The Top 10 Places to Buy Wine Online

Once upon a time, a long time ago…

In the dark ages of my youth, the grapes got from the vineyard to your table in a way that was absolutely and completely different than it is today. Ah, I know, why should you care about how the grapes end up on your table?

Well, because that determines how it tastes. Most of the time how it gets to you is more important to how it tastes than what it tasted like when it was made. Wine people have a wonderful fantasy.

It is the belief, against all evidence to the contrary, that the wine you buy in the store or the restaurant or the fancy hotel, tastes the same to you as it tastes when they taste it at the winery.

If you don’t like it, it is because you have a palate of a recalcitrant beaver and the taste of a dart.

I once spent hours trying to convince a winemaker that a wine he had made had volatile acidity that was so high it would be easier to drink vinegar. He seemed to feel differently.

A salesman had told him but, well, you know the average cadaver has more credibility with a winemaker than a salesman. I was trying to defend the salesman, who I didn’t even like, in the hopes of said winemaker having a sudden revelation that shipping wine 3,000 miles in the snow might possibly have some effect on the taste.

He was having none of it.

In fairness, even with my fancy title, I was a salesman, too. And, I had to sell the stuff he made. So, I was suspect from the beginning.

Nonetheless, despite him knowing infinitely more about the structure of wine than I did, he was wrong and I was right —at least from the consumer’s point of view. To me, the winery is responsible for the taste of the wine all the way until someone drinks it.

I tell you this so that, hopefully, you will look more closely at how that bottle of bargain Beaujolais got onto your coffee table.

He considered whatever happened to the wine after it left his hands to be somebody else’s problem. Mostly mine. But, in fact, it was a much bigger problem for him than me, because I could always say, “don’t blame me. I didn’t make the stuff.” But, that wine was the way people judged him as a winemaker.

Not as it tasted fresh at the winery, but as it tasted when they drank it wherever in the world they were.

The old way of distribution hasn’t gone away, it’s still there. But, it’s a footnote, not the headlines anymore. Today, ta dah! We have the internet. The inevitable march of human progress through technology.

The grapes don’t care. The wine is what it is when you taste it, not when the winemaker tasted it. The best way to buy wine is to go to the winery, and taste exactly what you’re going to buy there, at the time you are going to buy it.

Many—not all, please do not misunderstand me here--many times it’s better to buy from the internet today if you can’t get to the winery. Especially, if it is shipped directly from the winery.

But, like wine, not all internet sites are created equal. And, like wine, each has its own personality, just like people. And, some are better at getting it to you in pristine condition than others. Also, some specialize in one kind of wine or another.

So, that being said. Here are the top 10 places to buy wine on the internet according to the California Wine Advisory (https://californiawineryadvisor.com/best-place-buy-wine-online/).

If you have a favorite that’s not on the list, let me know.

These comments are not complete, they are excerpted. For the full commentary, visit https://californiawineryadvisor.com/best-place-buy-wine-online/.

All of the comments below on the individual wine sites are those of the California Wine Advisory. All rights belong to them.

1. Wine.com

Wine.com was an early player in the online wine game. Founded in Portland in 1998 as evineyards.com, the company went through a few changes before becoming the site we know today as wine.com.

There are some great reasons to count on wine.com as your go-to online wine source. First off, they have a large range of wine producers to pick from. You can buy everything from cult wines like Scarecrow to everyday table wines from producers like Cupcake. You can also buy from a wide range of boutique wine producers on the site. It's pretty convenient to be able to fill the same online wine cart with a bottle of Dom Perignon and a bottle from a boutique winery like Hitching Post.

The navigation on wine.com is another reason this could be considered the best place to buy wine online. You can easily search the site for the wine varietal, wine region, or special feature you want to buy. This speeds up the online wine buying process.

2. Winc.com

Winc is a hybrid wine club and online wine store. If you are someone who appreciates simplicity, Winc is the perfect place to buy wine online. They start you out with a palate test to establish which wine varietals and styles fit your taste. After that, Winc creates wine shipments for you each month. You can tell them how many bottles to include each time. This is a set it and forget it online wine shopping experience.

