Naked Wines

The other day I got a bunch of stuff delivered from Amazon, and just as I was about to throw out the usual marketing rubbish that comes with it, I noticed a substantial voucher for a wine company and decided to investigate further.

The company in question is Naked Wines
http://www.nakedwines.com

They seem to have hit on a curious premise: they sponsor an "exclusive" (their word, not mine) group of small winemakers partly through sales and partly through a cash-subscription-for-discounts model. The idea is that customers can then buy good wine and a cheaper price because the winemakers don't have to spend time and effort on marketing - naked does that for them - so they can get on with making wine. It's basically a group of small producers teaming up with a much bigger marketing machine so they can all benefit from the group exposure.

It seems a plausible premise, but it has one big, fat, obvious flaw. Since these winemakers are "exclusive" how do we know if they're actually any good or not?

I'd be curious to know if anyone has any knowledge of or experience of this company, and what opinions are on the viability of their business model?

Not sure how much response you'll get here as the majority of members of this forum are not in UK and thus don't have access to Naked Wines but there has been some discussion on various UK based forums and blogger Andy Barrow at spittoon.biz seems to approve of it.

Naked Wines was set up by Rowan Gormley whose previous wine enterprise was bought by Richard Branson and renamed Virgin Wines....

The model is interesting but I'm not sure there is any cost benefits to the consumer. What you get is the warm feeling you are helping small winemakers and are part of the Naked Wine community.

Your question is moot. If these are small unknown winemakers how do we know they are any good? I suppose the comments from other members, the fact they've been selected and the money back guarantee.

Region I am most expert in is South Africa and when I look at the three pages of SAf wines I see Raats Family wines -- Bruwer Raats has a tremendous reputation as a wine maker, but his wines have previously been in Oddbins and Threshers....

There are also wines from the large production Wamakersvalleei Cooperative. They make some good wines but they're not the small winemaker operation I'd expect to see -- indeed I had one of their Chenins last night as a house wine in a pub in Cheshire so they're not exactly exclusive or undistributed.....

Whether Naked will succeed, who knows. Competition is ferocious with Laithwaites and Virgin competing in the same area.

I'm not tempted so far, I'm happy with the Wine Society, but why not give them a go and feedback your experiences?

Peter May,
Of South African Chenin Blancs available in the US market (I realize you are in the UK) which do you recommend?

Dan

Dan, I'm glad to offer suggestions but I have no idea what is available to you. Can you name some names/vintages...

[Jenise]

Not sure how much response you'll get here as the majority of members of this forum are not in UK and thus don't have access to Naked Wines but there has been some discussion on various UK based forums and blogger Andy Barrow at spittoon.biz seems to approve of it.

Naked Wines was set up by Rowan Gormley whose previous wine enterprise was bought by Richard Branson and renamed Virgin Wines....

Rowan just joined our forum, so I suspect he'll be along shortly to discuss this personally with y'all.

Peter,
South African Chenin readily available here include Mulderbosch, Raats, Man, Indaba, Simonsig, Ken Forrester, Cederberg and Kanu. There are others too, but these should give a sense of the scene. Also, I suspect we don't see much beyond entry - level versions. Poking around the internet I came across a Vloek op Hout and a Small Change from Mulderbosch, a Barrel Ferment from Ken Forrester and a Chenin avec Chene from Simonsig. If these make it here at all they are not widely available.

Dan

I'm disappointed Rowan hasn't joined in yet so lets carry on with the alternate subject in this thread

Dan, The two names on your list most associated with Chenin are Bruwer Raats (mentioned in the Naked Wines post) and Ken Forrester.

Raats concentrates on Chenin and Cab Franc. He makes two Chenins (and I think some specials ), the basic one "Raats Original" with a blue label is unwooded and I think is tremendous value and vibrantly tasty. The other is a serious wooded Chenin thaty has gained many plaudits, more creamy than crisp, 08 vintage is recommended.

