Q & A

The role of VINEX is to provide a secure trading market where you can easily connect and successfully complete negotiations, supported by a sampling approval process.

The VINEX experience and systems reduces your risk and promotes legal, ethical and fairness in trading. We provide the following assurances through to reaching and executing an agreement:

Yes. You need to register and receive VINEX approval for an account to be opened. Once approved, you can publish your sourcing requirements, request samples from offered wines, and depending on the trade method interact to complete a purchase. To search the marketplace and request samples from available wines you must first upgrade and subscribe for Professional access. VINEX is a business to business marketplace and you must be a proprietor or representative of an organisation in, or associated with the wine industry.

Sellers include wine cooperatives, independent producers, wine agents/brokers, contract winemakers, bottling companies, brand owners, exporters and wholesalers. Members range in size from large to small, and are located within or across multiple regions in more than 19 wine producing countries. To trade using VINEX they have first had to be verified and approved by our team. Each member has a VINEX profile which displays their status, country of origin and summarises activity.

Yes. You can source, search for and purchase grape derived products, including juice, must, concentrate, flavoured wines, fortifieds and grape spirit. In addition to searching the marketplace, you can also encourage suppliers to respond to your specific requirements by adding your own sourcing requirement. VINEX Support can assist with more information, just message us.

Becoming a registered member enables you to publish your requirements on the Main Market using one of the available trading methods (except Pre-Harvest). If your requirement is for a premium quality/appellation/regional wine, it will also appear in the Boutique Market targeting premium Suppliers. If you upgrade and subscribe to Professional, you can access the Direct Market (Invitation Only) and confidentially invite preferred Sellers only to respond to your requirements - all priocing and details are hidden from the Main Market). Your upgrade will also provide you with access to the Supply Management System with enhanced funcationality to manage your existing suppliers and brokers, plus access Pre-Harvest Forward agreements.

None. You will not be invoiced any fees on completing a purchase. However, you must first register and receive VINEX approval to enter the market.

If you want to search listings and place bids, make counter-offers or request samples on wines listed by other members you must first upgrade and subscribe for Professional access.

Fees & Rates Summary

• No Listing or Contract Fees
• Access subscription fees are optional
• Pre-Harvest Forward Contract fees apply
• Listing Promotion fees are optional
• Fulfillment service fee is optional 
• Fees may apply for other VINEX services, eg. Freight Quotes

The Direct Market is available to access by Professional subscribers only. You can add sourcing requirements and restrict supplier universe to only those you know or would like to discretely approach. Your the details of your requirements are restricted in view (no price, volume details or technical specifications are displayed), being only available to those Sellers (brokers and suppliers) you invite. The details of your specific requirements are hidden from the Main Market.

Through your listing, you can confidentially invite up to 8 Sellers per listing (search by Country and Company Name) to offer supply. This enables you to pre-qualify the suppliers you would like to notify and confidentially source supply from. The Direct Marketplace provides you with control and efficiency, whilst creating competitive tension amongst those suppliers invited to respond to your sourcing requirements. Your anonymity is protected throughout to ensure a fair and unbiased negotiation, including sampling to objectively secure the best available supply at teh lowest whole-of-supply cost.

Yes. Sampling is obviously vital in completing a successful purchase and many suppliers will provide samples on request and several style options. If a Seller chooses not to provide samples when listing and negotiating with you, they must still supply a final sample and technical specification declaration for your approval upon completing a trade, as part of the Clearing & Settlement process. All trades are subject to your approval of a final sample and specification declaration.

The quality levels ranging from A - Luxury down to E - Generic are broad categories in which wines can be classified to provide an indication of their level of quality. Just as price may also indicate a quality level, the A - E categories are another convenient way to search and compare wines of interest. Of course, you will ultimately make your own determination as to the quality, style and value of a wine. The Boutique Market is only relevant for wines within the quality grading levels of A - C and are from a region.

Below are some guidelines to consider when listing your wine requirements and selecting an appropriate quality level.   

VinScore is an independent evaluation service provided by VINEX's qualified tasting experts. The service is only available for Bulk 'Finished/Bottle-Ready' and 'All Bottled' wines. Each wine is given a rating (within its quality level) out of 5.0; with a tasting descriptor. It’s an objective assessment designed to assist you by providing a valuable unbiased filter to compare and select wines and save time. Sellers are not obligated to purchase or display a VinScore rating.

The role of VINEX is to provide a secure, digitised trading market where you can connect and successfully complete negotiations, reach new buyers, all supported by an efficient sampling process.

