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Vinfolio – The Ultimate Resource for Wine Enthusiasts and Collectors

Serious wine lovers and collectors can raise a glass to Vinfolio, a revolutionary, unrivaled wine store and white-glove service company that addresses their every need, from buying and selling to storage, collection management and reviews. This comprehensive suite of services is seamlessly integrated and administered by a friendly, expert staff of oenophiles, giving full realization to the company's motto of "Fine wine, finer service ™."

An Unparalleled Wine Store
Vinfolio redefines the possibilities of the modern wine store by combining cutting edge technology with an amplified range and quality of services, never forgetting the importance of a courteous and accessible staff. This Internet-based service allows wine buyers at all levels to smoothly navigate the complex wine market, combining ease of use with unparalleled breadth of searching capabilities. A licensed retailer, wholesaler and importer, Vinfolio offers an extensive selection of both new and mature vintages, including sought-after newcomers like Aracadian and The Scholium Project, as well as classics such as the venerable Chateau d'Yquem and Harlan Estate. Vinfolio also has permission-based entrée into the private inventories of its clients, thus giving its customers access to wines that are otherwise "off the radar." A buyer who does not find a wine in Vinfolio's own vast inventory can request a quote, free of charge, tapping into private collections and dealers worldwide and putting in motion a deliberate search conducted by the Vinfolio staff. The intuitive Vinfolio user interface allows for searches according to varietal, region, price, reviewer and many other criteria. Once a wine is found and bought, Vinfolio guarantees it against corkage and other flaws with one of the best return policies in the industry.

In wine buying, information and knowledge are the next best things to swirling and sipping. For wines listed for sale, Vinfolio provides available reviews from all major review sources including Stephen Tanzer's InternationalWineCellar, Allen Meadow's Burghound, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, and the Wine Spectator. This permits customers to evaluate rankings and reviews side-by-side for fast comparison. In addition, Doug Wilder, Vinfolio's own authority on California wines, writes a free weekly "wineletter", The Wilder Side of California in which he reviews the state's most intriguing boutique producers, often before they are covered by others. Many times Vinfolio is one of the only places that sells these wines. Registered users may also subscribe to free personalized RSS feeds to get real-time updates to specific wines as soon as they are added to the company's inventory. Finally, for any wine it sells, Vinfolio displays available wine auction results and price charts drawn from its Wine Price File (see www.wineprices.com) which includes over 260,000 unique listings covering the prior eight years.

Vinfolio recognizes that big or small, every wine buyer has unique needs and tastes. Since wine selection is often a nuanced activity requiring advice and discussion beyond the computer screen, all registered Vinfolio users are assigned an Executive Wine Specialist. This knowledgeable staff member is available, free of charge, to offer recommendations and advice to both seasoned and novice wine buyers.

Collector Services for Every Level of Immersion
Casual buyers often turn into collectors, and as collections grow, so do the challenges. Moving bottles among storage sites and tracking their locations, following pre-arrivals purchased from various sources, monitoring wine values and staying on top of drink dates can set a collector's head spinning before a sip of wine has even been consumed.
Vinfolio treats every wine buyer as a collector—whether he spends $30 or $3,000; has ten bottles in a wine fridge or several thousand in a cellar—and offers an extensive range of services, from inventorying and storage to personal selling to advisory services.

Wine lovers of every stripe can take advantage of the inventory organization and cellar analysis afforded by Vinfolio's proprietary VinCellar™online cellar management software. It is available free of charge to all registered users, and its ease of use belies its many features and conveniences. VinCellar reveals a snapshot view of a collection thanks to interactive charts and graphs displaying data on current valuation, bottle location, and drink dates. Furthermore, personal tasting notes, professional scores and links to reviews specific to a collection are accessed at a keystroke. In particular, through licensing arrangements with Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar and Allen Meadows' Burghound, all VinCellar users have access to scores and drink date recommendations from these sources at no charge. In addition, paid subscribers of these reviewers may enable full access to the text of their reviews within VinCellar.
Those who track their wines with a spreadsheet may email it to Vinfolio, whose staff will upload the data, and those with an extensive cellar who have not yet inventoried their holdings may have Vinfolio staff come to their storage location and catalogue each bottle by hand, including capturing photos of labels, recording bottle location parameters, and applying Vinfolio-generated barcode labels. As a result of this process, Vinfolio effectively standardizes and verifies all wine names, taming the confusion of differing notations such as "Georges Latour" vineyard versus "Chateau Latour," and enables scrupulous inventory tracking using VinCellar and a personal barcode scanner.

