THOUGHTS ON WINE EMAIL OFFERS

Hey man, those Five dollar bills are like, cruising through the ether and shit

How do you feel about retailer (and e-tailer, for that matter) wine emails? Do you find them to be of any interest to you? Do you learn something? Are they annoying? Too bombastic? Over-selling? Too frequent? Lacking creativity? Perhaps a little too precious and self-indulgent?

If you're not already familiar with a producer's wine, what is it about an email that appeals to you, that makes you either think about pulling the trigger and purchasing wine or actually buying wine? Or would you never think of buying wine merely off of a well-written sales pitch?

This is not market research, nor a gathering of opinions to help me with crafting my own sales emails (I think I'm pretty good, but fact is much of the stuff I'm selling in email blasts you all would not for a moment consider buying - high acid, natural and Spain/Portugal/Chile/Argentina do not go together so much). I just would love to hear some personal opinions from anyone, in the trade or not.

Today, for instance, I received the same email from two SoCal based retailers selling '93 Oenotheque for $199.99 - the currently ubiquitous "was $__, now $__" closeout email. In another offer, I was told of a glorious Cahors, whose final quantites were heroically whisked away from the Asian market and brought back to deserving, discriminating American palates. There was a classy grenache offer from New York City. Fortified wines from another successful New York store. Twenty percent off all wine from a medium sized neighborhood shop in Washington, DC. You get the point, many different variations on the single theme of "Buy my shit."

Please comment early and comment often, I want to hear your thoughts on this. Oh, and I'm sorry to get a little bit too industry or Warksian on you. I promise to do either a tasting note(s) or some irreverent some such next post.