About us - ONWINE

The platform is a product of both love and frustration. Love for the local winegrower and wine with a story, and frustration due to the somewhat narrow-minded and conservative wine world.  

How ONWINE started

Background

Three years ago, we (Gijs and Casper) traveled to Piemonte, Northern Italy for a vacation. There, we visited Gijs's parents, enjoyed the beautiful weather, delicious food, and, of course, visited a local winemaker for a wine tasting. During that tasting, we discovered our favorite wine. It wasn’t just the ambiance that made the wine taste fantastic, it was mainly the explanation from the winemaker herself. With every word the winemaker spoke passionately about her wine and the traditions of the winery, the wine began to taste better and better to us. 
After returning from our vacation, we tried to recreate that experience by buying our favorite wine from this specific winemaker. It turned out that this wine was not available anywhere. No wine merchant, liquor store, or webshop sold this delicious wine. We reached out via email to the winemaker herself and asked if we could have her wines sent to the Netherlands by mail. 
Her answer was a clear 'No!'.  

Problem

Laws and regulations made it impossible for her to send wine directly to individuals across the border. The only way to get her wine in the Netherlands was if she partnered with an importer. However, she could not meet the large volume and low sales price that came with such a partnership, so it wasn't an option. Disappointed, we turned to other wines that were just slightly less tasty. Then the COVID crisis hit a year later.  
Northern Italy was the epicenter of the pandemic during the early waves, with disastrous consequences for small and medium-sized businesses, including winemakers. Aad and Esther (Gijs's parents) heard from friendly winemakers how difficult this period was for them and how there was little prospect of selling their wines; after all, there was no tourism, and all the local restaurants were closed.  That was also the case for our favorite winemaker, and that motivated us to work with Aad and Esther to find a solution. With backgrounds in hospitality, finance, and a healthy dose of entrepreneurship, we took on the challenge to make a difference for both the winemaker and the wine lover.  

    

Solution

The ONWINE platform enables a direct transaction between the wine lovers and the winemaker. This gives the winemaker access to entirely new international markets, and the wine enthusiast can now get wines delivered to their door that were previously unavailable. ONWINE takes care of all tax matters related to excise duties and taxes and arranges transport from winemaker to glass. 

In February 2021, we started with 15 friendly winemakers in Piemonte, and since then, we have grown into a versatile platform offering wines from numerous winemakers from all regions of Italy, who can now ship to wine lovers in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
Our goal is to continue this growth, connecting even more winemakers and wine lovers, and further shaking up the wine world!

Saluti!
- Casper and Gijs