Wine buying sites

Today I came home and my wine purchases from an online wine specials site had arrived. I got amazing deals on these wines, 3 bottles of Mumm DVX Rose and 4 bottles of Kokomo (one of my favorite wineries!) 2008 Pinot Noir, Windsor Oaks Vineyards. I did not pay shipping on either purchase and saved large amounts of money for the quality of wine that I purchased. I bought the 4 bottles of Kokomo for 76$ and those same four bottles have a retail value of 144$, plus shipping or visiting the winery! I am a big proponent of being able to try a large variety of wine and one of the greatest things that online shopping has done is allowed people to learn and explore at incredibly reduced prices.

However, not all wine sites are the same. There are 6 that I monitor with some frequency, and I encourage you all to include more in the comments section, but I thought that I could review the 6 that I frequent to let you know a little about them. (Please Note: Lot18 requires an invitation. I do have a couple left, if you would like one please leave your e-mail in the comments section or send me an email through the blog.) I am going to start with the one that I buy from most often, but am going to try to give a pros and cons to each. Just try to find out what you like!

www.tillsoldout.com: This is the site that I use most frequently and where I got the deals above. They have a limited amount of a particular bottle that they will sell until it is sold out. Often sold at a discount of between 40-60%. They tend to sell a lot of Italian Varietals, but you can get some amazing deals on domestic boutiques if you monitor it close enough. The biggest con to this site is that there is a limited allocation and it goes quickly. Therefore, you have to make up your mind as to whether you want to buy the wine quite quickly. Pros: amazing selection, great discounts, free shipping. Often if you buy X number of bottles they will ship to you free. That will save you about 10$. This is a great site.

wine.woot.com: This is likely my least favorite of the bunch. However, if you are having a party it can be quite useful. Often the “deals” here are for a lot of wine, like a case, and I find that it is not as high-end as some of the other sites. Deals by the day, so you do not have to make your decisions as quickly.

lot18.com: This is an invitation only site. It does not have the same availability of boutique style wines as tillsoldout (as long as you are willing to wait around) however, the site gives you a lot of information on the wines, some VERY high-end wines (and special releases) and I think makes one a more informed wine buyer, generally. I would highly recommend it, for its wine and educational value. Note: it is the only site that also offers deals on wine accessories.

thewinespies.com: I love this site — its only downfall is that it does not have as large of price reductions as many of the other sites. It is incredibly informative, with information directly from the wine maker and will give you exposure to some really incredibly small boutiques. It is mainly CA based wine and tends to run a lot of reds, Zins, Cabs, Merlot, Pinot, is what you are most likely to find here. However, I really, really, really recommend this one, especially if you are trying to start to delve into some lesser known wineries.

www.wiredforwine.com: This site is nice, it offers one wine per day, typically about a 25-33% discount and I tend to see a lot of Italian Varietals. So, if you like Italian wines this can be a place for you. You don’t have to move as fast as tillsoldout.com, but the discounts are not as large either.

accidentalwine.com: This site is a bit different from the others. You don’t know what wine (specifically) you are buying when you buy from here. I love this site for birthday presents, however! Very fun. Pretty much, if one bottle of wine in a case breaks, it will affect the labels of the wine and then it is not able to be sold as normal. This group offers those slightly “damaged” wines to you at large discounts. What is fun is it is offered in packs that have 4 different price ranges (plus you get to choose red, white, or mixed). The biggest negative here is that it can often take some time to get your wine… 3-4 weeks. Most of the other sites are 3-4 days.

Please let me know if you have any questions and please share if there is a site that you love!