Power to the People: MyWinesDirect.com Lets Customers Choose Which Wines To Sell Free Shipping on Every Order Creates One-Stop Shopping on Small-Production Wines

Big taste can be found in small wineries – and at small prices. The trick is finding them.

With a focus on delivering both value and hard-to-find wines to customers, MyWinesDirect.com is bringing ease of use and can’t-miss quality to wine shopping. By keeping its selections in the $8-$25 per bottle range – and offering free shipping on every purchase – customers have a clear understanding of what they’re getting: convenience and unmatched value.

“Our goal is to give our customers confidence and trust in the quality of what they’re buying,” says CEO and President Bryan Dougherty. “By focusing on small wineries, the consumer is encouraged to explore and try new wines. People often visit wine country and go from winery to winery, tasting a lot of wine they don’t like in search of a few gems. We cut through all that so customers can enjoy the best wines from around the world without all the guesswork. And we offer a money-back guarantee, which is another incentive to discover something new.”

Most consumers place a high premium on value, and MyWinesDirect.com delivers. Half of its wines are priced below $15, the other half is priced between $15-$25. “We’re committed to quality and value,” says Chief Marketing Officer Trissie Rost. “We know there’s a lot of intimidating language and ritual around wine, and we’re working to break down those barriers. We want wine to be a regular part of people’s lifestyle. Wine is fun, and we want our customers to love it as much as we do.”
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Because people tend to buy wine based on recommendations from trusted friends, MyWinesDirect.com employs a unique approach to choosing its selection: it lets customers decide which wines to sell. Every 4 to 6 weeks, the company gathers different groups of customers together across the country and asks them to taste a group of wines from small- and medium-sized producers that are not readily available in the marketplace. If the panel likes a wine, the website sells it. If not, it’s sent packing. It’s power to the people, vino style.

“When they understand that our wines are being chosen by people like them, they feel confident that they’re going to like what they buy,” Dougherty says. “We also give them lots of flexibility to buy what they want, when they want. There are no automatic shipments or fixed obligations. Customers can pick from an assortment of packs and specials, mix and match their own selections or give gifts. They can get creative with all sorts of different wines depending on their mood and need.”

Consumers may choose from a diverse selection with enticing titles such as Versatile and Velvety Reds, Big Bold Reds, Crisp and Refreshing Whites among many others. The only “rule” is that shipments must be in increments of 6, so a customer can create any combination of 6, 12, 18 and so on. While allowing flexibility to each order, shipping in “packs” of 6 streamlines shipping costs and allows the company to ship to consumers free of charge.

MyWinesDirect.com currently ships to the consumer’s door in 26 states, covering close to 80% of the in-home wine purchasing market. New regulations and expanding awareness of direct-to-consumer purchasing make for an exciting growth plan.

About the Consumer Tasting Panel
Each tasting panel consists of everyday wine drinkers who buy at least three bottles of wine per month and who are geographically located in New York and California. This is important because tastes often vary dramatically by region. For example, the tasting panels at MyWinesDirect.com have found that East Coast wine drinkers tend to favor European Old World-style wines, while West Coast drinkers often go for big, bold California wines. With this broad spectrum of tastes, the results are more balanced, ensuring that each wine selected is a good choice for everyone.

Before each tasting, the MyWinesDirect.com buyer tastes through 100-200 wines, and picks 20-
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30 that pass all his specifications. These are the wines presented to the panel. The wines are arranged by type, with each flight having 3-5 wines of a similar taste palate. Panel members are told what type of wine they’re tasting (for example, a California Chardonnay) but the wine labels are covered to eliminate pre-conceived notions about any particular producer. The results are tallied, and only the wines that earn an overwhelming “yes” from all panels are selected to go forward for one final review from an additional wine expert.

For more information on MyWinesDirect.com, visit www.MyWinesDirect.com. For further media needs, please contact Kimberly Charles of Charles Communications Associates at (415) 701-9463 or kcharles@charlescomm.com.