20 years ago, buying wine was a task that daunted all but the most knowledgeable. We all knew that wine was a good thing, an interesting thing, a thing that could really offer rewards when you got into it. But we did not know how to get into it and we were afraid to ask, afraid to seem uneducated, foolish or just plain plebeian. And then the online wine merchant came along and opened the door for all of us. What happened was this. Suddenly, the general public (that would be us) had access to all this information. The Internet meant that we could research wine properly, without having to look beginner in front of people who may already have known a lot more about wine than we did. And so we read, and we cautiously expanded our tasting horizons, and we started to learn what constituted a good price for a fair bottle of cheap wine †and we were away. The online wine merchant began supplying us with that information directly on the site †which meant we could learn and buy at the same time, instead of separately. And then we were given the option of joining online wine clubs, and our education was complete. The online wine club is the ultimate extension of, and expression of, the Internet wine shop. The purpose of shopping for wine online is, as noted above, so that one can go at it with some kind of reliable information in tow †and without having to look conspicuous in a real world situation. The online wine club allows the wine merchant to further direct us, bringing us sample cases of new and old world wines, suggesting wines for foods and gently broadening our palate and experience for a reasonable fee every month. It seems like a pretty worthwhile fee, actually. If you are into wine, there is nothing more joyous than finding a new varietal, flavour or area of the world that you did not know you liked. With a wine discovery club on your favourite merchant site, you are able to really explore wine †and to do so in a more directed way, rather than the half educated, half haphazard way you probably explored it before. The wine merchant in this case is rather like a good teacher, introducing his or her students to the plays of the Bard in an order calculated first to get their juices flowing, then to get them hooked, and finally to reveal some of the subtleties and surprises of the master at the height of his powers. This is the kind of information you get from a wine club or from the online tasting notes on good wine sites. You do not feel talked down to or patronised. You don’t even feel led, though you know you are being led, through the world you want to explore and with expertise and patience. The online wine merchant has done more to bring wine appreciation to the British public than anyone. A fine service, deserving of many rousing cheers.
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