In 2006 Matt Rutledge, Woot! founder launched Wine.Woot, a community model of online wine sales. The wine, came directly from the producers and were shipped directly to consumers, taking out the middleman. The community grew organically from of this consumer base and the site became a place to share knowledge, trade bottles and just enjoy each other’s online company.
Now that Amazon, who purchased Woot has acquired Whole Foods, they no longer have need for a separate online wine department and will be ending that part of the business as of December 31, 2017. However, Rutledge and Mediocre Laboratories are stepping in to reboot this community-based, direct retail wine model under the name Casemates and is raising funds through Kickstarter to get it going. Check out their video below:
