Shopping online for pretty much everything has become the norm for most people and buying wine is no different. However, those looking to order wine online can often be left feeling overwhelmed or confused by the type of wines they should buy, what website to use and how much they should spend.
Here are our top tips for making your online wine buying experience as positive, straight forward and rewarding as possible.
- Trusted online retailer
As with any online shopping, the priority should be to ensure that you are using a reputable, trusted online store with payment options such as PayPal that can help protect your purchases. Do your due diligence and check online reviews, guarantees and trust your gut as it’s often easy to spot older, spammy or flashy websites that should be avoided.
- Read the descriptions
Any decent website will have a detailed description of each wine that can go a long way to helping you narrow down your choices and make the right purchase. A good seller will include information such as where is the wine from, its flavour profile, how to best serve it and what foods will compliment it.
- What are you buying it for?
If you are looking to simply restock your wine rack or fridge, then choosing all-rounder wines that suit a lot of different types of foods or seasons will be a safe bet. If you are looking for wines to enjoy each Sunday with a roast dinner or for a particular celebration, occasion, meal or event then think about which will be best suited to the food, time of year and guests.
- Explore new things
Use this opportunity to discover some of the many amazing wines that are available and experiment with varieties from different countries, climates, soils, processes and types of grapes. If you know you enjoy Chilean Pinot noir for example then why not expand your horizons and try some from alternate regions such as England, New Zealand, Romania or Germany.
- Delivery costs
Shipping glass bottles of alcohol is not an easy task and so there are understandably delivery costs associated with buying wine from an online retailer. Take a look before you begin to browse, ensuring that they can deliver to your home, that their shipping prices are fair and if they have a minimum order requirement. Some stores may offer free delivery when you spend a certain amount or purchase a set number of bottles so this can be worth looking into if it saves you money.
- Refunds and returns policies
Even with the best protective packaging in place, it is possible that wine bottles can break during transit or even arrive with production or storage faults. If you are unlucky and this happens to you then you will want to know that the retailer you purchase your wine from will replace or refund it so be sure to check their terms and conditions.
- Discounts and deals
A lot of online wine shops have sales, offers or promotions running constantly with money off certain wines or even discount codes that get you a percentage off the whole order. Many will also offer discounts when you buy a set number of bottles or purchase in bulk so buying a case of wine can be more cost-efficient than buying a few at a time
