Naked Wines Review 2024

Naked Wines is a wine company that was founded in 2008. The founder Rowan Gormley operated a wine company himself (Virgin Wines) which was sold in 2005 to the larger UK wine company – Direct Firm. However, Virgin Wines operated independently from its parent; and Rowan stayed on as its boss.

In 2008, Rowan tried to lead a management buyout of Virgin Wines from Direct Wines, but he met resistance and was kicked out. Since buying back Virgin Wines was no longer an option, he decided to set up a rival wine company, and only 6 months later Naked Wines was born.

However, the only thing that Naked Wines had in common with Virgin Wines before it is that they both offered wine; when it comes to how they offer the wine, their paths couldn’t be more different. Naked Wine started its international expansion by launching in the US and Australia in 2012.

In 2015, Rowan sold Naked Wines for £70 to Majestic Wine which is the UK’s largest specialist retailer of wine. Thus, Naked Wines is currently one of the operating companies of Majestic Wine Plc. Naked Wine has over 363,000 customers worldwide, with over 200,000 of these in the UK alone.

If you are wondering why the company is called “Naked”, it explains that it is because you pay for only what you taste, and every other thing is stripped off.

Naked Wines is an online shop that advertises as “your new favourite place to buy wine”. Given that there are many online wines; a big question will be what sets Naked Wines apart that’ll make it your “favourite place to buy wine”. NakedWines answers that the online wine company will get its members better wines for less money.  That’s a promise of having access to good quality wine, at the best prices.

This even raises other bigger questions. For example, is that just a marketing pitch, or does Naked Wines actually provide better (or more appropriately, good quality) wine? Does Naked Wines actually have the best prices? In the first place, is Naked Wines genuine?

Yes, Naked Wines is legit. It is not a scam because they will never take your money without shipping your products to you. And your money and credit card details are product on the website

This Naked Wines review will examine everything about Naked Wines in order to provide the information that will help you answer these questions and more.

Naked Wines review at a glance:

• The website is www.nakedwines.com
• Online wine shop founded in 2008
• Customers pre-pay monthly against future wine orders
• Every payment into your Naked Wines account remains yours to spend at anytime
• Naked Wines invest the money on independent winemakers who otherwise would not have gotten their projects off the ground
• In return, the winemakers offer preferential prices to the pre-paying customers
• Thus, winemakers offer their products directly to customers, cutting off all middlemen
• As a result, prices are very very competitive
• Wines available in Naked Wines cannot be found anywhere else, and popular wines around are also not provided on the site
• Naked Wines list a wide range of wines
• There is a money-back guarantee

Business Model

The business model of Naked Wines is drastically outside the norms of conventional wine-trade. The traditional wine trade model has one or two intermediaries. That is, usually, the products flow from the producer to the wholesaler to the retailer, and to the final customer. On the other hand, Naked Wines cuts off the intermediaries; and allows the wine to be made and sold directly by the producer to the customer.

However, it is not just cutting off the middlemen that make Naked Wines so unconventional. Rather, it is because customers of Naked Wines (which the company calls Angels) pre-pay monthly against future wine orders.

That is, each month Naked Wines customers make a payment into their Naked Wines account (£20 for UK customers, $40 for the US and Australian customers). The company invests this money in talented independent winemakers, many of whom will otherwise not be able to produce. In return, customers get exclusive wines at preferential prices, which Naked Wines says is as much as 33% off full prices.

However, it should be noted that the business model is just a classic example of crowdfunding. The monthly contributions of the angels of Naked Wines are aggregated and invested in the “struggling” but talented winemakers. This is somewhat satisfying as there is the social effect; it gives a kind of relationship with the winemakers and the knowledge that you are contributing to helping talented winemakers to breakthrough.

However, this is no charity work. The money you pay into your Naked Wine account remains yours to spend on any wine in the site and at any time.

You can let your account accrue as much as you want. There are no times when you can lose the money in your account, so you are not under any obligation to buy at any time. The decision to buy (use money in your account) is entirely yours

Product

Product Range

The ideal shop should have a range of products. Even for a niche ship like a wine shop, it should be able to offer a variety of wine, made from a variety of grapes.

