Wine.com And Dow Jones Join Forces To Provide 'The Best Of Wine'

Business Wire, June 29, 2000

Business Editors

NAPA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 2000

Wine.Com Exclusive Online Wine Merchant Within Dow Jones'

First Vertical Wine Channel

Wine.com - the leading online wine destination - and The Wall Street Journal today announced an exclusive strategic online alliance. According to the agreement, wine.com will be the exclusive online wine merchant within the Journal's first vertical online channel focused on wine. Located at wine.wsj.com, the new site features popular wine columnists Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher of the Journal's Weekend Edition.

"Our customers, much like the readers of The Wall Street Journal, are information-seekers," said Bill Newlands, president and CEO of wine.com. "This partnership is a natural fit because we share a similar approach to wine - one that's informative and focused on great selection. We also believe in the power of customer convenience. This alliance enhances our commitment to provide our customers - and those of The Wall Street Journal - with relevant and compelling wine information along with access to great products."

The Wall Street Journal wine site will feature advice from the paper's wine columnists Gaiter and Brecher. Guests to the site will be able to access archives of Gaiter and Brecher's "Tastings" column, and visit the advice section based on their book "The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine." A section also will be available where visitors to the site can query Gaiter and Brecher via e-mail with wine-related questions. Wine.com's top 10 selling wines of the week will also be featured on the home page of wine.wsj.com.

As part of the marketing relationship, The Wall Street Journal site will provide links to ordering opportunities on wine.com for wines that are featured in the "Tastings" column where they are currently available. Visitors to wine.wsj.com will be able to order these wines or similar wines at wine.com's site.

In addition to wine.com's current content - detailed wine information, proprietary wine tasting charts, and advice from the wine.com wine team - the wine.com site will feature the Journal's "Tastings" columns. Wine.com will be the exclusive online wine site to feature these columns other than wine.wsj.com.

"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.

About wine.com (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.