Calling All Cheapskates

News Alert

Cheapskate Marathon at www.WTSO.com

September 19th, 2017, 7AM – 11:59PM EST

Products & Pricing:

Deals featured between $8.99 and $19.99 only.

Shipping Minimums:

Free shipping on 4 or more of the same bottle.

Type: Flash Sale

Discounts: Deep, 40-60%

Specialty: Tuscany, Spain,  CA

Pros: Free shipping on the minimum amount, usually 4 bottles, sometimes 2.

Good email confirmation & tracking system.

Great range of wines. Delivery to West Coast is slow but wines are well-packed.

Very good track record and many long-term customers.

Cons: NSFW alert. You really have to be be attentive and tuned in for alerts throughout the day which might create problems in an office setting.

Also, early daily start time favors East Coast followers

Offers an occasional wine that is too old and sometimes of dubious provenance

A few too many private CA labels

  • Rating: ★★★★

The Full Story

WTSO.com (Wines ‘Til Sold Out) is a major player I’ve been following and using since 2012. The concept is based on a “flash-sale” model and a featured wine remains available until sold out.

Each day at least 4 wines are offered; when sales are brisk, the number could be as many as 10.

WTSO is on East Coast time, so sleepy West Coast folks could miss out on a few early specials.

After what seemed to be an off year last year, the site was upgraded and de-cluttered in early 2017

Now relying less on numerical ratings from Parker-types and cutting back on the wildly inflated commentary, the site is much improved both in terms of its design, its wine selections and its wine commentary.

A few wines have reappeared a few months after initial offering, so it is possible if you miss out the first time to benefit from a second chance. I’ve seen one Rioja show up 4 or 5 times this year.

Now for the upcoming Cheapskate Marathon

You can follow the sales online at www.wtso.com, download the app, or use your twitter account for notifications.

So, are you ready for some Flash sales? If you are a newbie at this, it can be a bit unnerving with the time pressure. But if curious, this is kind of like a crash course in flash sales. You can be a spectator or a player.

I went back over the 1,489 wine offers over the last 10 months to get a feel for what might be up for sale.

For wines under $19.99, there were a few exceptional deals, most were decent enough for drink soon wines, and there were some wines I wouldn’t want if they were given to me.

cheapsk

My next post will offer a list of wines I’d buy if they are offered during the Marathon.

 

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Author: robywine, norm roby

My career as a wine journalist/critic began in 1975 when my article about California Petite Sirah was published. My focus remained on California as I edited a monthly wine magazine and then moved on to The Wine Spectator in 1982. Over the following years, my column appeared under the banner of “Stormin’ Norman, and I also wrote articles about wine collectors and wine auctions. Without getting into a year by year bio, let me try to summarize here. During my time with The Spectator which I enjoyed immensely, I taught wine classes at a culinary school and at other venues in San Francisco. Before venturing into wine, teaching was my thing, English Lit and Rhetoric. After The Spectator I was the U.S. Contributor to Decanter Magazine, writing mostly about California, but also expanding into Washington State and Oregon. My Decanter years began in 1992 and after buying a summer home in France in 2000, I traveled throughout France and eventually published articles about St. Emilion, Castillon, Bergerac, Minervois, Roussillon, Luberon, Provence, and Alsace. Also, around 2000, my wife began working for Cousino-Macul in Chile, so we tasted and traveled our way through Chile and, of course, managed to fly over the Andes and explore and taste our way through Argentina. As travel lovers, we have also spent many interesting days visiting the wine regions of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Scicily, Greece, and New Zealand. And to come to a close, I was Director of Winesong, a Charity Wine Auction for 20 years, 1992-2000 that benefitted a local hospital. That brought me in contact with wine collectors and to the auction scene. And finally, I co-authored a book, The Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine published by Alfred A. Knopf. It went through 4 editions and sold over 500.000 copies.

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