D.C.-based WineTasteTV.com is trying to find a niche, somewhere YouTube meets vino.
The site, which quietly debuted in February, is aiming to be an online television channel for wine lovers, featuring such content as winery profiles, stories on wine bars and wine events coverage.
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“Nobody in the wine industry has tackled video from the perspective of an on-demand channel,” said Roger Marmet,the founder and president of the site.
The venture plans to make its money through advertising, selling wine-related products and producing videos on the side for wineries.
The U.S. market for wine has been increasing slowly, topping 700 million gallons of wine in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Wine-related Web sites have skyrocketed over the past few years, according to Gary Vaynerchuk, who does a daily wine webcast on Wine
LibraryTV, a video wine blog that debuted in 2006 and now reaches 80,000 people a day.
“I think there’s always room for innovation,” said Vaynerchuck of WineTasteTV.com’s chances for success.
Vaynerchuck thinks the next trend in Web 2.0 wine applications will be a mobile function that allows individuals to use their cell phones to get wine information and reviews.
Marmet’s not the only local entrepreneur to find success in the wine industry. Springfield, Va.-based Big Tattoo Wines recently announced it has now donated more than $1 million to cancer-related charities through sales from its label.
Big Tattoo is the brainchild of two brothers, Alex and Erik, who wanted to do something to honor their mother, Liliana, who died of breast cancer. Their father owned a wine import business, Billington Wines, and Erik was a tattoo artist.
Erik designed a fleur-de-lis tattoo, his mother’s favorite symbol, which became the logo for Big Tattoo Wines, which donates 50 cents for every bottle sold to charities nationwide.
The label now has six blends —three Big Tattoo varieties and three reservas sold under the name Two Brothers, Alex Bartholomaus said.
The wines are available in various small wine shops and Whole Foods in the D.C. area and retail from $9 to $13.
Bartholomaus isn’t about to rest on the label’s successes.
“It’s goingto take a lot more wine drinkers to reach our goal of $1 million raised per year rather than $1 million over five years,” he said.
