Gary Vaynerchuk launches text driven wine delivery service

New York-based entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has launched a wine delivery service that sends subscribers weekly deals via text message.

Entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has launched a wine delivery service that sends you daily deals via text

Called WineText, the platform aims to capitalise on the recent spike in online wine sales during the Covid-19 pandemic. With a focus on convenience, when people sign up, they are send weekly deals on “high-quality discounted wine” via text message to their smart phones.

If a particular deal takes a customer’s fancy, they can reply to the text with the number of bottles they’d like, which will be delivered directly to their door.

The service is already proving popular – last Friday demand for the daily deal was so high it almost crashed the system.

WineText is only available to US residents. Shipping is free if you order 12 bottles or more and costs $6 for all other orders.

Among the wines recently offered through WineText are: Simpatico Ranch Seabold Chardonnay 2017 down from $45 to $19.37; Clos St. Jean Châteauneuf-du-Pape Vielles Vignes 2016 down from $55 to $29.78; and San Filippo Lucere Brunuello di Montalcino 2013 down from $90 to $49.89.

Vaynerchuk rose to fame in the early noughties through entertaining wine videos posted on his Wine Library TV webcast.

Born in Belarus, Vaynerchuk moved to the US aged three and began working at his father’s wine shop in New Jersey aged 14, joining full time in 1998.

The success of his eccentric and entertaining Wine Library TV videos helped turn his family’s humble Wine Library store into a US$60m business.

After filming 1,000 episodes, in 2011 Vaynerchuk stopped Wine Library TV, swapping it for video podcast The Daily Grape.

In 2009 Vaynerchuk stepped away from wine to launch a social media focused digital agency, VaynerMedia, which provides media strategy to companies like Pepsi, AB InBev and General Electric.