VINEX reduces your risk and ensures legal, ethical and fairness in trading.  We provide the following assurances through to contract execution:

No. Once you have an account you can offer and promote your wines for sale - it's free.

There's no publishing or negotiation fees. You only pay a fee if completing a successful trade agreement.

Fees & Rates Summary

• No listing or negotiation fees
• Contract fees apply to completed trades
• Pre-Harvest Forward Contract fees apply
• Professional access subscription fee is optional
• Wine promotion fees are optional
• Fees may apply for other VINEX services, eg. Freight, VINPay Guaranteed Invoice Payments

Buyers purchasing through the marketplace have all been verified by VINEX. They include established exporters, importers, bottling facilities, wholesalers, retailers (and other wine producers who have additional supply requirements). Buyers are across all regions and markets across more than 57 countries.

Yes. You can offer all types of grape-derived products including juice, must, concentrate, flavoured wines, fortifieds and grape spirit. For wines, there are options to customise your listings; including organic, kosher, crude, faulty and numerous other variations. VINEX Support can assist with more information.

Suppliers are invoiced a contract fee payable to VINEX on either receiving a fully executed Sale & Purchase Agreement, or wine under the agreement is drawn-down. Fees are based on a percentage of the total value of each contract, and may also include an optional Fulfillment fee. Other VINEX services are also available that may including fees, eg. securing a Pre-Harvest forward contract, freight or to VINPay invoices. A full list of Rates & Fees can be found under Services here

Obviously sampling is vital to completing a successful trade. While you can choose not to supply samples, when you add a listing and negotiate with a buyer, you must provide a final sample for the buyer’s acceptance as part of the Clearing & Settlement approval process. If samples are made available when negotiating a trade you are 300% more likely to complete a trade.

When offering your wines through the marketplace, you can indicate if samples are available or not. The supply of samples to interested buyers is at your cost, including freight and must be delivered duty paid (if international). VINEX will advise you of the buyer’s request and provide dispatch address details, along with labels to print and apply to each bottle. On entering a tracking number, VINEX automatically reports the delivery status displayed on your dashboard.

Yes. When publishing each wine, before selecting Request Offers to push the details live, you can tick the option to "please display our company name and description to others viewing my wines." This way, each of your wines in the marketplace will display your company name above your profile and ranking for all members to see, and read a short description about your company. To remove your name from a published wine at any time, select Edit Listing and untick the option above Request Offers and then select Request Offers to republish your wine without your identity showing. 

The confidential Direct Market is available to members with Professional access. Here you can offer your wines and restrict your universe of buyers to only those in the industry you would like to confidentially approach. Your wine offered is locked and restricted in view (no price, quantity or technical details are displayed) and can only be viewed by members invited with an Access Code. You can confidentially invite up to 8 members (search by Country and Company Name) to respond to your offered wines. If the buyer you're looking to invite is not in the VINEX database, there's a request button to add the buyer's name. When offering your wines, you can pre-qualify the buyers you would like to notify and trade with. The Direct Market provides you with control and efficiency, whilst creating competitive tension amongst those buyers invited to submit offers. Your anonymity is retained throughout to ensure equality in trading when offering your wines, and to avoid destabilising the main market.

DETAILS ON 90 DAY PROFESSIONAL TRIAL FOR £90 HERE

The wine quality levels ranging from A - Luxury down to E - Generic are broad categories within which wines must be classified to provide an indication of quality. Just as price may also indicate a quality assessment, the A - E categories are another convenient way to search and compare wines of interest. Of course, you will ultimately make your own determination as to the quality, style and value of a wine. The Boutique Market is only relevant for wines within the quality grading levels of A - C and from a single region.

Below are some guidelines to consider when listing your wine requirements and selecting an appropriate quality level.  

VinScore is an independent evaluation service provided by VINEX to increase buyers' interest in your wines. The service is only available for 'Finished/Bottle Ready' and 'All Bottled' wines. Each wine is given a rating (within its quality level) out of 5.0. With a VinScore your finished wine listings will be more appealing and provide an unbiased filter to help buyers compare listings of interest. Whilst you’re not obligated to purchase or display a VinScore, it has been shown that listings are 300% more likely to lead to a completed trade. 

Yes. VINEX provides a service called VinValuation – it’s free and you don’t need to supply a sample. Based on your wine’s details, VINEX will respond to you with a VinValuation after taking into account all market and current trading factors. We will advise a valuation price range along with commentary on the prevailing market conditions.