For $40 per month, Joe will ship you a curated box of 8 quarter-bottles of wine to “expand your wine knowledge and impress your friends (and Bumble dates).”
I sat down with Joe to get his take on the state of the industry.*
Q: What are the biggest opportunities in the wine industry?
A: Millennials! Our generation is fast-becoming the biggest consumer of wine, and we have no idea what to do with it. The average age of a wine club manager is 65. They spend half of their time at conferences hand-wringing about how to talk on Instagram. We see our value-add as curating wines in a way that millennials are used to. This means a customized and authentic product that is affordable. It also means making it available online.
Q: And what are the biggest challenges?
A: Low consumer education. No one knows what to buy or how to buy it!
Another issue is a profitability “dead zone” for wineries. In the $25-$35 per bottle range, it is extremely difficult for wineries to maintain quality required to maintain profitability over time. This is why TasteIt decided not to create their own wine, but to partner with other high-quality producers to get the word out. TasteIt is a marketing platform for the wines that manage to maintain this level of quality.
Q: How do you choose your wines?
A: We look for wines in the $20 - $50 per bottle range, and opt for a mix of known and unknown brands. We’ll use brands like Wente to bring on smaller wine labels in our “piggybacking” model.
Q: What about pricing?
A: Since we act as a wholesaler and distributor in California (with Type 17 and Type 20 licenses), we can price below traditional retailers, a big win for us.
Q: What’s your favorite wine?
A: My parents raised me on Rombauer (basic I know) and they consistently produce really exceptional wine for a good price point. It’s also been at every birthday and Christmas I’ve had for a while so I’ve always enjoyed it on a special occasion.
*Answers edited for clarity and brevity]
Thanks so much for sharing this. It reminded me of a similar company I've tried out called W Club (now called Winc Wine). Right when you arrive on their website you're prompted to answer these six multiple choice questions:
ReplyDelete1) How do you like your coffee?
2) How do you feel about salt?
3) Do you like citrus?
4) Do you like earth flavors like mushrooms and black truffles?
5) Do you like blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries?
6) How adventurous are you when it come to Food & Drink?
After answering these quick questions, the site will recommend 4 bottles of wine (your choice how many are red vs. white). Bottles are priced starting at $13 and shipping is free. It's a monthly subscription with each month's bottles customized for you based on your initial taste analysis and reviews you submit on the bottles you've tried.
It's interesting to see how this level of customization and outreach is being adopted across industries. In Financial Services, for example, robo-advisors are built in the exact same way. You arrive at the website, answer 6-10 questions about yourself and your investment goals and you're assigned a semi-customized algorithm. This strategy has proved to successfully attract millennials who do not need customized, in-person advice. This is analogous to the wine industry. Millenials don't need to go into a wine store and explain to explain specifics of what they're looking for and pay for the advice from the people working in the store (also, who has time for that?). Instead, you have an easy purchasing option that help you learn, experiment, and easily access wine.