Does anyone else ever order from the Woot style places?

Certainly since recession/meltdown/malaise there have been some great
deals from regular retailers (Zachys, Grape the Wine Company, Pops
spring to mind). But there have also been some new "stores"
established, specializing in the One Item at a Time closeout deal.
Woot wine was first, but I've never bought from them.

I have bought a bit from Wines Til Sold Out. 98+% of their offers
don't interest me, but that's ok- since they put the actual wine in
subject line, I can just delete. Of the ones I open, some I don't find
the pricing that attractive, but I have bought some Champagne (Mumm
Cremant at $40, 85 Cuvee Charlie @$100) and a few reds, with free
shipping the occasional attractive deals. If deleting emails is a pain
for you I wouldn't recommend. I also don't generally buy wines I don't
know (it's been pointed out that a LOT of the wines feature "reviews"
and scores from Jonathan Newman, a distributor, and I wouldn't be
surprised if he was behind the site. When they sell out, they put
another wine up, so sometimes multiple offers in a day (and some
things repeat, if they didn't sell out).

The last month or so Wine Library has started their own site on the
woot model, at http://cinderellawine.com/.
Cinderella does one offer a day (originally midnight Eastern, now at 9
PM). Lots of things don't interest me, but I have bought (3 bottle
quanitities, all with free shipping):
06 Chave Mon Coeur at $16.xx
06 Ridge Lytton at $18.88
03 Mascrello Monprivato @ $38.88 (I mostly avoid 03 Baroli, but this
got good reviews from some folks even less fans of uberripeness than
myself, and besides- under $40 Monprivato?!?!)

So are there other sites like this? Anyone else use these?

On Nov 21, 2:20*pm, DaleW <Dwmi...@aol.com> wrote:
> Certainly since recession/meltdown/malaise there have been some great
> deals from regular retailers (Zachys, Grape the Wine Company, Pops
> spring to mind). But there have also been some new "stores"
> established, specializing in the One Item at a Time closeout deal.
> Woot wine was first, but I've never bought from them.
>
> I have bought a bit from Wines Til Sold Out. 98+% of their offers
> don't interest me, but that's ok- since they put the actual *wine in
> subject line, I can just delete. Of the ones I open, some I don't find
> the pricing that attractive, but I have bought some Champagne (Mumm
> Cremant at $40, 85 Cuvee Charlie @$100) and a few reds, with free
> shipping the occasional attractive deals. If deleting emails is a pain
> for you I wouldn't recommend. I also don't generally buy wines I don't
> know (it's been pointed out that a LOT of the wines feature "reviews"
> and scores from Jonathan Newman, a distributor, and I wouldn't be
> surprised if he was behind the site. When they sell out, they put
> another wine up, so sometimes multiple offers in a day (and some
> things repeat, if they didn't sell out).
>
> The last month or so Wine Library has started their own site on the
> woot model, athttp://cinderellawine.com/.
> Cinderella does one offer a day (originally midnight Eastern, now at 9
> PM). Lots of things don't interest me, but I have bought (3 bottle
> quanitities, all with free shipping):
> 06 Chave Mon Coeur at $16.xx
> 06 Ridge Lytton at $18.88
> 03 Mascrello Monprivato @ $38.88 (I mostly avoid 03 Baroli, but this
> got good reviews from some folks even less *fans of uberripeness than
> myself, and besides- under $40 Monprivato?!?!)
>
> So are there other sites like this? Anyone else use these?



I have ordered hard-to-find spirits from http://www.winechateau.com/ .
Hardly a day passes that they do not email me new offers for wines -
new wines, cheap wines, expensive wines, close outs, free shipping
etc. I found them satisfactory for spirits, but I have not yet tried
any of their wines.

I have ordered mostly spirits from http://www.thedrinkshop.com/ in the
UK with good results, and they carry quite a few wines. International
orders of wine are best suited for rare wines that are expensive,
otherwise the express air shipping is likely to cost more than the
wine. This company has a very large selection of eau-de-vie including
such uncommon ones such as Houx. It also sells the Elixir Vegetat de
la Grande-Chartreuse which I have not yet found in the US.

The store http://www.drinkupny.com/ sells many spirits that are very
difficult to find and quite a few wines. They tend to sell things that
are not found in the average wine or spirits shop. Their wines tend to
be of the reasonable to mid price range. For orders of over $100,
shipping is free. I believe they have tastings, and they likely are
close enough to you to allow you to visit.

