Vinomofo partners with US wine entrepreneur

Heather McIlvaine

2nd Apr 2019

Online wine retailer Vinomofo has partnered with US wine media mogul Gary Vaynerchuk to bring the inaugural wine from his label, Empathy Wines, to its customers in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.

The wine, which Vinomofo is launching this month, is available exclusively for pre-order from the online retailer.

Vinomofo co-founder and CEO Justin Dry said the partnership was fitting, since Vaynerchuk’s approach to the industry aligns perfectly with Vinomofo’s mission to offer great wine at the right price.

“The inclusion of Empathy Wines is an exciting one for us,” Dry said in a statement.

“It strengthens our offering as well as supporting Californian winemakers who’ve been devastated by fires recently and cements our commitment to bringing really cool wines to our wine lovers.”

This is just the first step in a bigger effort to introduce more wine from overseas to Vinomofo’s customers in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, Dry told Internet Retailing. 

“We’re currently buying for our second container – after filling the first one with Gary Vee’s Empathy Wines Rosé – so look out for some super cool wines by iconic US winemakers like André Hueston Mack hitting our shores in 2019,” he said.

But there is still no word on when Vinomofo will officially launch in the US market, which it had previously planned to do in 2018.

“We have some very exciting things happening in the background at Vinomofo. We will share these with you as soon as we can,” Dry said.

“In the meantime, we are super excited to be forming this partnership and can’t wait for what’s ahead.”

Gary Vaynerchuk, also known as Gary Vee, took his parents’ liquor business in the US, Shopper’s Discount Liquors, online in 2006, and started Wine Library TV, a daily webcast covering wine.

He later started a digital ad agency, which provided social media and strategy services to several Fortune 500 companies, including Anheuser-Busch, Mondelez and PepsiCo.