What is NakedWines.com?

We are a customer funded winery.

Our customers (Angels) fund independent winemakers to set up their own labels.

And in exchange, they get exclusive wines at wholesale prices — 40 to 60% off retail.

The winemakers love it, because they don't need to waste their time and money selling so they can afford to give wholesale prices.

And our Angels love it because they get better wine for less money. And plenty of karma for helping another human being.

Why does it work?

I have some bad news for you. When you spend $50 on a bottle of Napa Cab, only $7 of that is wine. The rest is sales, marketing and hot air — stuff you can't taste.

Our winemakers would much rather give that money to you directly, as a reward for helping them.

What do I get as an Angel?

The main benefit is that you get exclusive wines at wholesale prices.

In addition, every month one winemaker will give us samples that you can add to your order for a token $1.

And you get to visit YOUR winery any time you like, where you and your friends taste for free.

What happens to my money?

First off, it is always YOUR money. The $40 you save into your nakedwines.com account every month is not a fee or a subscription — it is your money.

You can use it to buy what you like, when you like. We never just send you wine.

And if you change your mind, we will refund you in full.

While that money is sitting in your account, we use to fund independent winemakers, like the people at the top of the page. We literally fund the grapes, the barrels, the bottles and everything else, so all the winemaker needs to do is make great wines.

Is my money safe?

The funds are kept in a separate company, Naked Wines Prepayment Trustee Company Limited, so that if anything goes wrong with Naked Wines, your money remains secure. Naked Wines can only draw on the money for the specific purpose of funding independent winemakers.

Our main investor, a family owned German wine company with revenues in excess of 500 million Euros called www.wiv-ag.com, guarantees to repay the money to the Trustee Company just in case Naked Wines is not able to pay the money back which is invested in independent winemakers and their wines.

Are you related to Naked Winery, the Naked Grape, Simply Naked Wines, Naked Chardonnay, etc?

No we aren't. We use Naked in WYSIWYG sense - What You See Is What You Get. Our customers rate the wines, speak directly to the winemakers and to each other, so we hide nothing.

Naked Winery is a boutique winery in gorgeous Hood River Oregon, who "Aim to Tease". I have tasted their Willamette Pinot and it is a pretty good drop of wine.

Simply Naked doesn't bother using oak barrels.

The Naked Grape can use oak but doesn't use much of it. Their grapes wear no clothes.

Naked Chardonnay is a type of naked grape but not THE Naked Grape, and it's not simple at all.

Just to be clear, we're none of those.

What is an Angel?

Angels invest in our winemakers by saving $40 a month toward their next order.

In exchange, they save at LEAST 40% every time they buy wines from us. And they get a bunch of cool perks like $1 sample bottles and invitations to exclusive tasting events.

Angels take care of our winemakers so our winemakers take care of the Angels.

So how do I become an Angel?

To get Angel pricing and invest in winemakers around the world, just click here to put 40 bucks a month into your Angel account where it will wait for you until you're ready to buy some wine with it.

How does any of this affect the wine?

Basically, our winemakers don't waste money on stuff that you can't taste like marketing or high interest rate loans.

1. When 100,000 Angels put money aside in their Angel accounts, we can turn around and invest in winemakers around the world, eliminating their need for the banks.
2. Angels simultaneously provide the money to make the wine and an end consumer to drink the wine! That means our winemakers waste no money on marketing or sales since we already know the Angels will snap it all up.
3. Every cent the winemaker spends goes into the quality of the wine to make it taste better. No money goes to the stuff you can't taste. Well aside from a little bit to keep the winemaker and Nakedwines.com in business.

If you're just launching in the US, who funded your domestic winemakers and their wines?

We did. We didn't have any Angel investors, so we financed these wines ourselves. We couldn't finance them as early as we wanted to, so we had to rely on some of our winemakers to dig into the back catalog, beg and borrow wines from their friends, their clients, and in one case we can't say too much more about, their employers!

We're very excited about the results, and we are confident that the next vintage will be well-funded by Angels.

How does this actually affect me?

1. You squirrel away $40 a month into your Nakedwines.com account toward your next order
2. Yours to spend on ANY of our wines WHENEVER you want
3. And every time you order, you'll save at least 40% (and up to 50%) on every penny you spend
4. Plus, you'll get a premium bottle every month (for a dollar) if you order a case^
5. Oh, and it's 100% safe and you can cancel and get your money back at any time

PLUS, we never send you wine without being asked. This is not one of those dodgy wine "clubs" you can never get out of!

Is this a wine club?

If you're into wine, you probably know that "wine club" has come to refer to a very specific business model where customers pay a certain amount per year and a company (often a winery) sends them regular shipments of wine. We aren't doing that.

Instead, Nakedwines.com customers put money in escrow over the course of the year. And they can come and shop at the site with that money as much or as little as they want. They can assemble cases however they like, only have wines delivered around the holidays or before their birthday or whenever. If you're looking for a company to regularly send you unsolicited wine, we're not it.

But in the more general sense, we are a group of people who really enjoy wine. So if "wine club" just meant a club that likes wine, we'd be that.

Shouldn't I just buy direct from the winery?

Buying direct from wineries is a great way to support already existing winemakers. But you'll pay a lot more without necessarily benefiting the winemaker.

Being an Angel means you're financing new winemakers and creating new projects, and you tend to get much more bang for your buck because of that.

Here's one of our winemakers trying to explain how being a Naked Angel is significantly more beneficial to him than being a member of the wine club:

"It seems strange to people that I prefer Angels over conventional winery sales. Especially since Naked Angels pay less money per bottle than other people who visit my winery and buy direct from me. But even though Angels pay less, I make more. Because I don't have to pay the banks, I don't need a sales team, and I don't need marketing campaigns.

Every visitor who comes to O'Vineyards receives a voucher for their first purchase at Nakedwines.com. The Angels are our future."

--Ryan O'Connell, NakedWines.com winemaker

Is this a flash sale site?

Naked goes beyond temporary discounts on wine. We actually make production less costly.

The UK version of the website does have timed sales offers, but that's not really the cool part of Nakedwines.com. Lots of companies have used flash sales to create excitement about a product. But very few companies have found ways to fundamentally change the cost of wine.

Flash sales are by definition temporary. On the other hand, the value we're creating with the Angel-Winemaker relationship will last year after year. The way Angels crowd-fund wines means that the winemaker never wastes money on sales or marketing. So quality can go up and prices come down vintage after vintage.

Can I find these wines at a store?

Virtually all the wines on the site are exclusively sold through Naked. If you manage to find similar wines or wines made by the same winemakers or wines made from the same fruit, they will typically be much more expensive.

Because Angels finance these wines and promise to drink them all up, winemakers are able to sell it at the true cost without worries about amortizing an International sales force or a Public Relations Brand Manager that they'd need to get their wine entrenched in conventional distribution channels.

How do I cancel?

Canceling your Angel status is easy (but you'd be crazy to cancel!) You can cancel at any time in the My Account tab of the NakedMe section of the website. Or call us at 1-800-673-4718. Either way, we'll cancel your account and refund any unspent contributions you have made.

On the other hand, you can just change your monthly payment to any multiple of $10 by going to the 'Account' tab of your NakedMe section of the site.

To read our full Angel T&Cs please click here.