A new "one-wine-a-day" web store has emerged: The Wine Spies. (http://thewinespies.com/) Notice the "THE".
This new site, which just recently launched, is similar in concept to Wine.Woot and RadCru insofar as users will find one wine per day, sometimes at a great price, sometimes just hard to find. The difference with The Wine Spies is they've incorporated a "Spy Points" system. The more wine you buy, the more wines you review and the more folks you refer to them the more points you accumulate. Users with more points get special offers. Who doesn't like rewards?
The granddaddy of "one-a-day" sites is is Woot.com, a site that offers, usually, electronic items are ridiculous prices. Their success was built around outstanding, even mind boggling, bargains that attracted a huge community of loyal one-a-dayers.
Creating such a community will of course be the key to the success of The Wine Spies and any other wine-related one-a-day wine site. So the question is, what will build a critical mass of Wine Spies users?
That too seems pretty obvious: Unique wines, very good prices, reliability of customer service. But the folks at Wine Spies realize too that every little bit can help, hence the social networking elements that are built into the site, the fun copy attached to each wine and, of course, the point system.
One of the reasons wine is good fodder for one a day sites is that there are so many wines that people never hear about. Sourcing unique wines from America and abroad introduces users of this and other similar sites to new horizons.
The Wine Spies, RadCru and WineWoot could do a real service to their users by providing a really great price on wines from places most folks don't usually venture when seeking out wine. What about a great deal on Michigan Riesling or Virginia Viognier or Texas Sauvignon Blanc or Tasmanian Pinot Noir or Algerian reds?
I now subscribe to three one-a-day wine websites. Here's hoping I'm exposed to something new.
