7 Best Online Wine Sites for Labor Day Sales

Let the Countdown Begin!

As we head into Labor Day Weekend, we all should prepare for major sales and special deals coming at us from all sides. 

And wine will be right there with every major online website aiming in our direction.

That means you’ll encounter plenty of hyped up wine descriptions, a good amount of bs, and messages to act fast or miss the deal.

In other words, same as every other day in the crazy-paced online wine world.

As most of you know, I’m not a fan of subscription boxes since you can find better wines at better prices if you do a little research. Nakedwine, Vinesse, Winc, and Firstleaf seem to make many people content. Good for them. But those are not in my targeted wine-loving audience.

The following recommendations are based upon tracking the major websites every day and over the last five years. I should emphasize that many so-called experts  and self-appointed influencers providing lists of the top wine websites are often “affiliates,” meaning they get a commission.  Not me!

The 7 top websites make this list for several key reasons:

  1. They reflect serious and intelligent selection, aka “curation.”
  2. They include a range of imports as well as US wines
  3. They cover the full price range, from under $10 a bottle, not just expensive stuff
  4. They don’t totally rely on 90+ point scores which today are meaningless and unreliable
  5. They offer decent discounts which mean at least 20% off the verifiable retail price.

And, now with a little drumroll, here are the top 7

http://www.lastbottlewines. com

http://www.napacabs.com

www.invino.com 

www.winelibrary.com 

www.reversewinesnob.com

http://www.wineaccess.com

www.wiredforwine.com

Surprised? Didn’t see your favorite? Well, first of all, you owe it to yourself to first check out these top 7 sellers.  In a follow-up post, we’ll explain what sets them apart from the others.

And we’ll also say why some of the more obvious, seemingly successful sites such as wine.com, vivino.com and wtso.com fell short this time around.

Stay tuned!

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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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