Frequently Asked Questions

1
I already have a wine distributor supplier. Why do I need another one?

One Vine Wines has a novel and unique model that has disrupted many cost inefficiencies of the traditional wholesale system. Our goal is to bring you the best wines at the best prices. Our low margin helps you make and keep more money for your business. Our online portal allows you to quickly order, reorder, and request holds or allocations for products. We know of no other importer or distributor operating with the same depth of experience as we are. We encourage you to compare pricing of our wines with your existing supplier. We encourage you to taste the quality of our wines against your existing wines.Once you've tried our wines, you’ll be convinced of the quality of our wine offers.

2
How is this going to benefit my business?

Most owners and buyers are very busy people running their own business. We’ve simplified the buying process by creating an online portal for you to order product, place reorders, and track order history. While you are busy running your business, we are busy tasting and selecting best in class products to offer you. We believe that once you compare our prices, quality, and the simplified order process that is available 24 hours a day, every day, you will be converted.

3
How do you keep your pricing so low?

We’ve eliminated inefficiencies in the traditional wholesale trade. One big factor that reduces cost is that we removed most of our sales agents from the streets. Rather than employ a large sales force, we focus on sourcing great wines at great prices from around the world. Second, we’ve streamlined inventory ordering, storage, and management. Rather than warehouse a large portfolio of products and significant inventory, we focus on high volume products that we know will be successful for your business. By operating a lean company, we are able to work on a lean margin, so that you can make and keep more margin for your business.

4
What if I want to taste the wine before buying it?

We understand many buyers prefer to taste the product prior to committing to buy it. However, we hope you will understand how this greatly adds to our cost of doing business (and therefore your final price) and represents one of the inefficiencies of the traditional system. We hope you will see the value of our rigorous selection process. If, in the end, you are unhappy with a wine, we will make a best effort to substitute or credit your account upon receiving returned product.

5
How do you select wines for offer?

We are in a unique position to taste over 5,000 wines per year. We taste all of the major Bordeaux releases at en primeur and again at follow up tastings upon release. We are tasting at all of the major trade shows annually: Vinitaly, Prowein, Vinisud, and VinExpo. We attend numerous appellation and regional tastings around the world. We are vigilantly following the major wine critics and pouring over their assessments to follow up on wines that are new to market or that we may have overlooked. We are constantly evaluating the price and quality of the wines we offer against wines offered by our competitors. Our goal is to provide superior selections at the most competitive prices. You may not have the time or desire to taste 25 malbecs before deciding which one to pour, but we do! And, your business will benefit knowing the rigor we incorporate into our decisions.

6
How do you rate and review wines?

We share ratings and reviews from wine magazines and critics at large including: James Suckling, Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Wine & Spirits, Luca Maroni, Guide Hachette, Descorchados, etc.). At times we uncover gems that have been overlooked or simply not yet rated by critics. In these cases, we ask fellow sommeliers (some of whom may be your peers) and other wine experts to rate and review the wines we offer.

7
What are your payment terms?

Our goal is mitigate our costs so that we can deliver the best wines at the best prices to our clients. For this reason, we prefer to not spend time and money acting as a payment collection agency. We prefer payment via credit card or PayPal at the time of order. Many business owners and buyers enjoy the benefit of accruing points or miles on a credit card with rewards. If you need payment terms, we require a current, completed credit card authorization form to be on file. If you become a frequent or a high volume customer, you may request 30-day payment terms upon completion and approval of a credit application.

8
Why does your credit application require a personal guarantee?

Many distributors have gone out of business because they extend too much credit to too many accounts. Distributors are not banks and do not operate successfully by lending product out and hoping the customer will pay for the product within the specified 30 days. This is a very inefficient system. If we are to extend you credit, we must have an owner or responsible party provide a personal guarantee to pay for the product, regardless of the health or success of the business. We hope you understand how this reduces our cost and potential for loss, and ultimately allows us to maintain an industry-low margin to offer you best pricing. We’d like to encourage our customers to pay with a credit card, which will essentially afford them 30-day terms and provide the buyer with the added opportunity to acquire points for travel or other use.

9
How do I qualify to receive offers on allocated wines?

Unlike our competition, we don’t grade our clients and refer to them as A, B, C, or D clients. If you operate as a reseller in the state of CA and you have signed up to receive all of our offers, you will receive offers for allocated offers at the same time as every other account. As you may have experience, many distributors allocate wines that are reserved for the “A” list customers. The large distributors also employ a strategy that essentially utilizes a form of manipulation. They will force customers to buy several other items or cases in order to obtain a single bottle or case of an “allocated” item. We think this is just bad business, and it may violate ABC trade practices. We’re incredulous that any supplier would ask a client to do such a thing. A much more democratic and fair way to offer allocated wines is like the one that we offer: An email goes out and the first to pull the trigger and commit to a purchase wins the wine.

10
How do you deliver wine?

We use third party couriers. In California, GSO handles much of our delivery and transportation. GSO offers online tracking and can deliver to most of the state of California within 1-2 days from the time the wine leaves our warehouse.

11
How much is shipping?

There is a $5 per order fee added to each delivery. If you do not meet a minimum order of $350, an additional delivery fee will be added to your order. The fee is based on our discretion and at our cost. We do not try to make money on shipping, but we must cover the high cost of delivery. In an effort to reduce costs, we typically ship the boxes in their original case.