How to Avoid the 3 Biggest Problems With the Wine Industry and Get Better Wine for Less Money
We all love wine. In fact, our editors sip a glass or two most nights to wind down after work. But the nearest liquor store doesn’t always have the best selection, and the prices are outrageous. That’s because the economics of the wine industry are terrible: from vineyard to winery to distributor to liquor store to customer, and the lack of communication between them leaves it so we’re often blindly spending on bottles that aren’t best suited for us. But Tasting Room, the fastest growing wine club in the nation, is changing how wine is sold. The innovative service provides you direct access to fine wines at a discount, educates you about the wines you like best, and lets you taste first so you know you’ll enjoy the wines they send you. Here are the three worst things about the wine industry, and how Tasting Room helps you get around them.
1. Making Wine is Too Expensive
The land that’s suited to grape growing is so expensive that wineries often don’t have enough property to satisfy demand for their wines. In this case, they buy their wine from contract producers, who own larger properties in the same region. The winery simply samples a range of wines made by the contractor, and choose the right blend so they have enough supply for the consumers.
Tasting Room has direct relationships with wine producers in regions all over the world. Just like the top wineries to which producers sell their wines, Tasting Room gets to sample and purchase those same wines, and provide them directly to you at a huge discount. Tasting Room doesn’t have the cost of owning land, farm machinery or winemaking equipment – so you get incredible prices on wine from top regions.
2. Pricing and Selection Subject to Change
For most people, running to the liquor store seems like the easiest option when you need a bottle of wine. But liquor stores are expensive, and they don’t usually have the best selection. They have limited shelf space, and the markup on the wines reflects their rents and overhead (plus the wineries’ expenses). It’s not the store’s fault that rent is expensive, however their model leaves many people paying up to a 30% higher price than they would online or even at another liquor store nearby! Regardless of which store you choose, the chances of you leaving a liquor store without footing a large bill are slim and slim.
3. Wine Experts Do Not Know Your Taste Preferences
There’s no right or wrong when it comes to taste – it’s all about your unique preferences, so if you shop at a liquor store, even if you go off "expert" recommendations, there’s no guarantee you’ll enjoy the bottle you pick up.
Even better than providing access to a ton of fine wines from regions around the world at a discount, Tasting Room also learns your tastes first before sending you bottles they guarantee you'll enjoy.
Here’s how Tasting Room works: When you sign up, Tasting Room sends you a kit with six-tasting size bottles of wine, which you sip and rate on their site. You just log on to the site and follow the fun tasting in which you compare the wines against each other, and click on the selections you like. Your responses generate your Wine Profile, which describes the different types of wines you’re likely to enjoy. You’ll learn about new wines – and get to drink them too. You also learn the regions that grow the wines best suited for you, and the foods you should enjoy alongside them.
The profiles themselves are fun and packed with helpful information, but the best part is the wine that follows! After you finish rating the wines online, Tasting Room uses your Wine Profile to select bottles that suit your personal taste preferences – and ships them right to you.
If you ever receive a wine that doesn’t match your taste preferences, Tasting Room will replace it or issue you a wine credit to purchase another bottle from the extensive – and yummy – collection on the site. I doubt any liquor store would do that. It’s well worth it at less than 10 bucks to join (that gets you get your Tasting Kit and Wine Profile), and you can cancel at any time.
UPDATE: The awesome folks at Tasting Room are extending a special offer just for our readers. Follow this link to get your wine tasting kit for $6.95 (originally $39.95)!