The two most common shipping methods used by fullfillment companies are, obviously, UPS and FedEx. An important thing to note, and we’re not sure if UPS offers anything like this, but FedEx offers great discounts (up to 65% off) on shipping if the winery is a member of the Wine Institute. This can amount to incredible savings to the consumer, or make the winery look great if they complement their price point with “shipping included”. If you are a winery, you have to enroll in the program.

Some of these shippers work to make it easy to deliver wines. For example, UPS offers a free service where they call the intended recipient before they deliver to make sure that someone over 21 is available to pick up the wine. Unfortunately, I don’t think all the wineries are aware of this, as we recently received some wine, and it was somewhat of a hassle… apparently the only way that UPS will do this is if the winery gives them the phone number and requests the service when they place the order into shipping.

So… if you are purchasing wines, don’t forget to mention it. This will help eliminate the need for the driver to make multiple trips, and make it easier to get the wine into your hands.

If you are a winery, and are interested in the Wine Institute, you better be from California, because they apparently only represent California wineries. Maybe they have plans for expansion, or maybe Wine America’s helping hands are working on, something similar.

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