Out with the Old and in with the New: The Story Behind Vin Social

It Started with an Idea

When our founder, Sara Moll, started Vin Social in 2013, the mission was to completely rethink and modernize the way consumers learn about and discover wine. Long before Vin Social, Sara was a Creative Director in the fashion industry, which proved handy when creating a brand and designing high-touch experiences. A premeditated pivot into wine led her to “somm school” at the International Culinary Center where she earned her Certified Sommelier credential with the Court of Master Sommeliers. She didn’t just want to understand how and where wine is made, but she wanted to truly understand the stories and motivations of the passionate people behind the bottles.

Sara wanted to build something that would make a positive impact and ultimately democratize the wine conversation by making it more inclusive and accessible — less formal and stuffy. Her vision was to humanize the wine experience by creating a platform for passionate artisans and curious consumers to connect and engage in new and authentic ways. Now Vin Social is a fast-growing, woman-owned business that is disrupting the wine industry by helping small, independent wineries and driving awareness of and access to sustainably-crafted products. We’re able to do this by:

• Connecting small-batch independent wineries to a much broader audience of customers
• Supporting only wineries that are independently owned, small scale, and sustainability-focused.
• Creating efficiencies for small wine businesses that make them more profitable.

Why We’re Different

We’re not just selling wine. We’re building a community of wine lovers, winemakers, and wine experts and creating opportunities for connection among the community via educational virtual events, thoughtful content, and a curated shopping experience. Ultimately, success for Vin Social means being the trusted source for the world’s best small-production, sustainably crafted bottles and the stories behind them. Gone are the days when great wine is only available to those living in the culinary hotbeds of NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco, or to those who can afford to travel and visit the wineries in person. With a curated online marketplace, we help boutique wineries and retailers expand their reach nationally, tell their stories authentically, and in turn, make these great wines available to all.

Wine

We are also on a mission to create a better way for businesses to engage and entertain their most valuable relationships, whether current clients, prospective clients or even their own teams. We have discovered wine to be a new version of customer relationship management (CRM). Wine is a topic of great interest to many professionals because it’s valuable knowledge, a sophisticated conversation, and seen as an investment in being “cultured”. Wine provides both intellectual and physiological stimulation and has many connotations around breaking bread together, and that is a kind gesture to offer someone. Great wine is an excellent vehicle for harnessing non-transactional relationships and earning time together over a shared experience.

Like many other industries, we’ve adapted to the new realities of the pandemic. We’re no longer restricted to attending a physical event to join in on the fun. We’ve moved all of our events to a virtual platform, eliminating the need to travel, following social distancing guidelines, and allowing you to enjoy your wine and the experience from the comfort of your own home. The shift into virtual events has accelerated our mission of widespread accessibility and connectivity with fewer geographical restrictions or barriers. We are reinventing what “social” looks like in the virtual world when connection and community are more important than ever. We are proudly building the wine experience of the future.