Top 1% of Wines as Judged by Wine.com Customers
- Quick Pitch
- Wine drinkers voted with their wallets; trends say highly-rated, low-price wines win; many hail from regions abroad
Full Release
SAN
FRANCISCO, CA – December 3, 2008 – Wine.com, the nation's #1 online
wine retailer, today announced its second annual Wine.com 100 list
based entirely on customer preferences. The only list of its kind is
generated by ranking the top 1 percent of bottle sales of the over
10,000 wines sold nationally on Wine.com during the first 11 months of
2008. For a complete list, go to http://www.wine.com/100.
"Our annual ranking is unique in that it reflects the opinions of our
customers," said Rich Bergsund, Wine.com CEO. "The trend we’ve seen is
that wine enthusiasts are looking for the greatest value – highly rated
wines at lower price points – and are increasingly choosing wines from
South America and Australia."
The Wine.com 100 list shows customers are choosing both quality and
price, with 94 of the wines rated 90 points or higher from leading wine
critics, including Wine Spectator, and over 70 wines priced under $20.
The Wine.com 100 list also demonstrates consumer demand for notable
brands such as Silver Oak, Caymus, Dom Pérignon, Cakebread, Duckhorn,
and Jordan.
The most popular wine of 2008 hails from Chile's Veramonte Winery.
Veramonte’s 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva sells for $9.99 and
received a 92-point rating from The Wine News. Veramonte's Sauvignon
Blanc, Chardonnay and two vintages of the winery’s premium red blend,
Primus, also made the list.
"Veramonte wines have been a favorite of ours for a decade," said
Michael Osborn, founder and VP of Merchandising for Wine.com. "Having
five of our Top 100 from this estate shows that customers recognize
their artisanal quality wine and the great value they offer."
In contrast with most U.S. wine retailers, where on average 25% of wine
sold is imported, the Wine.com 100 contains 63 imported wines. While
California dominates domestically with 31 wines on the Wine.com 100
list, eight other countries are represented led by Australia (27),
Chile (11), Argentina (8), Spain (6), France (5), Italy (4), and New
Zealand (2). Wines from Australia and South America demonstrated the
biggest trend, moving to 27% and 19% this year from 18% and 13% last
year, respectively.
Red wine represents 74% of the top 100, led by Cabernet Sauvignon (18),
Syrah (16), and Malbec (6). Of the 20 white wines on the list,
Chardonnay (10) and Sauvignon Blanc (6) topped the list.
Wine.com recently introduced evening, Saturday, date-specific and by
appointment delivery and is the only wine retailer in the U.S. to offer
these convenient shipping options. The company also introduced the
Wine.com Steward-Ship™ Program offering frequent buyers one year of
free delivery on every order, regardless of size, for just $49.
About Wine.com
Wine.com is the nation's #1 online wine retailer, according to Internet
Retailer magazine’s annual ranking of websites by revenue, offering
thousands of wines, wine gifts, gift baskets and monthly wine clubs.
Wine.com’s mission is to be the ultimate resource for wine enthusiasts,
whether shopping for themselves or sending a gift, by offering a great
selection, low prices, convenient delivery and helpful information.
Wine.com is the world’s most visited wine web site, according to
research conducted by comScore Media Metrix. For more information,
visit http://www.wine.com.
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Nice. Interesting to see many of the big players now trying to create their own scoring systems!
Posted by: Wine Club Guy | July 30, 2009 at 10:02 PM
That' great news!
Posted by: janet | March 03, 2009 at 09:24 AM