Making Fine Wine More Accessible

There is a lot that bothers me about the wine world, but the biggest pain point is how hard it is to find great wine at a decent price. Specifically, in large cities like NYC and SF, restaurant wine lists are out of control expensive and the by the glass program is filled with mediocre wines that are high margin for the restaurant. The great stuff stays on the bottle list and it costs an arm and a leg and a commitment for a whole bottle to try these wines.

The Coravin was a genius invention that has started to solve this problem. Some wine lists in major cities now have two by the glass lists: a regular by the glass list and a Coravin by the glass list. The Coravin list features a higher price point of wines (~$30-$50 a glass) and has opened the door to being able to try an amazing wine without having to spend hundreds of dollars. While it was a great innovation and I am thrilled it is gaining adoption, there are a few problems with the Coravin. First of all, there is still a limited list available through the Coravin. The restaurant only selects a few premium wines for this list so it doesn't fully solve the problem. Second, it is a bit weird to stick a needle in a fantastic bottle of wine and then shoot argon gas into it. It just feels weird. The consumer is starting to get used to this but some folks just cannot get over the weird aesthetics of this.

I think the solution is a mobile application that democratizes fine wine. Why not partner with restaurants to create a social crowd-sharing application that allows users to share bottles of wine. For example, you partner with a high-end SF restaurant. They give you access to their wine list. Most of the expensive wine on the list has very low turnover (from months to years) so they would be likely willing to take a 30% discount on these bottles (I spoke to a few restaurant owners this seemed to be the case). Remember, they are making over 200% markup on these wines in many cases, so taking a 30% discount doesn't hurt their profits too much. Then, if through your mobile application you sell a certain amount of glasses agreed upon with the restaurant (lets say, 4), the bottle is considered purchased and folks going to that restaurant can then share a fantastic bottle of wine that is normally by the bottle, by the glass.

Yes, there are tons of problems with this idea. Pre-ordering wine for dinner is a weird concept. This isn't the perfect solution, but I'm so frustrated with how things currently work and I know this needs to change!!!!

Dylan