Secret to selling wine on the internet? Just make it yourself!

The challenge lies in making something better than rotten-berry swill

In 2012, a startup named Club W set out to help millennials find and buy decent wine on the internet. With bottles from a few boutique vintners, a slick web platform and a simple recommendation algorithm, the Los Angeles-based company had a propitious plan.

It didn’t work quite as hoped. So when the company’s founders tried again, they decided to get their hands dirty.

If there was ever a product in need of what Silicon Valley calls a discovery engine, it’s wine. Consider the numbers: About 25,000 different wines are for sale right now, says Nielsen, with 14 per cent of them