said the large number of offers likely came from the winery shifting from a lineup of varietal wines to a focus on blends. The websites enabled the winery, which makes 17,000 cases per year, to sell off its varietal wines and make the transition happen more quickly. Renaudin said that because X Winery has such streamlined operations it could also sell to flash sites with a relatively low margin and ���actually make a business out of selling to them.��� He said that in coming years he expects a few major players will dominate the flash channel with a strong hold on the available inventory (and therefore the leverage to provide enticing discounts.) ���As for reaching new customers, I think you can do this. But the customers you reach, while they do buy quite a bit, are used to deals,��� he said. ���A.A. Top 25 Flash Site Users in 2011 and 2012 Number winery Of Offers 110 76 Raymond Vineyards Moon Mountain Vineyard annnual average county Case bottle production price 275,000 $30 Napa 10,000 $40 Sonoma 74 Schug Carneros Estate Winery 40,000 $28 Sonoma 73 St. Sup��ry Vineyards & Winery 100,000 $30 Napa 80,000 $34 Napa 9,000,000 $7 Napa 71 Artesa Vineyards & Winery 67 Beringer Vineyards 63 X Winery - Amicus Cellars 58 Newman Wine 53 Burgess Cellars 50 Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery 17,000 $20 Napa 5,000 $28 San Francisco 15,000 $38 Napa 300,000 $18 Sonoma 49 Francis Ford Coppola Winery 1,000,000 $18 Sonoma 49 DeLoach Vineyards 125,000 $45 Sonoma 48 Chateau St. Jean Winery & Vineyards 500,000 $14 Sonoma 48 Miura Vineyards 8,000 $44 Sonoma 47 Ty Caton Vineyards 7,600 $27 Sonoma 46 Treasury Wine Estates 8,000,000 $6 45 Kunde Family Estate 75,000 $24 44 David Bruce Winery 30,000 $40 Santa Cruz 44 Gamble Family Vineyards 4,000 $65 Napa 43 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars 42 Ravenswood Winery 42 Iron Horse Vineyards 41 Maroon Winery 40 40 Napa Sonoma 80,000 $95 Napa 950,000 $30 Sonoma 30,000 $36 Sonoma 5,000 $32 Napa Delicato Vineyards Custom Resource Group 4,500,000 $7 Beaulieu Vineyard 1,400,000 $11 San Joaquin Napa Source: WinesVinesDATA, winesandvines.com/flash SEE US AT UNIFIED, BOOTH #534 u