Wine domain names shoot up in value

Wine web domains - the unique web addresses used to identify individual websites – have surged in value in recent months according to experts.

Website winedomains.com reports that since December 2005, web domains such as cabernetsauvignon.com, redwines.com, and organicwine.com have sold for five-figure sums. WineList.com sold for US$21,255.

Chris Campbell, who monitors trends for winedomains.com, attributes the surge to the recent relaxation of wine shipping laws in the United States Supreme Court. This gives wine retailers, for the most part, unobstructed access to wine consumers nationwide.

‘As more states open their doors with this Supreme Court ruling, more wineries and wine retailers will migrate to the internet to do business. From what I have experienced since 1999, wine domain prices have only recently started an aggressive move upwards,’ Campbell told decanter.com.

Citing a shortage of quality wine domains and the expansion of the wine industry worldwide, Campbell said he ‘can only see prices moving up.’ However he also believes that ‘there is currently a short window of opportunity to buy quality generic wine domains from the aftermarket affordably and the wine industry should take advantage of it before they are priced out of the market.’

The most expensive wine web domain ever is wine.com, which sold for a reported US$2.9m in 1999.

But for those with rather shallower pockets, winedomains lists many catchy names that are still up for grabs for modest sums. xxxwine.com, for example, is going for US$499, as is wineworker.com and winerysale.com.

Further up the list comes winewanted.com, winescores.com and winetote.com at US$2,999. And still higher such unforgettable monickers as wineshipper.com (US$5,999) and winetips.com. The last? A cool US$9,999.

www.winedomains.com

Written by Emmet Cole