Vinfolio offers additional amenities such as full service storage with pick-up and prompt delivery services locally in its temperature-controlled van, and further through domestic and international shipping [subject to some restrictions]. Online reporting includes a storage activity report which tracks all wine added or removed from a collection. Additionally, VinCellar allows users to easily coordinate pick-ups and deliveries online.

Along with buying and storage, a key facet of collecting is selling wine that a collector may no longer want. Thanks to its vast network of users, Vinfolio is at the nexus of many world-class collections and is therefore in a unique position to facilitate the sale of customer wines. Vinfolio's Personal Selling Service makes selling uncomplicated, giving fixed retail-based pricing that is typically higher than the auction market, paying cash for wine within 7 days of receipt and inspection, or giving credit that can be applied toward future Vinfolio purchases. Many collectors have found this service nets them greater sale proceeds with more convenience than using traditional auction house channels to sell wine.

Some of the most important collector-related activities are also the most time-intensive. For these, Vinfolio steps up with its Advisory Services. Services range from valuation to collection building, designed for those wishing to build a world class collection from scratch or strategically expand or balance their existing holdings.

Vinfolio was created by Stephen J. Bachmann, who discovered his love of wines in his twenties as a newly minted MBA living on a budget. To entertain, he gave dinner parties for friends and experimented with different wines. Within a few years, Bachmann was promoted to oversee the opening of a London branch of Broadview International LLP, the technology mergers and acquisition specialists now owned by Jeffries and Co. With access to some of Europe's great varietals he slowly began amassing his own wine collection and soon discovered the trials of managing it. When Bachmann decided to shift professional focus, he trained his lens on the wine industry, approaching it from the multiple vantage points of collector, entrepreneur and software expert. He launched Vinfolio in 2003 as an integrated solution for serious wine lovers and currently serves as the company's CEO. As he explains it, "finally the administrative tasks associated with amassing and developing a wine collection can be accomplished with efficiency, expertise and convenience, allowing passionate oenophiles to get back to the fun of collecting and drinking wine."

Bachmann oversees a staff distinguished not only by its stellar professional record and amicability, but also by its shared passion for wine. Vinfolio's Director of Marketing has her own wine brand; one Executive Wine Specialist was once a sommelier under the Le Cirque's legendary Sirio Maccioni, and another spent seven years in the auction business as a wine specialist for Christies and Morrell's.

In addition to its staff, Vinfolio has a notable group of advisors with deep expertise in all aspects of the wine industry. These include members of the board of directors and personal investors Jean-Michel Valette, M.W., Chairman of Robert Mondavi Winery, and Colin Lind, Managing Partner of Blum Capital Partners, L.P. In addition, Vinfolio's board of advisors includes Rajat Parr, wine director for the MICHAEL MINA group; Martine Saunier, founder of Martine's Wines; Vineyard 29 owner Chuck McMinn; and entrepreneur and collector William J. Shea.

By placing itself at the fulcrum of wine buying, selling, and collecting, Vinfolio commands a unique advantage in the field, presenting its customers with an entirely new, convenient and integrated approach for managing their wine activities—a concept that is sure to age well.

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Press Kit

Background

Vinfolio Backgrounder (PDF, 69 KB)

Stephen J. Bachmann Bio (PDF, 71 KB)

Press Release

September 25, 2006
Vinfolio, Inc. Unveils Preeminent Wine Retail Store (PDF, 94 KB)