The Wall Street Journal Launches Free Wine Site wine.com will be its exclusive wine merchant

Business Wire, June 29, 2000

Business Editors

NEW YORK, NY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 2000

New Site Expands Offerings of Popular Journal Wine Columnists

and Book Authors Dorothy Gaiter & John Brecher

The Wall Street Journal today announced the launch of wine.wsj.com (http://wine.wsj.com), a rich new Web site based largely on the highly popular "Tastings" column that appears every Friday in The Wall Street Journal's Weekend Journal section.

This free site offers readers the Journal's unmatched insights and clarity on the topic of wine, along with advice and live chats. A strategic agreement with wine.com makes it the exclusive wine merchant on the Journal's new vertical channel.

"We're delighted to add wine.wsj.com to The Wall Street Journal's growing family of highly focused Web sites. The expanded, online-only coverage provided by "Tastings" columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, combined with additional information from wine.com, have resulted in a truly compelling combination of content, commerce and community," said Neil F. Budde, vice president, editor and publisher of WSJ.com.

Specifically, wine.wsj.com offers:

- One-click access to the latest "Tastings" column from The Wall Street
Journal, plus a complete searchable archive of past columns.

- Daily, online-only updates and features covering the latest trends and other
useful information on the subject of wine.

- Expanded contact with the columnists, including online chats and an advice
section, where readers can post questions and browse content from their book,
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine.

- Online purchase information from wine.com provides links to ordering
opportunities for a variety of wines, including many featured in "Tastings"
columns.

- The latest Top 10 Selling Wines list and other proprietary information from
wine.com that includes wine tasting charts and advice from the wine.com wine
team of experts.

About WSJ.com

Introduced in April 1996, WSJ.com features continuously updated coverage of the full spectrum of business news both in the U.S. and around the world, prepared by a dedicated news staff, supported by the global resources of The Wall Street Journal. Subscribers have access to more than 22,000 in-depth background reports on companies, an archive of news articles, and personal news and stock portfolios. Subscribers can also access the vast Dow Jones Publications Library that features current and past articles from 6,000 newspapers, magazines and business-news sources. WSJ.com has paid circulation of more than 438,000 subscribers.

About wine.com (www.wine.com (http://www.wine.com))

Founded in 1994, wine.com was the first wine merchant on the Web and a pioneer in electronic commerce. Wine.com, the leading online wine destination, features a hand-selected, ever-growing selection of American and international wines and wine-related gifts and accessories for customers worldwide. The company makes wine buying easy and fun with detailed wine information, its proprietary wine tasting chart and expert advice from its professional wine team led by two Master Sommeliers. Each wine listed on the site is tasted and selected by wine.com's team of professional wine experts and is 100% guaranteed. Wine.com's "Featured Wineries" gives consumers access to exclusive wines from such leading wine brands as Niebaum-Coppola, Kendall-Jackson, Sterling Vineyards, Domaine Chandon and Gallo of Sonoma. Wine.com is able to ship wine through a legally compliant network of wholesalers and retailers to 90% of the United States market, as well as Asia and Europe. Wine.com is privately held and is headquartered in Napa with an office in Fremont, California.

About Dow Jones & Company

Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ; www.dj.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and SmartMoney magazines and other periodicals, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Indexes, and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters group of Factiva, with Excite@Home of Work.com, and with NBC of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.

About Dorothy Gaiter & John Brecher, Wine Columnists and Authors of The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine

Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher, wine columnists for The Wall Street Journal, write the weekly "Tastings" column, which originated in March 1998. They are also authors of the book "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine," published by Broadway Books in October 1999.

Brecher was Page One Editor of the Journal from November 1992 until March 2000, when the demands of the wine column required his full attention. While Page One Editor, he was responsible for all articles and columns that appeared on the paper's front page. During that time, the Journal won eight Pulitzer Prizes for articles that appeared on Page One.

Dorothy Gaiter joined the Journal's New York bureau in December 1990 as a reporter with the enterprise section. In January 1993, she began covering urban affairs, and in September 1994, she became assistant bureau manager for urban affairs. She was named news editor for the Journal's urban affairs coverage in January 1999 and continued to report and write on urban and race issues. In 2000, she began concentrating full time on the "Tastings" column and related activities.