Vinomofo taking top Kiwi wines to the world

Vinomofo founders Andre Eikmeier, left, and Justin Dry. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand wine being sold by Australian web wine retailer Vinomofo will be of the "premium" and "boutique" variety, according to the site's co-founder Justin Dry.

Dry is in Auckland today ahead of the web retailer's launch in New Zealand and is building his network of New Zealand winemakers, particularly looking at VInomofo's target "premium to super premium" wines.

Dry and his co-founder Andre Eikmeier had been "living and breathing" the wine industry before Vinomofo began five years ago.

Vinomofo began in a garage five years ago and last year was named the best online retailer at Australian industry awards. It's now growing to include a New Zealand market for its curated wine sales.

The duo created a wine blog similar to a social network for wine enthusiasts that was doing well, but Dry saw an opportunity when the Groupon website was launched in the United States.

"I could see this daily-deals, group-buying thing coming from the States and what we had was a network of amazing contacts in the wine space, a great young audience... no one had done it yet in the wine space."

"We've dealt with a lot of winemakers over here and we seem to trade a lot of winemakers [between Australia and New Zealand]," Dry said.

Vinomofo is the leading buyer for very high-end wines in Australia, Dry said, and he isn't too concerned about New Zealand wineries resisting the daily-deals format.

"We have buying power over anyone. Wineries love us because it's huge volume sold very quickly and they get in front of a large audience."

Buying trips throughout New Zealand will focus on serving its Australian market as Vinomofo grows in New Zealand and expands to Singapore and the United States, Dry said.

"When we're coming to the New Zealand wineries, we're saying we don't just want enough wine to service this market we want enough to service [global markets], which means we're taking kiwi wine to the world."

The company serves more than 400,000 customers with turnover approaching A$50 million a year.

The site is hosting a pop-up sale for Kiwi customers on August 9 and will be rolling out the full experience towards the end of the year.

New Zealand wine sales are pushing $2 billion a year with the wine industry doubling its earnings in the past decade. The sector has had average annual growth of 8.4 per cent in the past 10 years, boosted mainly by its renowned suavignon blanc.