Advance Bookings pulls in tens of thousands

Naked Wines’ Advance Booking scheme raised £30,000 in just one day following the launch of the scheme at last week’s LIWF.

The scheme, which offers undiscovered wineries the opportunity to sell their wine direct to consumers, pre-sells the wines before they have left their country of origin.

Several members of the trade praised the initiative at the fair, including many winemakers.

Daniela Rojas, one of four winemakers at Lagar de Bezana, a boutique winery based in Chile’s Cachapoal Valley, said: "We agreed the order on Tuesday afternoon, and the wine was live on nakedwines.com a few hours later. I’d barely had the chance to phone Chile to tell them the news when I heard they’d all sold out."

Michael Cox, Wines of Chile UK director, commented: "The speed and ease at which the order was agreed, and the wines sold, is a huge step forward for the industry.

"What can typically take months, and cost thousands of pounds, has been turned on its head – and I’m delighted that a premium Chilean winery has helped to pioneer the scheme."

Meanwhile, LIWF marketing director Will Broadfoot said: "It’s incredible to think that within a single day, a producer can go from no UK representation to selling £30,000 worth of wine.

It’s the first time in the fair’s history that any producer has achieved this level of sales, and seen them realised at consumer level, in such a short period of time,” he added.

Jane Parkinson, 24.05.2010