Ken Forrester has so many different labels at all price points - wooded, unwooded and botrytis). I use his FMC Chenin at tastings; its expensive at around 18GBP, serious wooded, structured powerful wine. 'Petit' is his entry level, but over here he makes many Chenins for various supermarkets sold under their own label.

I have a lot of time for Simonsig, a family owned and run farm. They have 2 Chenins under their own name. The plain Chenin won the Platter 'quaffer of the year' two year srunning, very cheap and a really poppular well made wine, just off-dry. The Chenin Avec Chene is barrel fermented, won many awards. There's was also Vin de Liza a delicious botrytised chenin.

Mulderbosch had an interesting dry Chenin 'Small Change' 08 oaked from old vineyards and with a little botrytised added for complexity. But winemaker of 20 years left before 2009 vintage. Unusual as its one of the few (or only one maybe) winery in SAf to use the 'Steen' name on its basic Chenin = 'Chenin Blanc Steen Op Hout ' but not highly rated by Platter.

Kanu have done well in the annual Chenin Challeng competition when focus was on the heavily wooded style, label is KCB for the dry and Kia-Ora for the NLH botrytised.

They're the ones I'd go for.

Shame we've had no more feedback on this retailer. But for what it's worth I've just ordered two each of

Lunate Fiano 2009 (Fiano is way under-appreciated, and hard to find in the UK)
Wamakers Vallei Bains Way Viognier 2009
Raats Original Chenin Blanc 2009 (Well, if Peter says they're a producer of repute ..)
Hacienda Don Hernan Winemakers Choice 2007
Falanghina Colle Imperatrice 2009 (I've never heard of this and was instantly intrigued)
Classic South Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008

White heavy, but is it summer and my cellar is already full of Wolf Blass red.

I'll let you know how they go. On ordering using my £40 voucher, I was immediately given another £40 voucher which makes me wonder whether the wines on the site are over-priced. That seems a lot of money to be giving away.

How much did the case cost, incl delivery and minus the £40 discount?

I just been to site and see they show Bains Way Viognier 2009 at 13.5% abv: interesting that the winery fact sheet (here http://www.wamakersvallei.co.za/ ) has it at 15%

How much did the case cost, incl delivery and minus the £40 discount?

About £70 including P&P (which is about £5). So the original price of the bottles themselves was allegedly £105.

As regards the abv I'll take a look at the label when I get home tonight.

I got a phone call from Naked Wines yesterday. During their checkout process they offer you another £40 voucher and the possibility of cashback on future purchases with no mention of strings attached so of course I accepted. Turns out that to get these benefits you need to pay a £20 per month subscription of which there was no mention at all when you sign up for it. The phone call was to inform me of what I'd signed up for - and I'm guessing that a lot of people have been hoodwinked into signing up in this fashion else they wouldn't bother phoning to confirm. I'm pretty angry about that sort of business practice, and needless to say I won't be ordering from them again - I would encourage anyone else considering signing up not to bother.

Hi Matt

You're not the first. Apparently its a condition of using the voucher and is stated in the small print on the back.

The Guardian has mentioned it the past: only item I could find on their website tho' is here http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/fe ... wine-clubs

Matt
That's shameful of them, but perhaps demonstrates in a nutshell what direct marketing (in any genre) is all about.

regards

Ian

Matt
That's shameful of them, but perhaps demonstrates in a nutshell what direct marketing (in any genre) is all about.

It certainly demonstrates the depths that direct marketers can sink to.

In point of fact I actually had another voucher lying around so I took a look at it. There's no mention anywhere of a £5 fee, even in the small print. What got me was that after checking out the site asked me the question "do you want another £40 voucher yes/no" with no supporting text or small print at all. I thought at the time it was a bit odd they were even asking if it was that straightforward. And as I said the fact the followed it up with a phone call would suggest that others have been pestering them about low business standards.