Nude concept pairs winemakers with consumers

Naked Wines has been likened to Facebook for wine lovers, or a dating agency for winemakers and consumers. It's a new concept in marketing - and producing - wine, and is rapidly signing up customers. It might seem to an outsider like just another internet-based direct wine-selling organisation, but Naked is different.

First, rather than try to flog wine that some faceless person has made, it asks customers what they'd like to drink, and asks winemakers what they want to make, and puts the two together. It's also about value. It cuts costs with its original way of financing winemaking. Customers put money into an account that finances the vintage. And because the wine is pre-sold, there are no marketing costs.

The subscribers are somewhat cutely called Angels. There are 12,000 in Australia. Each Angel agrees to hand over a minimum $40 a month. ''This gives us close to half a million dollars a month in the account, so we can go to winemakers and plan the wines they want to make,'' managing director Luke Jecks says. ''We're already looking at vintage 2014.''

This enables winemakers to make what customers want. Instead of marketing departments instructing winemakers to produce Product Z, which marketers then set about flogging, wine doesn't need to be marketed because it already has a market. By interacting with the customer, winemakers can tailor wines to order. Clients are involved in decision-making. It hinges on internet interaction between winemakers and clients. Jecks says the makers who post the most will sell the most wine.

''We aim to make the whole process as un-intimidating as possible,'' Jecks says.

And it's working. Launched last July, Naked Wines Australia (which is loosely affiliated with Naked Wines in Britain) will have sold 60,000-dozen bottles by the end of its first year. And for calendar year 2013 it expects to sell between 100,000- and 120,000-dozen.

It's no accident that the Naked concept has sprung up at a time when the wine market is congested, with small wineries finding it increasingly hard to sell their wares through established distribution channels. As winery numbers and brand numbers explode, supermarkets, which increasingly control the retail market, are listing fewer brands. Finding alternative routes to market is the great challenge for all wineries.

So Naked Wines also offers a number of small-scale winemakers a new way to sell. And they benefit from a ready-made feedback loop.

Established winemakers such as Brian Fletcher, Sam Plunkett and former Craggy Range winemaker Rod Easthope have embraced the Naked concept. Younger winemakers such as Jen Pfeiffer (of Pfeiffer Wines, Rutherglen), Liz Richardson (at Mildura), Rory Clifton-Parkes (Margaret River), Adam Barton (Clare Valley) and Adrian and Rebecca Santolin (Yarra Valley) are readily taking to the social media side of Naked Wines.

Margaret River-based Brian Fletcher, a winemaker with Seppelt during the 1980s and '90s, is an industry veteran who's excited to have his name on a front label for the first time. His $12-$17 Fletcher Margaret River Chardonnay 2012 is a creamy, fruit-driven wine of intensity and elegance and one of the top-value drops I tasted from Naked Wines.

Sam Plunkett is a self-taught winemaker who established a vineyard on his family farm at Avenel in central Victoria. After an unhappy experience when he lost control of the business, he was on the verge of leaving the industry when Naked Wines came along. He has a new lease of life. His 2012 Wine x Sam Victorian Shiraz ($15-$20) and 2012 The Butterfly Effect South Eastern Australia Shiraz ($8.50 to $12) are both popular Naked wines - the latter quite startling value for money. Pfeiffer, who took over as winemaker from her father, Chris, at the family winery in Rutherglen, has a 2007 Rock It Like a Redhead Sparkling White Diamond ($21.60-$36): a generously flavoured, mature pinot noir bubbly sourced from Tasmania.

Why the name Naked Wines? Is it just a shameless lunge for attention? Jecks says: ''It's about taking the clothes off that aren't doing anything for the product. The juice in the bottle only costs that much. We all get out of the way and let the customer talk to the winemaker.''

It doesn't mean the bottles are nude: indeed, the packaging is attractive, often natty. The Jen Pfeiffer sparkling depicts a flaming redhead. As Pfeiffer is 33 years old and some of the other winemakers are even younger, this helps Naked gain traction with Gen Y. And women.

At present, the Naked Wines market is 50-50 men and women, which is, as Jecks likes to point out, different from Cellarmasters, which is 60-40 skewed to men. Jecks and his right-hand man, Mark Pollard, both previously worked for Cellarmasters, still the biggest direct wine-selling organisation in Australia. Jecks likes to contrast his business model with Cellarmasters to emphasise that Naked does things differently.

''At Cellarmasters, we'd send out a monthly dozen and the next contact with the customer would be the next time we tried to sell them more wine,'' he says. ''With Naked, we follow up: we ask them what they thought of the wine and what they'd like next time.'' It's all about client interaction. Naked has about 5000 interactions a month with its website. Pfeiffer, who got involved in August and has made nine wines for Naked so far, likes the personal touch with customers.

''I jump online at least once a day and there might be, say, five posts from fans commenting on a particular wine, and I'll reply to them,'' she says. ''And when something exciting is happening - like when I'm bottling my first pinot grigio and my first marsanne-chardonnay blend, I'll do a post about that.''

Naked also affords winemakers a chance to try out something new. They might post a comment saying they have access to a nice block of tempranillo, or fiano, and ask the fans if anyone's interested. If enough are, the winemaker will buy the grapes and make the wine for them.

''About 40 per cent of Angels shop with us every month,'' Jecks says. ''It's not so much the financial commitment, but the fact they believe it's their business. They feel part of the project.''

The business itself is run from Newport, on Sydney's northern beaches, where most of its employees live, as do, as it happens, many customers. How do they find new Angels? They do offers, such as the one at Bing Lee. You buy a fridge and you receive a $50 Naked Wines voucher; you go to the website and sign up. It works because ''people feel like they've earned it'', Jecks says.