Talking Wine with Rewinery

Joana Koiller is a designer and co-founder at Rewinery, an on-demand delivery service for boutique wines. Rewinery, based out of San Francisco, sources wines from overstocked wineries and brings them to you in private labels for the light fee of $40, and within the hour. Frankly, I love wine and I wanted to hear more. Joana was kind enough to participate in a little Q&A about where she and fellow co-founder Paulo Lerner are taking their company next. You can hear more from Rewinery on Facebook and Twitter at @Rewinery.

In a recent interview I did with Brad Svrluga here on Startup Harbor, he said the most important thing a company can do at its pitch is tell its genesis story. So, how did Rewinery come to be?

Paulo and I knew each other from high-school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We worked together in a start-up Paulo started right after college called Telo that provided low-income Brazilians with a cheap way to make telephone calls from public transportation. After that, I moved to New York for four years. When I eventually moved back to Brazil in the end of 2009, we started working together again in a start-up Paulo founded called Frugar, which provided a way for bloggers to monetize their content. About a year ago, we decided to move to San Francisco. Moving from Brazil to the States helped us shape the concept for Rewinery in many ways. Paulo’s father is a big wine collector, so in Brazil he never really had to think about choosing what wine to drink. Moving here, he saw how many options were out there, and how frustrating and challenging it could be to stand in front of a wine aisle with no idea what to get. It became clear that the industry really didn’t put much focus into helping the “casual wine drinker” choose a wine. Everything seemed tailored to collectors and wine enthusiasts, people who wanted to invest time and effort into learning a lot about wines. Our first idea was to create TasteJive, a wine recommendation system for the casual wine drinker. It very quickly became clear, however, that there was an even more basic problem. With so many wines out there, even if a wine is recommended to you, your chances of finding it again are basically null. That’s when the idea for Rewinery started to really come together. It was a way to provide the best option for the casual wine drinker to get wine. A curated experience, so you don’t have to worry if the wine is good or not. A price point that makes sense. And very importantly, a time-frame that makes sense. The reason most e-commerce sites for wine fail to work for 95% of wine drinkers is because for these people, wine is like food. 90% of wines purchased in the US are consumed within the hour. Waiting a week for a wine shipment does not work for this consumer, the same way that you wouldn’t wait a week to get pizza. Again drawing from our background in Brazil, where service levels are much higher and you can get anything delivered for cheap, the idea of a quick delivery model for wine, combined with a curated service, took shape.

From the reviews I’ve read, your delivery service is fast. Very fast. As your consumer base grows, how do you maintain that quickness and responsiveness? 

The key is having one set package. As long as we have a set package, logistics are pretty simple. Pre-packed wines are distributed in key areas of the city. When an order comes in, the courier just picks it up and delivers. This becomes a lot easier to scale than if we were controlling different inventory and having to customize orders.

What’s surprised you in the first few months of Rewinery’s existence? What have you learned?

We were very surprised by the response we’ve receiving from customers so far. People have been really excited, photographing, tweeting and sharing the wines they receive. Our main learning was that people are willing to forgo choice for convenience and a curated experience.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?

To test our assumptions.

Both Paulo and you worked at design firm Kleintech. Can you talk about why design plays such an important role in Rewinery?

Paulo’s background is in engineering, not in design (and he’s still at Kleintech is CEO). I was a product designer there. That being said, I’ve always thought Paulo was a designer in a previous life. 🙂 Rewinery is about providing a whole experience – from suggesting what wine to drink tonight and other pairing and suggestion ideas of how to enjoy this wine, to an easy and seamless way to order, to getting a nice package delivered in a timely manner, to great customer service if there are any issues. This all reflects on the brand we are building. We think that design and branding are a way to structure an experience around our product and service, so design is key to Rewinery.

You mentioned on AngelList that your service model could apply to other product categories. If Rewinery succeeds, what additional areas do you think you could expand to in the future?

We’re interested in the opportunities between conventional brick and mortar and e-commerce. We want to be the flash deals site for tonight.

When can we expect Rewinery to launch in other cities? More specifically, when can I order your wine from the comfort of my tiny New York apartment?

We’re probably going to focus on San Francisco and the Bay area for the next three to six months. New York is likely the next market.

As you expand, what type of operational issues do you expect to face that you’re already conquering in San Fran?

We’re utilizing infrastructure that mostly exists in all big cities (every big city has a courier service). We’re working on logistics software to streamline the process even more.