Thankfully, Naked Wines tick the box in this regards. The company has invested in over 159 independent winemakers in 14 countries; thus, you’ll find a wide variety of wines in the store. When looking for wines, there are different criteria that you can use to filter out wines. Under the “special” category, you’ll find New Wine, Fine Wine, Sweet Spot Wine, Medal Winners, and more. You can filter using the alcoholic content, dietary status (e.g. vegan), or type (red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, rose wine, and more). You can also choose from different styles of particular wine types. For example, of Red Wines, you can search for Big Red, Fruity Red, Smooth Red, and more. If you know your grapes, you can also search for wines made from specific grapes; you’ll find wines from scores of different grapes.

The variety to choose from is pretty impressive. However, if you do not know what to pick, Naked Wines can advise you all the way. There are the “buy it again” ratings which can tell you particular wines that members think are great. If you want to trust other members, you can also search for wines using the Naked Wines ratings. Another way Naked Wines helps you in selecting is with a green checkmark.

Going by what you have in your profile or your activity on the site, Naked Wines will suggest wines that you’ll love using a “green checkmark”. That is; if you’ve shown admiration for a particular wine, the wines with the green checkmark will be wines similar to the one you admired.

Wine Quality

The wines offered in Naked Wines are made exclusively for (and thanks to) to Naked Wines.com. What it means is that you may not recognize the labels. However, “unknown” is not equal to “poor quality” Thus, it does not mean that you’ll be getting poor wines.

Naked Wines does its best to assure that the wines coming off its winemakers are of the requisite quality. For example, it says that “because growers know that their fruit has been sold upfront, they can focus on quality, not the quantity of the grapes”. It also says that because its winemakers have “amazing stories to tell” there will be a commitment to quality that’ll beat wine “made to a recipe in an oil refinery”.  Another assuring pitch is that “winemakers know that their wine is sold upfront, so they spend their time in their cellar making the wine delicious, rather than on the road trying to sell it”.

That said; it’s clear that Naked Wines tries to say that their winemakers produce better wine because of the two things:

• Winemakers are more committed to quality because of the social factor in the community
• Winemakers will have more resources (especially time) to throw at quality because of not doing any sales and marketing of their product

Also, it should be said that the winemakers that Naked Wines propel are proven stars that need that propelling to set up their own. As a result, among the credentials that winemakers in Naked Wines must have are the expertise to make truly world-class wine and local and international recognition.

That said; it is not only “a commitment to quality wine” or “having more time for winemaking” that ensures that wines in Naked Wines are of world-class quality. Rather, it’s because the winemakers are themselves talented winemakers who can (and have proven to) make great wines. Naked Wines only help by removing factors that were restricting them from getting their great wines to the market.

Another thing that testifies to the quality in the shop is the “money-back guarantee”. If you do not like wine, you can contact Naked Wines, and it will arrange a refund for you.

Pricing and Related Policies

Pricing

People who like wine will not want to substitute anything for good quality wines. However, they may be resistant to paying what is unreasonable for any wine. Thus, while the ideal online store should provide good quality wine, these should be offered at reasonable prices.

This is exactly where Naked Wines shines. In fact, the main selling point of Naked Wines is providing world-class wines at reduced prices. The best way to check the reasonableness of the prices in a store is to do a comparative analysis of the store’s prices with prices in other stores. This cannot be done in this case, because Naked Wines sells exclusive wines that cannot be found anywhere else.

However, Naked Wines helps us in gauging the reasonableness of the prices it offers its members. This is because, non-members can also buy from the site, but will not have the advantage of the preferential prices that members have. To that end, for every wine listed in Naked Wine, there are two prices – market price and the Angel price. The market price is the price for non-members, while the Angel price is the price for members who have been making monthly payments. From these two prices, you can easily see how much less you’ll be paying as a member.

Interestingly, for every wine (bottle or case), the Angel Price is always lower than the Market price. The price difference is very small for some wines but quite large for others.

