Online retail giant Amazon.com has just announced Amazon Wine, their new marketplace where users can shop thousands of different wines from Napa Valley, Sonoma, Paso Robles, Walla Walla, Red Mountain, Willamette Valley, and more.
“Amazon Wine is an ideal place to buy wine online, offering a vast selection of wines from iconic brands to enthusiast favorites. Learn about wine by hearing directly from the winemaker about winemaking techniques, wine tasting notes, vineyard details, and wine pairing suggestions. Become a wine connoisseur of your own right by discovering the best wine for your taste preferences, whether it’s dry wines or sweet wines, and by reading wine reviews by other customers.
Use our simple filters to sort by type, such as red wine, white wine, rosè wine, sparkling wine, and dessert wine. Also, narrow down your choices by wine rating or price, to help you buy the perfect wine for any occasion, whether you are looking for a fine wine or an everyday wine. Examine wine labels online to help you make perfect food and wine pairings or just read wine quotes directly from the winemaker,” says the company.
Amazon first unveiled their plans to get back into the wine selling business back in September.
Of course, there are restrictions. Here’s what Amazon has to say about wine shipping on their Help page:
When you order wine on Amazon.com, you’re ordering directly from a winery. Each winery operates under its own set of permits and determines which states it can ship to. Wineries using Amazon Wine are only able to ship to a limited number of U.S. states and are unable to ship to P.O. boxes or Amazon Lockers…Both the purchaser and the recipient of wine must be at least 21 years of age, and all shipments require an adult signature at delivery. The shipment won’t be delivered if an adult isn’t available to sign for the delivery.
As of right now, only residents in a handful of states can order wine through Amazon: California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and the District of Columbia. Amazon says that more states are on the way.
Amazon is simply providing the marketplace, as the individual wineries will have to handle the bulk of the labor. But having your wine available on Amazon obviously carries a huge upside for smaller wineries that can expand their potential customer base exponentially through the venture.
“People love to explore wine, but it is rare to have detailed information and opinions located all in one place,” said Tom Hedges of Hedges Family Estate, Red Mountain, Wash. “What Amazon has done with their new wine store is take the experience of hundreds of tasting rooms and put them online. We could not be more excited by the possibilities of growing our business and reaching new customers.”