A less niche side project

I published a post exactly one month ago about a side project I’d been working on and wrote at the time that the _“chances are you’re never going to need PrintStamp”_. The response from friends and contacts on Twitter was really lovely and since then, I’ve processed over thirty five documents with about £70 in total revenue. It’s been fun and I still get excited every time a new order comes in. It might even get to profitability soon. I also wrote in that post that of the side project ideas I’d had, there was one that “which I’m genuinely excited about”.

Today I’m sharing that one with the world. Introducing Winepost: a wine subscription that delivers high quality wine at affordable prices to your door every month (or two).

This started over a WhatsApp chat with my brother, who works in the wine industry. I was trying to figure out how to order some wine during lockdown and sent him the following:

This basically sums up my relationship with wine. I enjoy it, but know nothing about it. I no longer go into a supermarket and just buy whatever is cheapest, but I also don’t know how to choose good wine. So I look for something between £5 and £10 that has a nice label and randomly pick it off the shelves.

And it turns out, it’s not that easy to order wine online if you’re not a pro. There are some excellent companies if you know what you want and some interesting delivery businesses geared towards wine connoisseurs, but there’s nothing that really caters for the “uneducated but keen” demographic, where I squarely place myself.

Which is where Winepost comes in. Sign up for a subscription, choose how many bottles you want and how often you want them, give us an idea of what colours you’d like, and we’ll take it from there. Every month or two, you’ll receive a selection of wines direct to your door and we’ll then ask you to rate them, so we can customise your future deliveries. You can change the number of bottles, frequency of delivery and types of wine anytime, as well as pause or cancel super easily. And we’ll include tasting details for each wine you do receive, so you can learn more about what you like and dislike.

And the best bit? I’m not choosing the wine! You’ll be pleased to hear that my brother agreed to join and is handpicking each wine.

If you’d like to give Winepost a go, I’ve negotiated a discount with the boss for you. Anyone who uses the discount code TRISTAN in the next few weeks on a subscription for six or twelve bottles will receive 10% off their first order. If you do sign up, please then let me know what you think and share your feedback on the experience so I can improve it for future Wineposters.

Finally, a huge thank you to Esme Hallam who did all the graphic design for Winepost. Anything that looks good is credit to her and all the bugs and issues are my fault.