For example, the Sharon Weeks Tattoo California Feral Red 2018 had a $1.99 Angel’s savings (Market Price = $11.98, and Angels’ price $9.99), but the Matt Parish Napa Valley Tino 2017 had a $15.01 Angels saving (Market price $40, and Angels price $24.99). Also, for the wine cases; the Brothers Miller Spotlight 6-Pack had an $80.55 Angels’ saving (Market price = $143.54, and Angels price = $62.99), while the Top Rated Cabs 6 Pack had a $103.00 Angels’ saving (Market price = $212.99, and Angels price $109.99). Thus, it’s clear that the Angels (members of NakedWines) really get good deals for the wines. How good a deal they get depends on the particular wine that they go for.

Naked Wines is able to give customers good prices because middlemen and their markups have been eliminated. Wine goes from the makers directly to the customers.

Promotions

Naked Wines is also generous with the promotions. From time to time, you’ll find free vouchers on offer in the site. At the time of writing this review, on getting to the UK website, we were prompted to take a survey and get a “free £30 wine voucher”; and on getting to the Australia website, we were prompted to take a quiz and stand to win a $20 free wine voucher.

However, going to the terms and condition, we found that, before one can redeem a discount voucher, one has to be a registered member of Naked Wines. Also, there are some wines that the vouchers cannot be used against; and more so, the discount vouchers are on the full prices and not on the Angels’ prices. So even as a member with a voucher, you’ll be using it on the Market price of the wines. However, it’s nice to see that members can get vouchers and the free wines that that entails.

Payment Method

You don’t want to have a headache when making any online transaction. Being an Angel (member) of Naked Wine involves monthly transactions (via the monthly contributions). Thus, you’ll want a hassle-free payment method, so that you’ll be spared monthly headaches.

Naked Wines does well in this regards. It accepts the popular credit and debit cards (Master Card, Visa, American Express, and more). Your first payment will be transferred from your card on the day you register and become an Angel (member) of Naked Wine; while subsequent monthly payments will be removed from the registered card on or around that date of any month. However, if you want to choose your payment date, you can do that in your Account page.

When you place an order in Naked Wines, the amount is deducted from your Naked Wines account. However, if your order amount is more than the balance in your Naked Wines account, your registered credit/ debit card will be charged for the difference.

Delivery

Buying things online is different from buying in brick and mortar stores where you’ll walk in pay for the merchandise and walk out with it. Making online purchases means that the item will have to be moved from the store to your location (where you’ll take a delivery). Thus, some important things to consider are shipping destinations, shipping cost, and shipping times.

Naked Wines only serves the UK, the US and Australia. So shipment is to only these countries. IF you are not resident in any of these three territories, you’ll have to use other online stores for your wines.

In terms of cost and delivery times; delivery to the mainland United States takes 2 – 6 business days. Shipping cost $9.99 for all orders less than $100, while it is free for orders over $100. The only exceptions to this are New Jersey, Alaska, and Hawaii, which cost $19.99, $130, and $70 respectively. However, there are a few US states which Naked Wines do not ship to such as Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Rhode, Island, and Utah. If a shipment goes missing or is damaged in transit, Naked Wines will usually send a replacement within 7 days or offer a full refund price you paid).

For shipping time and cost for customers in the UK; Naked Wines uses next day delivery service for most addresses in the UK (when you order before 5 pm). If you don’t want the wine to be delivered the next day, you can select another future day for its delivery (but it has to be at least 5 days from the purchase date). Delivery cost is £4.99 for all UK orders but is free for orders above £100. However, if you’ll want a special Saturday delivery (before noon) it’ll set you back by £6.99.

Naked Wines also have the Click and Collect delivery options for its UK customers. That is, you can buy wine in the store and have it sent to a Majestic Store closest to you; after which you can go to the store for pick up. All Click and Collect delivery is free (except if you are a new customer purchasing a discounted case). Stores delivered to Majestic Stores for the Click and Collect service will be held for 5 working days, after which they will be returned to inventory. However, be advised that there are some postcodes in the UK that Naked Wines do not deliver to; you’ll have to check their website for such postcodes.

For Australian customers; Naked Wines uses Next working day delivery for orders to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth metro areas, and it uses 2 – 4 business days for orders to Brisbane, Canberra, and Adelaide. However, orders have to be made before 3 pm. In terms of cost; Australian customers do not get the flat shipping rate. Orders going to Sydney and Melbourne are free, while shipping costs vary for all other orders. You’ll have to use the “delivery calculator” on the site to see how long and how much delivery will take. However, Naked Wines does not shop in the Northern Territory.

