How to Make a Million Dollars in Wine
Many million-dollar ideas end up costing $10 Million to achieve. That’s typical logic for you in the wine trade. After years of hard work… you end up with less money than you began with. Fortunately, you get to drink your losses, so it’s not all bad.
That was pretty much the story of TastingRoom
Little Bottles of Big Wines
Don’t get me wrong, the idea was fantastic (and yes, I know we are a paragraph into this entry and I haven’t even told you what it is). When I first wrote about TastingRoom in 2012, I was right, but I wish I hadn’t been:
I just hope the investors don’t give up before it catches on. I’m talking about this great little thing called TastingRoom.com. For about $5, you can sample a wine that would typically go for anywhere between $30-$70 a bottle. The keyword here is sample, as in less than two ounces.
The idea was really cool. You could sample a range of kick-ass wines without having to spend big bucks. It’s the wine lovers’ version of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books.
But there were even bigger behind-the-scenes reasons why this was such a great concept: this technology would allow small family-run wineries the chance to introduce their wines to journalists across the country without breaking the bank.
We all benefit when the little guy gets press. Mondavi and Duboeuf get enough love already. Sadly, the company and it’s core technology were abandoned.