It’s high time for a re-imagination of online wine retail, says wine critic Jeremy Oliver. The author of 30 books, including nineteen editions of the best-selling The Australian Wine Annual, is launching his new online platform, Oliver’s Wines. The platform, which includes a website and an App (iOS and Android) will transform the way wine enthusiasts discover and buy.
‘We’re using world-leading tech to try to give our users an old-fashioned wine experience in which each customer and their own preferences are recognised’, says Oliver. ‘Developed locally in Melbourne, the world’s leading wine recommendation engine is able to treat every single user as an audience of one and suggest wines for them based on their very own favourites. Customers can create and manage their own lists of favourite wines, buy the wines our system recommends and then give feedback to help the system do its job even better’, he says.
‘I’m excited to be going back to my old day job as an independent critic. I’ll be rating and commenting on all the major wines in Australia, regardless of whether or not they’re for sale on this platform. My opinion is not for sale, just as it never has been.’
In addition to that, Oliver’s Wines also features Jeremy Oliver’s unique and comprehensive database of ratings, tasting notes, articles and videos that he has assembled over four decades as one of Australia’s most respected and independent wine critics. There’s no subscription charge for users to access this powerful and engaging resource, which Oliver updates regularly. Similarly, unlike most wine platforms today, Jeremy Oliver refuses to charge wine producers to taste and rate their wines.
‘We’re providing wine enthusiasts with a place to learn, research, engage with and buy from. We’re not at all interesting in discounting wines; we just want to ensure that people enjoy the wines they are buying online’, explains Oliver. ‘Once they start to trust the IT, we’ll take them on a journey that will introduce them to an entire spectrum of wine they might never have heard of. That’s the exciting thing about the system we’ve developed.’
Oliver’s Wines has already developed a feature to enable businesses, clubs and associations to gift wine to valued customers, members and employees and is looking forward to introducing its own wine club in coming months.
‘We’re proudly different from the model of most online wine retailers’, says Oliver, who likens the popular model to a race to the bottom in price. ‘Consumers are being fed the lie they should be happy to buy wines simply because they are cheaper than their typical retail price, rather than because they will actually enjoy the contents of the bottle’, he states.
‘In short, we want to help the wine buyer through the provision of unbiased information and truly personalised recommendation. We want to help the industry by removing the costs associated with wine media coverage and by supporting wine brands that focus on quality. We want to build long-term relationships with buyers and producers of wine that stands out from the pack – not by price but by quality’, he says.
Key Facts:
Oliver's Wines introduces the world's first wine recommendation technology that recommends to users based on the wines they already know they enjoy. This has already been achieved with music, books, films and tv, but never before with wine.
About us:
About Jeremy Oliver:
Jeremy Oliver is the most outspoken and independent of Australia’s wine critics and his country’s most influential wine presence throughout Asia. He was listed in the World’s Top 20 Wine Critics by the 2018 BWW competition and tastingbook.com and is rated by Sopexa as one of the World’s Top 100 Palates.
Since the publication of his first book, Thirst for Knowledge, in 1984, he has written a current tally of thirty books and has contributed hundreds of articles to publications the world over. He is particularly known for the nineteen editions of his best-selling book, The Australian Wine Annual. He has made hundreds of appearances on radio and television and was the first non-Chinese online KOL (key opinion leader) active in China for wine, with four seasons of top-rating online TV designed to engage with and educate the Chinese market.
Having hosted hundreds of events in Australia and all over the world, Jeremy Oliver is also regarded as Australia’s leading wine presenter and wine ambassador. He is deeply committed to Australian wine but is not afraid to be critical of it when the occasion demands.
Contact details:
For further information, please contact Jeremy Oliver at jeremy@jeremyoliver.com or on 0411 866 384.
