Wine merchant Italy: What’s the easiest way to purchase wines from Italy?

Italy is globally renowned for its excellent wines and top-quality wine-growing regions. For a wine importer, adding Italian wines to the selection offers a lucrative business opportunity.

But what’s the best way to source wines from Italy? We’ll guide you through the advantages and disadvantages of various options, helping you find the best solution for your business.

Content:

Wine merchant Italy: your purchasing options
Wine importer Italy: Understanding how to work with a wine agency
- Finding the right wineries
- The customer perspective for you as a wine merchant
Conclusion
FAQ on wine merchants Italy

Wine merchant Italy: your purchasing options

As a wine business specializing in Italian wines, you have three main options to source wines from Italy:

Find an importer (wholesaler) in your country
Import directly from Italian wineries
Purchase Italian wines through a wine agency

If you would like to learn more about importing Italian wines in general and how we can assist you, read our blog article: Wine import from Italy.

Let’s take a closer look at the three options.

1. Purchasing through an importer

The simplest option for you as a wine seller is to find an importer in your country. These are companies specialized in the import business and often operate as wholesalers.

The key advantages of this option include:

Convenience: Purchasing through an established importer is straightforward. The process is similar to a domestic wholesale purchase, and you can even buy in smaller quantities.
Available selection: Importers often have a broad portfolio of Italian wines to choose from. This allows the wine merchant to select the wines that best fit their market and customer base.
Lower Risk: Importers have established relationships with wineries, helping to mitigate potential risks such as quality issues or delivery delays.

However, there are also some disadvantages to this option.

Price markup: The prices when purchasing through a wholesaler are generally much higher than direct imports. This can reduce profit margins and increase prices for end consumers.
Limited selection: The wine merchant has less influence over the selection of wineries and the specific wines that are imported.
Less exclusivity: Importers often cater to the mass market. If you want to offer your customers something truly unique, this option may not be the best choice.

2. Direct sourcing from wineries in Italy

Another option for you as a merchant is to directly purchase from wine dealers or wineries in Italy.

Advantages:

Pricing: With direct import, the wine merchant can negotiate better terms, thereby increasing the margin. And the markup from intermediaries is eliminated.
Direct relationship: The wine importer can establish a direct relationship with the winery, which can be beneficial in the long term.
Wider selection: Direct sourcing allows the wine merchant to choose wines more selectively and import those that fit well to the product range.

Disadvantages:

Time investment: The merchant must first find the right wineries and assess the quality of the wines. A visit to the wineries in person is normally necessary.
Administrative effort: Direct sourcing requires a thorough understanding of import and customs regulations, as well as logistics, which can be time-consuming and complex. The wine importer must handle customs procedures, shipping, and logistics, which requires significant time, patience, and experience.
Risks: With direct import, the wine seller bears all the risks. There are many potential risks, such as quality issues, delivery delays, and communication problems with the winery.
Logistics: Logistical difficulties may arise, particularly when sourcing wines from different regions of Italy.
Quantities: Wineries often have minimum order quantities, which means you need to buy in larger volumes to make direct sourcing cost-effective. Smaller orders lead to higher shipping cost per bottle.

3. Purchasing through a wine agency with direct import prices

The third option combines the advantages of direct import with the convenience of buying from an importer.

Advantages:

Contact coordination: A wine agency connects the wine merchant with suitable wineries in Italy, simplifying the sourcing process. At the same time, you can establish personal contacts with the wineries, ensuring you know what you’re offering to your customers.
Direct import prices: Wine agencies can offer wines at direct import prices, providing cost savings.
Quality assurance: At Vianello Wines, we only offer wines with verified quality reducing your risk.
Support services: Depending on the agency, wine merchants can benefit from services like transport and customs processing without the need to manage every detail – a significant advantage at Vianello Wines, as we provide a wide range of services.
Consulting: Through the wine agency, you receive tailored advice to help you choose products that truly suit you and your target customers.
Volume benefit: Although full pallets are usually more cost-effective for shipping, Vianello Wines often allows you to order mixed pallets of our product range.

Disadvantages:

The product selection is limited to the agency’s offer. The range of wines may be more restricted compared to other options, as you, as a wine merchant, are dependent on what the agency provides.

However, at Vianello Wines, we offer a very broad selection of products to suit every taste. And if you’re looking for something specific, we’ll make sure to find that for you as well.

Wine Importer Italy: Understanding how to work with a wine agency

To give you a better understanding of how working with a wine agency differs from other options, we would like to explain the process in more detail. The general steps are outlined under our Services: Order Process Step by Step.

Here, we will share more about what happens behind the scenes.

Finding the right wineries

We invest a lot of time in finding the right wineries for our customers. We attend trade fairs like Vinitaly and Bologna Slow Wine, and also use our direct contacts in Italy.

When we discover an interesting winery, we thoroughly test the quality. We focus not only on the consistent quality of the products but also on reliability and precise delivery and co-operation.

We only proceed with contract negotiations with the wineries once we are completely satisfied. In fact, with most of our partners, we have exclusive contracts, meaning you can source the products of these wineries only through Vianello Wines.

From the initial contact to signing a contract with a winery, it often takes several months. We then add their products to our assortment, ensure that detailed product descriptions and marketing materials are available, and facilitate the import process for you.

The customer perspective for you as a wine merchant

When you call us as a customer, we give you comprehensive guidance to select which wines from which wineries best suit you and your customers.

We invest considerable time in this process and constantly strive to enhance our services.

We provide you with all the necessary information and marketing materials, ensuring that not only you as a specialist retailer but also your customers – from end-consumers to restaurants, food service businesses, catering or event companies – are fully satisfied.

Conclusion

Selecting the best import option depends on several factors, such as the size of your wine assortment, your available budget, time resources, and your willingness to deal with the complexities of the import process.

Purchasing through an importer offers convenience and minimizes risks but comes with additional markups. Direct import provides greater control and potential cost savings but requires significant efforts and knowledge.

By importing through a wine agency like Vianello Wines, you combine the price benefits of direct import with the convenience of purchasing through a large importer, while enjoying the luxury of personalized support and advice.

If you’re interested in importing Italian wines and want to experience the services of Vianello Wines, contact us:

Arrange a call now!

FAQ for wine merchants Italy

Why do I need a wine agency?
Through a wine agency like Vianello Wines, you, as a wine merchant, can conveniently purchase Italian wines at direct import prices and receive maximum support for managing the import process.

How does the collaboration work?
Following a detailed consultation, we will provide you with wine samples to try. Once you’ve decided which Italian wines and spirits you would like to purchase, we at Vianello Wines will process your order and work together with the wineries to complete the transaction.

Which tasks does Vianello Wines manage?

Vianello Wines takes care of the contact with the wineries, suggests suitable logistics providers, gives advice on all customs formalities, and, of course, helps you optimize the selection of your order.