September 1, 1995
From Correspondent Brian Nelson
NAPA VALLEY, California (CNN) -- As anyone who has surfed the Internet knows, there's plenty for sale out there. There are sites to buy music, art work, gourmet food, chocolate, even grapes. In a manner of speaking, that is.
Shopping on the Internet is nearly as easy as strolling the aisle of a supermarket. Case in point is Virtual Vineyards. As you may have guessed, it sells wine. Yes, wine has become one of the latest consumer products to find a storefront on main street in cyberspace. Since January, a company called Virtual Vineyards has been filling orders of select California wines, and shipping them to Internet wine lovers around the world.
Peter Granoff, a noted California sommelier, and a 25-year veteran of the restaurant business began this electronic winery. In January, Granoff and a partner decided they could bypass the big distributing chains and sell wine directly on the Internet on behalf of a handful of lesser known California vineyards. "The bells were ringing in my head because I'd been watching the wine industry get increasingly desperate in their attempts to get the story of small wineries in particular through to the consumer," said Granoff.(140K AIFF sound)
Granoff and his partner evidently aren't alone. Other vineyards have taken root on the Internet too. Vineyards from Italy, Australia, and South Africa have sites available.
The appeal? Selection and convenience. "You can order wine in your bathrobe at two o'clock in the morning sipping a glass of cognac if you want. Nobody's going to know the difference," said Granoff.
But knowing the different wines? At Virtual Vineyards, you'll learn the differences. Granoff offers a tasting chart for each selection and some recipe suggestions to go with each wine. He'll even entertain e-mail questions about wine in a section called "Ask The Cork Dork".
Other vineyards on the Internet try to trigger the taste buds with charming photos of their region, but Virtual Vineyards is into creative marketing. Take this selection called $99 of Wine On The Wall. For 99 bucks, you'll get 12 bottles discounted from $118.
If you think this IS a deal, click the "Remember This Item" button, and continue to browse among other offerings. When you're finished, an order form appears containing all your selections. To make the purchase, U.S. residents simply fill in the delivery instructions, have the order totaled up, and confirm the purchase with a credit card. Buyers outside the U.S. must complete their transactions by phone.
Granoff believes his Netscape credit card payment system is secure, despite what he calls, overblown scares about Internet credit card piracy. "People call their credit cards, they fax their credit cards, without even thinking about it," said Granoff. "And in our opinion, you're at a greater risk from that than you are sending your card across the Internet".
Wine orders come off the Internet at Virtual Vineyards offices in Los Altos, California and it can be a matter of minutes to verify someone's credit, pack a carton full of wine, and ship it anywhere in the U.S., or maybe to far-off locations like Japan and Singapore.
If you don't mind a two day wait, the Internet has made buying wine exciting and a whole lot more interesting than buying it off the shelf.
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