Amazon corks wine plans

Amazon.com is pulling back from plans to sell wine nationally online, the company said today. The ecommerce giant had been planning to get into the wine business for some time, but hit a setback when its fulfillment partner New Vine Logistics ran into financial trouble and suspended operations this past summer. Still, Amazon continued to demo its wine website to select members of the wine industry, and seemed poised to move ahead with wine sales.

News of Amazon’s pullback was first reported by WineBusiness.com, which reported that an Amazon account manger e-mailed people in the wine industry about the decision, saying “this was a very tough choice for us.”

Amazon spokesman Craig Berman confirmed the company won’t be getting into the wine business, but provided no further statement.

Selling wine nationally would have been a huge logistical undertaking, given the complexity of laws governing interstate wine sales. Amazon does sell some wine (and beer) through its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service in the Seattle area. - TechFlash

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