A deal a day | Update

Like Wine Woot, which we featured not long ago, RadCru offers one wine a day, often at a good discount. Based in San Francisco, the online wine marketplace started its beta phase today. (During beta, the offering will be three wines per week; each wine selling for 24 hours or until the wine sells out, whichever comes first.) But the key selling point isn’t deep discounts. Rather, it’s the access to boutique wineries that consumers might otherwise not be able to buy from. The majority of RadCru’s featured wines will be hard to find, limited quantities or new releases: “small vines, rad wines.” RadCru is a prime example of nouveau niche, the Long Tail, or whatever you want to call the phenomenon whereby niche tastes are catered to, and individual consumers are offered greater choice than ever before. RadCru holds no inventory. Instead, wines are shipped directly from winery to consumer, minimizing costs of inventory storage and distribution. Producer, smart online middleman/curator, and consumer all benefit. And then there’s the added sense of exclusivity and urgency created by offering a limited selection each day. RadCru Chile, RadCru Australia, RadCru France anyone?