Special Feature

Ratings

Naked Wines has a “buy it again” rating against each listed wine in the website. This rating helps you to know how popular wine is; this is because it shows the percentage of customers who’ll definitely return to buy the particular wine again at the price. If you do not know what wine to pick from the vast selection in Naked Wines; these ratings might help. Needless to say, only customers that find a product good (at the price it is offered) will give it a “thumbs up”.

A good thing about the “buy it again” ratings is that it does not only show percentages of customers that gave the wine a “thumbs up”, but it also shows the total pool of customers that rated the wine. You’ll know that statistically, a larger sample size gives a better confidence level. For example, I’ll have more confidence in something rated good by 95% of 1,000 reviewers than in something rated good by 100% of 4 reviewers.

Communication

The community factor of Naked Wines extends beyond just knowing that your contributions have helped a winemaker. You can also get to talk with the winemakers. In these interactions, you can talk of what you like best about a particular wine, and even make suggestions for improving on a wine.

Customer Support

No matter how effectively a store operates, customers will still need help. There are some who’ll simply have questions and need answers; while there are others who will have complaints or issues with orders, and need a resolution. Thus, the ideal online store should have an effective customer support service for addressing the questions and issues of customers.

Naked Wines does very well in this regard. The first step to getting answers is the FAQ on their website. The self-help articles of the FAQ are systematically arranged to aid navigation; you’ll find subjects like ordering, delivery, vouchers, what are angels, money-back guarantee, and more

If the FAQ articles are not adequate, you can directly contact Naked Wines and an agent will be in touch with you. Naked Wines supports three different channels for direct contact – live chat, telephone, and email.

For the email service, the email address to direct your submissions is help@nakedwines.com. Mails can be sent in at any time, and Naked Wines promise to respond to all mails within 24 hours (Monday to Saturday). Response time of 24 hours is relatively fast in an industry where some stores can take more than 48 hours to respond to email submissions.

However, if you still want instant feedback, you may use the live chat or the telephone service. The live chat can be accessed from links on the website, while the telephone number to call is dependent on the country you are calling from. For UK customers, the number is 01603 281869; for US customers it is 1-800-673-4718; and for Australian customers, it is 1300 898 677. The instant feedback channels (telephone and live chat) are available between the hours of 9 am – 5:30 pm (Monday – Friday), and 9 am – 1 pm on Saturdays.

Is Naked Wines legit and safe?

Naked Wines is safe and also legitimate. When using an online platform, legitimacy is not always enough. A legit platform will not rip you off, but unless it is also safe, the sensitive information that you share with it will leak out to unauthorized third parties which will leave you exposed to other fraudsters out there. Thus, the ideal online store should also be safe in ensuring that users’ sensitive data is protected.

Naked Wines also ticks this box. It assures in its privacy policy that the company is committed to protecting users’ data. It uses employs different measures for the protection of data; one such is SSL encryption. Thus, users’ data (whether personal data or credit card details) is encrypted as it is being transmitted so that even if it is intercepted by hackers, the information cannot be read.

With the use of standardized encryption protocol and other measures, it is safe to say that Naked Wines is safe.

Complaints

Insignificant Price Difference

One of the selling points of Naked Wines is that members get wines at discounted (angels) prices that are significantly lower than the full price. However, you’ll find in many channels that this claim of Naked Wines is misleading. The complaint is not that the angel prices are not more favourable than the prices of comparable wines in the open market, but that they are not as favourable as Naked Wines claims.

For example, at the time of writing this review:

• the D.H. Elliot California BX 2017 was listed thus: Market Price – $10.92 and Angel Price – $9.99, which means that Angel’s saving was less than a dollar ($0.93), which is 8.5%
• the D.H. Elliot California Pinot Grigio 2018 was listed thus: Market Price – $11.49 and Angel Price $9.99, which means that Angel’s saving was only $1.50, which is about 13%

However, it should be said that, while the Angel’s saving is very small (almost insignificant) for some wines, for others it is very significant.