After you get your wine shipment and enjoy the wine, Winc encourages you to leave a review. This helps them determine which wines to include in your next shipment. You also have the ability to swap out bottles whenever you want.

3. Vivino

The size of the user community and the number of bottles you can access make Vivino a unique place to buy wine online. With over 100,000 bottles of wine to choose from, the selection process could be daunting for you. The beauty of the Vivino app and website is how easily you can pair down those 100k bottles into just those that match what you are looking for.

When you open the app or land on the homepage, you are offered a few curated wine lists. These lists feature great bargains, top-rated wines, and hot varietals. You can use these lists as a starting point to discover great new wine. Your other option is to start searching for a specific bottle you already have in mind. There is a good chance the bottle you want is available from one of Vivino's retail wine partners.

4. Millesima

The perfect online store for French wines, Millesima offers much more than that. Millesima USA is a branch of the Bordeaux retail legend. Their US-focused online store offers a wide selection of Bordeaux wines as you would expect. They have relationships with all the top producing estates in the region and offer options like buying wine futures.

What's great about Millesima is their reach beyond France. A wide selection of old and new world wines is carefully curated by some of the most knowledgeable wine buyers in the world. You will benefit from their relationships and knowledge!

5. Wine Library

What makes Wine Library one of the best places to buy wine online? To start, they have nearly 1,800 bottles of wine to choose from. Selection is important.

We also like to find great value when buying wine. Wine Library has a wine text service that alerts you when they have great deals. It's a huge time saver versus searching through pa

6. NapaCabs.Com

The name is misleading. NapaCabs.com is much more than a great source for Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California. Sure, this is a great place to find the best California Cabs, but it's also a terrific all-around online wine shop.

The selection rivals Wine.com and Vivino. While they have a very deep selection of California wines, they also carry plenty of options from the Old World. You can find great wines from Bordeaux, Tuscany, Burgundy, and Rioja.

7. Wine-Searcher

There are numerous resources out there to help connect you with wine retailers all over the world, but Wine Searcher (www.wine-searcher.com) is by far the most user-friendly and comprehensive of the group.

You can search for by region, style, grape, or year, but where Wine-Searcher shines is in the ability to create hyper-specific searches, like trying to find 1982 Chateau Haut-Brion for example. While that gem generally sells for over $500 per bottle, the site works equally well in scouring the internet for retailers of small production domestic wines that don’t have the same brand recognition or broad distribution that producers of Grand Cru Bordeaux enjoy.

8. K&L Wine Merchants

K&L Wine Merchants (www.klwines.com) is a California wine institution, with several locations in and around San Francisco, plus an outpost in Hollywood.

The real strength of K&L’s online wine game is its exceptionally thorough real-time inventory. The system constantly accounts for every single bottle at four different locations. For selection and accurate wine inventory, K&L could be considered the best place to buy wine online.

9. Chambers St. Wines

If you’re searching specifically for hard-to-find organic, biodynamic, or natural wines, Chambers St. Wines (www.chambersstwines.com) is your source.

Located in New York since 2001, this shop has an easy-to-use site with wines from all over the world, all produced with an eye to terroir-driven simplicity and technique. It’s a natural wine nerd’s paradise online.

Anyone who wants to buy natural wines, or biodynamic wines, may consider this the best place to buy wine online.

10. Acker, Merrall & Condit

(oldest wine merchant in the U.S.)

Blue chips. Top growths. Cult favorites. Whatever top shelf, impress-the-boss, WOW-worthy wine you’re looking for, you can find it here.

Not only is Acker, Merrall & Condit (www.ackerwines.com) the oldest wine merchant in the U.S., they also have access to the finest private collections on the planet because of their venerable reputation as an auction house for fine wines. It certainly isn’t the cheapest online retailer out there, but the breadth and scope of their cellar are truly amazing.