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Written by Nikitas Magel   

AR:  Yes.  It's about marketing brands of wine, only now we're doing it through different distribution channels.  That's it.  And that's profound; it's a sea change.  After all, effectively at its core, when it's not really a logistics management play, every wine distributor should be a marketing firm! And what's happened is because of the regulation and because of the inherent monopolies that have built up, a lot of them put locks on the market.  And that is not about marketing — it's about locking other people out, it's about forbidding, it's about creating barriers to entry for other brands.  And you know what?… That system has lasted thus far, but it is not going to be here forever.  It's not!  On the other hand, there will always be a role in the marketplace for great distributors who hand-sell their products in an otherwise saturated market.  If I started a restaurant tomorrow, I would try to build up relationships with those folks.  But it's not going to be the only way to do business in another ten or fifteen years.  And I firmly believe that!


In any sea change, much of the transformation occurs just beneath the surface.  Though ripples brought about by the increasing prevalence of online wine buying are growing in number and frequency, it will be some time before they turn into the industry-altering tempest predicted by many of its more progressive watchers.  How much time, exactly, is anyone's guess.  For now, it will be interesting to see if, and to what extent, traditional wine distributors will continue to ignore the encroaching threat to their primacy that online wine retail poses.  Regardless, as Rapp and many of her fellow e-tailers believe, an end to the monopoly enjoyed by existing wine distributors is really in everyone's interest.    v

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