how-to-guide

At Wine.com, we think it should be easy and fun for you to discover great new wines from all over the world, whether shopping for yourself or sending a gift. We also believe that the more you know about your wine, the more you'll enjoy it.

Here are a few ways we put these ideas into practice:

Why are you here? Our customers tell us they use Wine.com to buy wine, send gifts and learn about wine, so that's how we've organized our homepage.

• Shop for wine – this is the main attraction, our wine shop, with thousands of choices from every region, varietal, ratings group and price level.
• Send a gift – one-third of our orders have gift messages attached, so this is where you go to send a nice bottle, wine club, sampler pack or gift basket.
• Learn about wine – short descriptions and notable facts from over 50 varietals (type of grape) and over 100 appellations (where they're grown).

Selecting your wine: Choosing a new wine can be an intimidating process. With so many options it can be hard to know where to start. Sounds like the perfect need for a database!

• Our wine lists – we start with thousands of wines from all over the globe, then sort them into lists our customers value. For starters, try our 90+ point rated wines for under $20, 94+ point rated wines and new arrivals.
• Most popular links – skip right to $20 to $40 prices, organic wines, screw cap wines, collectible wines and more.
• Search & Sort – search by key word, then use the "sort by" feature in the upper right corner to sort by rating, price or popularity (based on our transactions over the last 30 days).
• Narrow your search – any list you're looking at can be narrowed down to a shorter list by type, region or price level, using the links on the left hand side of the page. And that list can be further sorted by rating, price or popularity.

Learning about your wine: OK, you've found something that caught your eye – now it's time to get the details.

• Professional ratings – about 40% of our wines have been tasted and rated by independent wine critics, such as Wine Spectator Magazine, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and Steven Tanzer's International Wine Cellar. We gather and show you the ratings from up to eight different publications, so you know what the experts think.
• Ratings pedigree – many wines aren't rated or are brand new releases, so we show you ratings from past vintages to give you a sense of the wine's track record and help you identify a great bottle before the experts have voted.
• Customer reviews – don't believe the experts? Our customer reviews come direct from other people like you, members of the Wine.com community.
• Recommendations – on the right hand side of each product page, we show you similar wines, selected by type, region and price. On the left hand side, we show you "customers who bought this also bought..."
• Winemaker notes & related links – all of our wines have people and stories behind them, and they come from some very special parts of the world, so each product detail page displays notes from the winemaker and related links to more information about the winery and its region.

Purchasing your wine: Found a few bottles you like? Add them to your cart and you're ready to place the order.

• Checking out – hit the checkout button in the upper right corner of your screen and follow the steps through the process. You can select a gift box or bag and add a gift message if you like. Select from our three different shipping options and you're ready to place your order.
• Send another – click this button to re-use the information you just entered and send the same order to someone else.
• Business gift services – need to send something tasteful to all of your clients? We can upload your address book to conveniently ship to multiple recipients. Just email us at corporateorders@wine.com or call 1-877-289-8268 to get started.
• Order confirmation – we'll send you an email to confirm we received your order.
• Ship confirmation – you'll get a second email when your order has shipped.

Receiving your wine: We currently ship wine to 26 states representing 75% of the U.S. population. Of course, we can ship gourmet food gift baskets and wine accessories to all states.

• Local licensed retail outlets – To comply with U.S. laws regarding the shipment of wine between states, we have a network of ten licensed retail outlets across the country. What this means to you is faster delivery times and your wine spends less time on the truck (good for quality).
• Extreme weather hold – We are constantly monitoring the weather across the country. If we see extreme conditions (hot or cold) that could impact the quality of your wine, we may alert you to the fact we're going to wait until conditions are safe before we ship.
• Adult signature required – It's not the most convenient for you, and we pay extra to confirm it happens, but it's the law when shipping wine. Most of our customers ship to a business address, so someone will always be available to sign.

Enjoying your wine: Whether you drink it with friends or stash it away for later, it's easy to forget what wine you bought and why. Here are a few ways to remember.

• Cellar notes - Printable pages for every wine with ratings, price and winemaker notes, for your future reference. Keep them in a notebook where you store your wine. See the link on the top right corner of each product detail page.
• Bottle tags & pre-printed stickers – We noticed our customers were keeping tabs on their wine with tape, sharpie pens and yellow sticky notes – it doesn't have to be that way! Each bottle we ship now comes with a neck hanger tag and pre-printed sticker with name, vintage, price (unless it is a gift), rating and date purchased.
• Mywine.com – We keep all the information about your wine, including pie charts depicting your regional and varietal preferences and space for your own ratings and notes, stored in our database for your easy access. Look for the link at the very top of any page of our site.

Sharing the love: In a February 2007 survey answered by over 1,200 of our customers, 96% said they would "probably" (20%) or "definitely!" (76%) recommend Wine.com to a friend. That's the best marketing we could hope for! Here are some other ways to share your views with other wine enthusiasts.

• Write a review – share your opinions about any of our wines by writing a customer review from the link in the upper right corner of each product detail page.
• Send to a friend – also in the upper right corner, see the link to email that wine to a friend.

Continuing your wine journey: Now you've joined the Wine.com community, and we hope you've had an enjoyable experience with some new wines you otherwise would never have found or tried. If you're subscribed to our email newsletter, here are a few ways we'll help you continue to expand your wine horizons.

• Wine alerts – our sommeliers are constantly looking for new wines with great ratings and prices, and when we think we've got a winner, we'll send you an email about it.
• Wine trends – through thousands of transactions every week, we have a window onto the major trends in the world of premium wine. When we see a hot varietal, appellation, winery or wine jumping out of the data, we'll let you know about it so you can be on the cutting edge.
• Special promotions – we're always trying to use our purchasing scale to find great deals we can pass on to you.
• Wine.com Collectors Edition – if you've purchased high-end, scarce wines from us, you'll receive advance notice on a handful of allocated wines and hard-to-find new releases, before they launch on the public Wine.com site.