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Naked Wines to invest in US and Australia
Naked Wines is hoping to maximise the potential of entrepreneurial winemakers in the US and Australia by investing £5.5m in their vineyards.
Founder Rowan Gormley told the drinks business, “The US and Australia have one great thing in common, there are heaps of talented, entrepreneurial winemakers making really stunning wines.”
“Trouble is, the stuff they send to the UK is mediocre, they keep the very best to themselves, hence the opportunity.
“When we figured out a $50 bottle of Napa Cabernet cost $10 to make and we can sell it for $15, we knew we had to get in on the ground floor.”
The club is to invest members’ funds into 22 new winemakers either to set them up in business or help their current set up in Australia and the west coast of the US.
Naked wines will also invest in offices in Napa, California and Newport Beach, Australia.
In February this year Naked invested in a New Zealand winemaker, but this is its first significant international expansion as it has grown to 100,000 “angels” investing £2 million a month, which is where the funding is coming from.
At the same time, the company is to open its website to US and Australian consumers, the first time wine drinkers outside the UK will have been able to gain access to the club.
Gormley added: “The online operations we are opening will be very low-key. We expect it will be some time before those markets are ready to try unknown wines from winemakers nobody has ever heard of, and our key focus remains investing in winemakers, but the retail interest will come, and we want to be ready when it does.”
Among the projects Naked Wines is investing in are:
- AUD$400,000 to help Sam Plunkett, who made the Best Shiraz in Australia at the 2010 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge, set up his own label.
- A project with celebrated Californian winemaker, Randall Grahm, to develop a range of exclusive wines.
- US$1.4m to create a winemaking studio in Napa, California, where winemakers can do what they’re good at (i.e. make wine) and leave the funding, bottling, sales and distribution to Naked Wines.