Are You a Wine Lover?

Happy holidays!

One reason my why my blogging has been so sparse in recent months is that I've been working hard, together with fellow Zaadzster Marshall Sontag, to launch a new business in the wine industry.

Our new company, which we've named WineQ, is a "meta" wine club ($9.95/mo) that lets you queue up wines like movies, read plenty of reviews from other consumers while choosing your wines, and receive FREE shipping on orders of $35 or more.

Essentially, we allow people to create their own wine club: Instead of someone else choosing the wines you're sent, you get to choose. Instead of someone else deciding how often your wines are sent, you get to choose. And instead of paying through the nose for shipping, you get shipping for free.

Shipping wine is costly, often amounting to a 30% markup on the wine you buy over the internet. Other e-tailers generally require you to order a bare minimum of $120 in wine to receive free shipping -- so a lot of people are excited about our innovative business model.

See the write-ups we received, for example, at Winecast (WineQ: Wine Club 2.0?) and GoodGrape (The "Netflix Effect" and the World of Wine).

Currently we offer wines from a growing list of small California wineries, all of which are sent direct from the winery to the consumer (although, due to our unique business model, you can combine wines from different wineries into the same order).

Right now our selection is somewhat limited for East Coast customers, since not all of our wineries can ship to those states (e.g., New York). But wine lovers in most western and midwestern states will find plenty to enjoy, and in general our selection of participating wineries will be growing steadily over the coming months.

Our web site is at WineQ.com. Check it out if you're a wine lover or know friends or family who might be interested!

You can enter the coupon code ZAADZ during registration or checkout to receive $10 off your first order, giving your first month's membership for free.

We also offer unusually good discounts on expedited shipping -- $5 for 2-day and $10 for overnight -- if you want some exceptional premium wines to round out your holiday dinner plans.

Personally, my favorite wines on our site so far are the Ceja 2003 Vino de Casa Red and Deerfield 2003 RedRex. If you're more of a white wine person, I can't say enough about the Ceja 2005 Vino de Casa White. (None of these wines are over $20.)

And you can find many other highly-rated selections on our recommendations page.

Enjoy! And I welcome your thoughts about the site.