New wine marketplace, The Wine Collective, launched on March 18th, has the mission to make the wine journey more approachable.
Following the merger of The Wine Society, Cracka Wines and WineGrowers Direct, this new wine buying destination offers customers a tailored and personalised experience, championing well known producers as well as uncovering new gems.
Integrating the heritage and expertise of The Wine Society, Australia’s oldest wine club, and their database of 400,000 plus customers, The Wine Collective is more than just a place to buy wine. Providing smaller independent producers with a route to market and a way to tell their story is a key part of the company’s ethos, ensuring prices that are fair to customers and hard-working wineries alike. The easy-to-navigate site champions high-quality small and medium-sized wine growers, offering everything from wines of the world to small batch drops, celebration fizz and everyday drinking wines.
With this brand history comes a panel of wine advisors led by chief wine buyer Johan Axlund, wine journalist and judge Angus Hughson, and senior wine buyers Antoine Huray and Sarah Linhart. Meeting with local and international winemakers each month to handpick quality wines with a broad price range and something to satisfy all palates, the panel’s selection process sees them taste more than 5,000 wines each year. Only the top five percent of wines tasted are offered to consumers and added to the company’s portfolio of up to 900 wines.
Along with supporting wine growers, The Wine Collective also has strong partnerships with brands, including Tahbilk, Tyrrell’s, Jeanneret, Rolf Binder, The Barons of Barossa, Geoff Merrill, Grant Burge, Vasse Felix, and Giant Steps.
Following a restructure in late 2016, and significant investment by Fogarty Wine Group, the merged group aims to grow the digital footprint of the Australian wine industry – with online the fastest growing sales channel in Australia, and online liquor sales expected to account for 4.6% of total liquor retail sales in 2019.1 The quick and convenient door-to-door delivery service is straight from The Wine Collective’s own warehouses, with guaranteed next day delivery for Sydney orders placed before 1pm.
Under the leadership of CEO and digital strategy specialist Lloyd Heinrich, the merger and restructuring of Australia’s cooperative wine business has been greeted with positive support from shareholders and the broader wine industry.
Heinrich says, “for more than 70 years, we have nurtured and supported the Australian wine consumer, putting great brands in customer’s hearts and minds. We look forward to strengthening our partnerships with great producers and putting their great products up in lights.
Wine subscription continues to be a significant canvass for our producer partners to showcase their products to a highly-engaged audience. The Wine Collective will bring our customer base closer than ever to our producer partners, offering money can’t buy experiences, tasting events and in-depth content to extend their journey beyond the bottle.”
To celebrate the launch, The Wine Collective is running a week-long giveaway of prizes for wine lovers on their site and through their social media channels. Worth over $35,000, prizes include free wine plans, free freight on wine orders for life, a wine fridge full of Tyrrell’s Wines and a trip for two to Champagne, France.
Photo: Lloyd Heinrich
