By Nicolas Mendiharat, Xavier Garambois, Marc Perrin and Guillaume Jourdan.
OPEN LETTER written by the 4 founders of WineChain, The World’s Leading Fine Wine NFT Marketplace.
Now comes the time for a major change in the fine wine industry. This is what we, co-founders of WineChain, said during our live-streaming entitled “The Next-Gen Wine Cellar” on September 19 (watch the replay). The combination of quickly increasing prices and old regulations created a chokehold in most markets where innovations were blocked, and most consumer and winery problems were ignored. At the same time, many fine wine estates have become luxury brands on their own with limitless potential for development but with no direct relationship with the end consumer, during an era where customers crave relationships with brands more than ever. Furthermore, Blockchain technology enables a new and simpler path to solve all of the major issues consumers and top wineries have today.
It’s now time for a change. And WineChain is here to meet tomorrow’s needs.
– Today, we’re seeing the end of the traditional wine cellar at home—only the privileged have access to this luxury. The Next-Gen Wine Cellar will be in the cloud. Otherwise, it will cease to exist altogether.
– Today, only those with the right connections have access to fine wines. We want to change that, to break down the barriers and make it easier for more people globally to buy, taste, experience, or even invest.
– Today, we are seeing the end of the historic, strict definition of what fine wine is. The world of great wines has changed, and through improved quality in once-overlooked wine regions, excellent wine is becoming more accessible. The Next-Gen Wine Cellar is a matter of taste and quality rather than generational wealth and prestige. WineChain is making this more accessible by unearthing hidden gems and putting the power into the hands of the consumers and their favorite wineries.
The time has come for WineChain to build a global marketplace to enable winery DTC and CTC transactions, to build a powerful logistics service delivering white glove shipping and storage services for customers, and to forge a dynamic Web3 community uniting wine enthusiasts, top winemakers, and collectors in their shared love for fine wines. With the support of winemakers from all over the world, we built a next-generation marketplace that enables consumers to buy directly from wineries, buy or sell wines from peers, and build their own wine cellar in the cloud.
Meanwhile, we hold the physical bottles, guaranteeing their provenance straight from the wineries. We believe this digital link to the Real World Assets will greatly expand the market by making it more accessible in different geographies, and to the next generations. It’s the perfect Swiss Army Knife for the wine collector, where they can be guided by peers, invest with better market liquidity, or simply buy for their own consumption.
For the wineries, we built their DTC launchpad ‘on their own terms’. They can choose a dozen parameters such as royalties that can be applied to their wine releases, defining what will happen to the lifetime value of their creations. They can add special perks, shuffle wine cases with different vintages or cuvées, track who’s buying and selling, put a pulse on the market, etc. But before anything else, they can finally build their own community with their consumers throughout the world. It’s the best way to manage their community and reward their best customers. Let’s make fine wine ownership and experiences accessible, again!