• The Michaud Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2018 was listed thus: Market Price – $19.23 and Angels Price $10.99, which gives an Angel’s savings of $8.24, which is over 42%
• The Ken Deis Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 was listed thus: Market Price $56.66 and Angel Price $22.99, which gives an Angel savings of $33.67, which is over 59%

Also, when buying in cases, you’ll easily see that the price difference is very significant. At the time of writing, we checked the first 30 listed cases; and the Angel’s Price was better off than the Market Price with cost savings that ranged from 28.38% to 56.11%. You can easily save over $100 on most cases with the Angel Price.

Obscure names

Another complaint you’ll find that is pitched at Naked Wines is that it sells obscure wines. Not necessarily cheap or poor quality wines, but lesser-known or totally unknown wines. The company itself says that it sells exclusive wines, warning that you will not “recognize the labels”.

So if you are for popular brands, you’ll not find joy shopping in Naked Wines. Some of the classics that are available in the market, you won’t find in Naked Wines. In the same vein, the wines you’ll find in Naked Wines are exclusive to it; you won’t find them anywhere else.

However, it’s been noted that “unknown names” does not equal poor quality. In fact, most often than not, you’ll find the wines to be of very fine (or even better) quality.

Misleading Claims

Another complaint you’ll find thrown at Naked Wines is that it uses a slew of misleading statements to promote the brand. For example, some have pointed out that Naked Wines claim of supporting “struggling” winemakers is not always true. That is, the complaint is that not all the winemakers of Naked Wines were actually struggling and needed a boost.

While it is true that “struggling” does not describe some of the Naked winemakers, it cannot be disputed that many of the winemakers of Naked Wines would not have gotten their wine projects off the ground without the help of the company.

Another thing that people point to is the loaded rhetoric of Naked Wines, many of which bother on misleading. Some of these statements were made to assure customers that the quality of wine in Naked Wines is topnotch, these include statements like: “winemakers know their grapes have been sol upfront, so they harvest at full ripeness”, and “winemakers know that their wine is sold upfront, so they spend their time in their cellar making the wine delicious, rather than on the road trying to sell it”. However, those in the know easily scuff at a statement like those.

However, while the rhetoric is a bit heavy, the point is that Naked Wines does have quality wines. Not just because grapes were plucked at full ripeness, or because winemakers spend more time on quality than for sales and marketing; but because the winemakers know their stuff. The Naked Wines community is the market of these winemakers; the wines are rated by customers, and these ratings drive many future sales. So the winemakers have every reason to make the “killer” wine.

Pros

• Get wines at discounted prices
• A wide range of wines are provided
• Good quality wines are provided
• Independent winemakers are funded with members’ contributions
• Promotes interaction with winemakers
• There are customer ratings and wine suggestions to help in selecting a wine
• There is a money-back guarantee (in case you do not like a wine)
• Discount vouchers are regularly made available
• Delivery is relatively fast
• Shipping cost is relatively on the low
• A wide range of options is supported for getting help (email, telephone, and live chat) and response time is relatively fast

Cons

• Have to make monthly contributions
• Popular wines will not be found on the site

Summary

Naked Wines is legitimate, and also a popular UK wine company with a unique approach to selling wines. As a customer, you’ll have to make monthly payments into your Naked Wines account. The money is used by the company to fund independent winemakers; who are then able to make great wines.

The benefit to you is that you get these wines at low prices; significantly lower than what non-members will have to pay. Also, your Naked Wines account is like a savings account; the money in it remains yours to be used to buy wines from the company at any time.

This means that Naked Wines gives good prices for good quality wines. The business approach of the company eliminates the middlemen (like wholesalers and supermarkets) and the markups of these guys, which means that unnecessary costs are not passed on to the customers.

Also, the winemakers who were funded with your contributions know that they owe you a debt, so there’ll be no corporate business rip-off. The one bump is that Naked Wines sell only wines from their select group of winemakers, so popular titles (labels) in the market cannot be found on the website.

However, it is not the innovative business model that does it for Naked Wines. Customers will not go back if the wines are anything but great. Thankfully, Naked Wines lives up to its promise of providing great wines. You’ll find a customers’ rating on every wine to help you with your selection when buying.