I also have ordered from Spain, Holland, and a few other countries in
Europe with good results. The main problem is the cost of express
shipping, so of course I order from other countries only if I can not
locate the item in the US.

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:20:38 -0800 (PST), DaleW <Dwmidnt@aol.com>
wrote:

>Certainly since recession/meltdown/malaise there have been some great
>deals from regular retailers (Zachys, Grape the Wine Company, Pops
>spring to mind). But there have also been some new "stores"
>established, specializing in the One Item at a Time closeout deal.
>Woot wine was first, but I've never bought from them.
>
>I have bought a bit from Wines Til Sold Out. 98+% of their offers
>don't interest me, but that's ok- since they put the actual wine in
>subject line, I can just delete. Of the ones I open, some I don't find
>the pricing that attractive, but I have bought some Champagne (Mumm
>Cremant at $40, 85 Cuvee Charlie @$100) and a few reds, with free
>shipping the occasional attractive deals. If deleting emails is a pain
>for you I wouldn't recommend. I also don't generally buy wines I don't
>know (it's been pointed out that a LOT of the wines feature "reviews"
>and scores from Jonathan Newman, a distributor, and I wouldn't be
>surprised if he was behind the site. When they sell out, they put
>another wine up, so sometimes multiple offers in a day (and some
>things repeat, if they didn't sell out).
>
>The last month or so Wine Library has started their own site on the
>woot model, at http://cinderellawine.com/.
>Cinderella does one offer a day (originally midnight Eastern, now at 9
>PM). Lots of things don't interest me, but I have bought (3 bottle
>quanitities, all with free shipping):
>06 Chave Mon Coeur at $16.xx
>06 Ridge Lytton at $18.88
>03 Mascrello Monprivato @ $38.88 (I mostly avoid 03 Baroli, but this
>got good reviews from some folks even less fans of uberripeness than
>myself, and besides- under $40 Monprivato?!?!)
>
>So are there other sites like this? Anyone else use these?

I've been ordering from Woot for a couple of years now and their
recognizable offerings have been great bargains and their unknown
labels have been surprisingly consistent "finds" for me. Their
shipping costs are also exceptionally low.

For several years in Colorado and for my first two years in Texas I
was ordering a lot of wine from Sam's in Chicago. They did a lot of
email chumming but their offers were often quite attractive so we did
a lot of business. Suddenly about 18 months ago they got a new lawyer
who determined they couldn't ship to TX anymore (TX law weirdly says I
can order only from wineries, not retailers and then only one case per
month--simply put that is unenforceable since there is no way to track
it, but maybe Eric Holder has got someone working on that.)

That ended Sam's orders and they've now been merged with Binny's in
Chicago. Still won't ship to TX.

If I encounter something that impresses me in a restaurant, I will
usually search it through wine-searcher.com and haven't been
disappointed in any of a couple of dozen providers who are competitive
in price and reliable in quality.

So much wine, so little time...and money!

Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
www.thundertales.blogspot.com
www.thunderchief.org

DaleW wrote:

>
> The last month or so Wine Library has started their own site on the
> woot model, at http://cinderellawine.com/.

Aha! So that's what Cinderella means. I'll have to look into that if
they'll ship here.

> So are there other sites like this? Anyone else use these?

Have you forgotten our erstwhile contributors at
http://www.thewinespies.com?

I'm sure that you'll be tempted by their offerings ;-)

Mark Lipton

--
alt.food.wine FAQ: http://winefaq.cwdjr.net

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:20:38 -0800 (PST), DaleW <Dwmidnt@aol.com>
wrote:

>Certainly since recession/meltdown/malaise there have been some great
>deals from regular retailers (Zachys, Grape the Wine Company, Pops
>spring to mind). But there have also been some new "stores"
>established, specializing in the One Item at a Time closeout deal.
>Woot wine was first, but I've never bought from them.

I check Woot Wine and Wines Til Sold Out fairly regularly, but I've
never bought from them. Once in a while they offer some good deals,
but nothing that screams "Buy this now or forever hold the bottles
you've got in the cellar!"

And yeah, until I know who Jonathan H. Newman is, and what his
connection to WTSO is, I have no reason to trust his reviews.

Besides, I'm so awash in wines I already know -- especially recent
French and Washington releases -- that I don't need to roll the dice
on Woot or WTSO provenance.

JJ