Episode 188: Behind the Bottles With WTSO’s Justin Kite
This week we are chatting with Wines ‘Til Sold Out (WTSO) Chief Operating Officer Justin Kite. Not only is WTSO a relationship-based retailer, they have educational aspects of their business. Full disclosure: they are this show’s sponsor, and we wanted to learn more about WTSO, Weekly Tasting, and how to navigate their offerings. Justin was kind enough to entertain our many (many) questions and preview the just-released Holiday Portal for us!
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Justin Kite, Chief Operating Officer, WTSO (0:48)
Justin’s been with WTSO and the founders of WTSO for well over 10 years.
He has an overwhelming amount of wine knowledge as he travels every year to maintain WTSO’s quality levels in sourcing.
Justin has scheduled WTSO’s wine offerings from the very beginning and has a strong understanding of what our members want and when.
He’s a passionate no frills wine lover and he’s able to cut through the fluff and create genuine and valuable wine relationships all over the world.
What is WTSO? (2:37)
Well, it’s not just a discount site. It is an online buying service that not only allows wine lovers to find new wines, but also helps wineries find new lovers of their products.
Inquiring podcasters wanted to know: how DO they offer some of these ridiculous discounts? Justin emphasizes that relationships play the biggest role in selecting wines for their site and varied client base.
So while Val was poking around on the website, mouth agape, in what can only be described as what it must have sounded like when cavemen women discovered fire, Justin shared examples of how wineries and customers mutually benefit from WTSO’s model. Needless to say, we learned a lot in the first 10 minutes of this interview.
Weekly Tasting (12:35)
In this segment we switch gears to talk about the Weekly Tasting model. Justin talks about the origins of the idea and how they integrated the educational aspects of the wine world, experts, videos, and tasting pack selections.
Sharing the love (16:20)
WTSO is involved in quite a bit of philanthropy work. While being in the alcohol business adds a layer of complexity to the donation process, they are still able to find ways to give back. An example is how they were able to donate sale proceeds to fire victims after last year’s wildfires in California.
Check out WTSO.com/community to see all the causes and get involved!
Ho ho holidays are coming (19:00)
To quote Justin, “Nothing’s better than alcohol” when it comes to gift giving. We have to agree because it can be shared, of course! The new Holiday Portal goes live this week and they have a generous selection of options (and celebratory wines), including corporate gifting.
It happened one afternoon (21:40)
The dump bucket. We’ll just leave it there, because it happens to all of us.
Contact with Justin: (23:46)
Connect with Justin directly at Justin@wtso.com, or contact customer service at wines@wtso.com.
Big Shoutouts! (25:43)
Big thanks to Justin and team at WTSO! – Julie, Athena, Vickie and Sarah!
Shoutout also the Bonacquisti Winery and Lee over at Sparkle Plenty for these recent posts. You guys were so important to the launch of the W25 LoCo Edition and are great friends of the podcast!
Pictures really are worth a thousand words.
#W25Challenge Update (25:55)
From @SideHustleWino
WTSO is our Podcast Sponsor, as you just heard 
We just heard from them (yay for the built in ad read!)
Our listeners have their very own listener page at: weeklytasting.com/W25 to sign up and get started!
Or just click on the WTSO logo on the top right of this web page.
Follow them on Instagram, FaceBook (where they recently gave us a lovely shoutout!) and Twitter and see what’s new and good!
Big Patreon Love (27:40)
Thank you to our patrons who support us on our Patreon crowdfunding platform!
*We do read all the names on the show, and feature the list on our Support page.*
Connect (28:51)
Between each weekly chat you can find us on the social spaces @WineTwoFive, and play in our private FaceBook group called Wine Two Five Community!
Connect with Val on Twitter @WineGalUnboxed and everywhere else as @VinoWithVal.
Steph is in all the social spaces as @TheWineHeroine.
Reminders
Remember to leave your Burning Wine Questions for next week’s episode.
- You can also find us on the My Wine Society App. There are also channels on travel, wellness, events, wineries and more.
