Where to Buy Wine Online

Online wine sales are way up during the shelter in place. I expect a lot of it is people who haven't bought online before. Actually, I'm one on them because when you live in a place surrounded by hundreds of wineries there's usually no reason to get wine via the Internet. A little advice and opinion follows.

Buying online will be either directly from a winery, a wine store, or an online wine club. You're probably buying wines that you don't know much about, but then that often happens at the grocery store too, right? The difference here is you're going to be buying more than a bottle or two. You usually see offers of at least six bottles or 12 (a full case). This is because of shipping costs. For instance, shipping one bottle from California to another state can run near $20, but shipping six bottles is about $35. So you can see how the per bottle cost drops dramatically as the number of bottles increases.

Right now many wineries are offering some kind of wine discount and/or inexpensive shipping. In fact, there are enough places doing that to where I don't see any reason not to expect a decent savings.

Let's look at the different places to buy from online:

Direct from wineries

Most states allow direct shipping now, but check with your local laws. If you go to an online store it will ask what state for shipping and will not let you order if it's a "bad" state. A lot of wineries are eating most of the cost of regular ground shipping.

With hot weather coming you might want to investigate how the wine is shipped from a particular winery. Typically the wine goes via a temperature controlled truck to a hub near you. It's once it reaches that hub and finally to your door that can be an issue. The last thing you want your wine to do is travel from California to Florida in a 60 degree truck then sit in a 95 degree warehouse over the weekend. Wineries are knowledgeable about this and should work with you to avoid heat problems. There often is an option of two day or overnight shipping, but this is expensive.

Get yourself a mixed case from one of your favorite family-owned wineries at a good price and help out a family! Or do like I did and buy from a couple you've never heard from. One was based on a recommendation (Bowers Harbor in Michigan); the other just based on where it was from (Bella Grace in Amador County). I also purchased from a well-known negociant, Cameron Hughes. They buy wine that wineries can't sell, bottle under their own label, then sell at a discounted price. So far I've had one bad bottle and one good from them, so the jury is still out. Regardless, I'm having a lot of fun trying new things this way.

Wine Store

Again, there are a few states that won't allow you to ship wine from an online wine retailer. The advantage of buying this way is you can get wines from a variety of wineries and locations. K&L Wine Merchants, Wine.com, and Total Wine are a few that I'm familiar with though I've never bought online from any of them. A local shop I'll vouch for is Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa. Great selection from all over, though specializing in local juice (some are hard to find wines), and great prices.

Wine Club

I've never been in an online wine club, like Naked Wines, or any of the many others (even the NRA has a wine club so you know they are money makers)! Not really a fan of these either as you're never quite sure what you're getting. But it's a good way to experiment. Usually a club means there's periodic shipments with their default wines though (hopefully) you can change them. You are in the club until you tell them to stop sending wine, but there may be a minimum number of shipments required.

When You Get Your Wine

Federal law says there must be someone over 21 at the house to sign for alcohol delivery. The signature requirement is waived during the pandemic.

There is such a thing as bottle shock when wine has been moved around during shipping. The wines don't taste right and tend to be closed up (lacking flavor). You're always excited to open your just arrived wines, but you should really let them rest for a week.

If you see a bottle where wine has leaked out of the cork then the wine got overheated and won't be any good. Not just the wines that leaked, but everything in the shipment. Contact the seller.

The last you want to have happen is to run out of toilet paper or wine. Luckily, getting wine is quite easy. Enjoy!