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Wanna get naked?

I just found out what Rowan Gormley (formerly of Virgin Wines) is up to these days.  He is getting naked – well in a wine sort of way.  It’s a new concept in wine retailing, although knowing Rowan, he would hate to see it described so stuffily and, after all, everybody hates “new concepts”.

This new concept could be yet another Wine 2.0 also ran – it is claimed to be a bit like LastFM where you can recommend and follow other people’s recommendations, except unlike LastFM I think you might be expected to actually buy some wine.  On the other hand maybe there is something new here – let’s wait and see.

Anyway, there is definitely one good side to it.  They are looking for 100 wine tasters to receive three bottles FREE OF CHARGE, simply in return for bringing your opinion back prior to launch.

As you might expect, being a thirsty (and gobby) git, I have signed up, so if you want one of the remaining 99 places head over to www.nakedwines.com

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pm and is filed under Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Wanna get naked?”

  1. dhonig Says:
    November 17th, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    UK only?

  2. Alastair Bathgate Says:
    November 17th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Sadly, I fear so. However, why not sign up and see? It only takes 3 minutes…

  3. gianpaolo Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 12:14 am

    Hi Alastair,
    having an address in UK now of course I’ve applied immediately after having read your post. It’s interesting to me because as a winery I’ve recently done more or less the same thing, giving 6 different wines away to 50 people asking them to comment on their blog (if they had one) and/or at least on my blog. I received about 300 comments from various people and all are available on my blog (good and bad reviews). I think it was a really interesting experience and I commited with doing it at least twice a year for 50 people each (Italy only unfortunately, due to the cost of shipments).
    I hope I’ll be one of the chosen ones so I’ll get some wine back 😉
    Zonin is now doing the same thing in Italy, following my example.
    Check it out: http://www.wineislove.it/tasting-list-ecco-chi-degusta
    This is my tasting panel: http://shop.poggioargentiera.com/pagina.asp?lingua=1&idpag=72

  4. Ancora tasting panels, stavolta in UK | Poggio Argentiera Says:
    November 18th, 2008 at 10:23 am

    […] sera leggevo il blog di Alastair Bathgate, simpatico blogger inglese che era con noi in agosto alla 1^ European Wine Blogger Conference a […]

  5. Lizzy Says:
    November 19th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    Hi Al!
    You remember me, I hope. We meet us each other in August, at 1 EWBC.
    I’ve signed up, and now I’ll waiting for …something to taste!
    When you can/want, etc…
    (don’t worry, I’m joking!…)
    😉

    Lizzy

  6. gianpaolo Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Didn’t get into it :-(, just received the email from them.

  7. Alastair Bathgate Says:
    November 20th, 2008 at 2:31 pm

    Gianpaolo

    Shame – maybe you could try registering as a producer???

    Lizzy – was lovely to meet you. Hope you make it….

    I’ve not been confirmed yet by the way…

  8. Alastair Bathgate Says:
    November 24th, 2008 at 10:46 pm

    I have just retrieved the email from my spam filter and I am in. I’ll let you know what the wines are like in due course.

  9. wineconversation.com » Blog Archive » Would you give your details to a “Naked” stranger? Says:
    November 25th, 2008 at 1:18 am

    […] started writing about this, I have read on Alastair Bathgate’s excellent wine blog “Confessions of a Wino” that one of the people behind Naked wines is Rowan Gormley who used to run Virgin Wines (who […]

  10. Rowan Says:
    December 11th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    Hi, rowan gormley here.

    The good news is that there is more (nearly) free wine.

    We have negotiated with some brilliant winemakers for them to give us their wines for free, in exchange for your support.

    We have to charge you the duty and VAT, but it is a chance to get some stonking wines for peanuts

    Obviously they are hoping that you will go on to support them (in this case by pre-paying £5 a month towards your next order).

    As they are small producers trying hard to make a living please dont abuse their good will by taking the free wine and cancelling. Their is nothing to stop you doing that but it would not be a nice thing to do to some nice people.

    And whatever you do, please do give feedback on the wines, or on http://www.nakedwines.com/rowan

    My personal favourites….Argentinean Block busters http://www.nakedwines.com/winemakers/patricio-gouguenheim-signup.htm

    and a brilliant Loire Sauvignon http://www.nakedwines.com/winemakers/joost-de-willebois-signup.htm

    Have fun, Rowan

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