Online shopping up and running

I've had a website for my wine importing business for more than a year, but with the addition of a retail liquor licence in April, I cracked the whip on a friend to set up online shopping on that site.

The idea isn't to undercut the retailers who support my producers, but to offer consumers the wines that aren't being offered anywhere else, such as very small allocations, bin ends, and very rare wines that might not otherwise find a home at a full retail price.

The store is up and running now, although improvements will continue to be made. I've finished adjusting prices and adding reviews to the product descriptions, and my friend has taken bottle shots and hopes to upload them this weekend.

Ideally I would like orders in straight dozens because then I don't need to handle the wine, reducing the cost of time and the chance of breakages. But in reality orders can be one bottle of each wine up to a minimum order of six bottles of champagne or 12 bottles of wine.

This gives people the opportunity to mix and match, try all sorts of new styles and producers, or share a sampler pack with friends.

I will probably tweak discounts from time to time and offer special trial packs, but for now you can enter the word "dozen" at the checkout stage to receive a 10% discount on the total order. Remember, many of these items are already at a lower price than retail, so the savings are substantial.

Payment is via direct deposit, so you place your order, await email confirmation and an invoice, pay the account and then wait for the mailman with your delivery. Postage rates are very reasonable to the eastern metropolitan areas but a little steeper to SA and WA. Order four dozen or more and we will waive the fee altogether. Insurance is available at $2.80 per $100 value.

Meanwhile, Terra Wines has made a great start to distribution in WA and Eurocentric wines will soon start to grace the wine lists of several restaurants and wine bars, as well as the shelves of adventurous retailers.

I will soon be hitting the road to Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide to try to improve the takeup rate in those areas. Whether I make it to Europe in time for the German riesling auctions -- where the best wines of the 2008 vintage will be shown and sold -- depends on whether I see a sudden influx of orders and payments.

I'd certainly like to be there to try the cream of the crop, to finalise orders from the big Eurocentric team in Germany, to visit a new Champagne producer, catch up with the latest from Burgundy and to meet one of the leaders from the resurgent Beaujolais wine scene.

New producers and online shopping

Very remiss of me not to update you more regularly. If I ever end up in hospital and have use of my arms (or preferably a remote location with power and internet access), I will spend some of the time catching up on months of tasting notes!

There are two main snippets of news to share right now:

I have secured the Australian distribution rights for Martinborough, NZ, boutique producer Benfield and Delamare. I've been allocated 25 cases of the delicious 2006 vintage of their top wine, a merlot-cabernet franc blend. It is an elegant, enticing wine, plummy and perfumed with what I would call fruits of the forest -- blackberries, blueberries, wild strawberries even.

And the website for my business -- www.eurocentricwine.com.au -- now has an online store so that the Australian public can browse and choose from the complete range. Retailers obviously pick and choose through the portfolio according to what they believe their customers will buy, and some great wines have until this point been overlooked. There are also some rare and very expensive German sweet wines that might find favour with a collector or parent wanting to tuck away birth-year gifts for well into the future.

Special introductory mixed dozens are yet to be listed, but you can mix and match single bottles of your own choosing to a minimum order of one dozen and enjoy at least 10% off the total price.

Payment is by means of direct bank transfer of cheque, although the latter must be cleared before goods will be shipped.

The website now also carries a downloadable PDF catalogue with notes on producers and many international independent reviews of the wines. The monthly newsletter will also soon be available as an archive.

I will be busy in Sydney for the next two weeks, with plans to show wines to interested retailers and restaurants on Thursday, August 6. I will be in New Zealand from August 14-31, primarily to catch up with the North Island producers and try their next releases.

I aim to make quick visits to Brisbane and Melbourne in September and then go to Europe by about the 23rd. The VDP German riesling auctions are a great way to taste the best the 2008 vintage has to offer, plus secure some very limited edition gems and catch up with the 11 winemakers I import from.

If I manage to go, I will stay for a month and see some new Champagne prospects, taste the 2008s in Burgundy, and meet my new Beaujolais producer, Roland Pignard.

There are plans for a shipment of wine out of France in September if the finances come together. That shipment would include Champagne, Burgundy, Chablis and Beaujolais.

Another shipment out of Germany would bring Maximin Grunhaus and Van Volxem wines here for the first time, plus the 2008s from Willi Schaefer, Schloss Lieser, Rebholz, Emrich-Schonleber, Schafer-Frohlich and perhaps the rest of the team there.

Champagne has been the hot ticket lately, with Rockpool Bar & Grill in Sydney lapping up the Rene Geoffroy Empreinte, while Aria, which won the Good Food Guide wine list of the year award in 2009, proved their good taste in opting to list the Geoffroy Rosé de Saignée by the glass and bottle.

Stocks are low of red Burgundies until the 2007s arrive, but there are some fantastic New Zealand reds available now, and ample riesling and white Burgundy to suit the white wine lovers.

And so this brief note turns into another epistle ... I'm off for now, but please check out the website. I'd not only appreciate your custom but your feedback.

Cheers!
Neville