December 10, 2020
2020 has been insane for everyone and it's no exception for us.
We used to be a wine company specialized in wine for events, with our innovation the Yoonit Barrel (portable wine on tap). Huge music festivals, weddings, etc. That business was literally decimated as it was taking off, but we saw the warning signs early, and started making a giant pivot a few months into the pandemic, in the middle of a production run (lol). We invested the largest round of lifesavings to date (again). Bootstrapped independent startups for the win! Anyway, we snagged a new license, a new shipping partner, got lucky with a couple grants and an economic disaster loan, moved to lower rent, produced a new format, launched two new varietals, joined 1% for the planet and the Craft Wine Association. For the first time in our 8 year history, we can now sell direct to consumer, and we’re shipping to 41 states nationally. We’re so excited because now we can finally get great wine to our friends and family, not just our partners and their events.
If you’ve been to some of the music festivals we partner with, or any wedding we’ve supplied, you already know that we do things differently (better). This new national DTC online channel follows suit. We’ve built the most accessible wine club there is, and it's all about finding wine you love. Ever heard of a super-premium wine tasting on your doorstep for $14? That’s because, at least to our knowledge, it hasn’t really existed before. Which we think is ridiculous. Who wants to join a wine club before they even taste the wine?
There are good reasons this hasn’t existed before though, especially for super premium wines. It’s because shipping alcohol is expensive, and it's doubly expensive for glass bottles! Not many are offering great wines in the formats we do, so every other club out there is still fixing that problem by sending everyone a ton of wine. We’ve decided to do it differently (again), and we can (no pun intended) because we are using novel formats which are better than glass bottles. We figure our mini cans are perfect for sample tastings. But even shipping two little mini cans is expensive because it’s alcohol. No one wants to pay $20 in shipping for two mini cans. It just doesn’t make any sense. So, we’ve decided to pay $15 of that shipping for you with our new sample tasting program, and then we give you half off the samples.
We’re that confident you'll love our products. We’ve seen crowds of 50,000 people not only break prior wine records but downright double them. That’s what happens when great wine is more accessible at events, and we can’t wait to see what that does national direct to consumer online.
Everything we do is to ultimately bring people together. We understand this is a huge challenge right now. So, we’ve done something different again. We’ve made a free virtual tasting event with the Crafty Cask and the Center for Culinary Culture. It’s a way we can all get together and have a good time for a change. We’ll be sipping wine and chatting and making some fun. It’s totally free and you should join us
Anywho, that’s what’s up from here. Would love to hear what’s going on with you! Shoot us a message on IG @Yoonitwine or an email to hello@yoonit.com. Let’s thread the needle back to normal times together!
Cheers to you all and happy holidays,
Jack
