Amazon Wine launches Next line approved by Jeff Bezos

Amazon Wine was launched in 2012. It was part of a move to make more items available via Amazon for shoppers. And the new service they’re launching there is a rage of wine, dubbed Next, that has apparently personally been approved by Amazon CEO and Founder Jeff Bezos.

Amazon has teamed up with a Oregon winery King Estate in the USA to produce three different wines under the Next brand. There’s a pinot gris, a red blend, and a pinot noir. And these bottles of plonk are not cheap. The wine is
$20 for the white and its $30 for the red blend and $40 for the red.

The producers claim that the move is about bringing drinks closer to the wines and the people who make them. Ed King III says the partnership “is a return to an earlier time when the connection between wine-maker and customer was direct. When people lived in the same village, the wines and cuisine developed together. Today that direct link is at risk of being lost. We’re launching Next on Amazon to re-establish the connection between winemaker and wine lover in today’s ‘digital village’.” That sounds a little fanciful.

Amazon Wine’s Nick Loeffler says: “We’re thrilled to connect wineries, like King Estate, with millions of customers and give them an innovative format to launch new brands.”

The online buying of wine is a well established business. But this is an interesting initiative from Amazon. Firstly, this isn’t cheap wine and rather high end with pricing to match. And why would a wine lover necessarily trust Amazon (and specifically Jeff Bezos) to make a wine recommendation anyway?

But it also goes to show that Amazon remains game for any enterprise that it thinks will give a return. It will be interesting to see if they expand and get more vineyards and wine producers involved to offer a more interesting selection.