11/28/05 Monday question - On line wine purchase

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran and today we are answering a question from our email. Recently a listener wrote to ask "I have heard about buying wine on line and I am very skeptical about doing it. What are your thoughts?" We are increasingly relying upon the internet for information, research and shopping. It should be of no shocked to you that sales of wine on the internet are increasing. Most wineries offer a wine club membership via the internet and they also sell wine from their websites, shipping wines to any state that it is legal to do so. My thoughts about buying wine on the internet vary. If I am buying directly from the winery, I don't give it a second thought. I trust that they want to keep me as a customer and they are shipping me their best product. If it gets to me and I don't like it; I don't buy anymore wine or I discontinue my membership to the wine club. If it is simply a bad bottle, as in corked or flawed from shipping etc., then I contact the winery. They are usually more than gracious and replace the bottle at no cost to me. If you buy wine from an online retailer I think that you are also dealing with companies that want to keep your business and will honor your purchase in much the same way that the wineries do. Now if you are dealing with on line auctions or ebay perhaps I must say that as far as I can tell you have no guarantee as to how the wines have been stored. Research to find any complaints that may have been registered against the business. It may take a bit of effort but if you are planning to make a big investment, it will be worth your time. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thank you for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.