Lucas & Lewellen Sets One-Day Record For Single-Label Internet Wine Sales

Over 11,000 Bottles Of Wine in 30 Hours -- Approx. One Bottle Every Ten Seconds

BUELTON, Calif., Oct 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- In what is believed to be an e-commerce record, Santa Barbara County, California winery Lucas & Lewellen sold a stunning 1,935 six-packs of wine in just 30 hours through the marketing portal wine.woot.com.

The wine, Woot Cellars "TAAthstejnn the Red" 2005 Sangiovese, went on sale at midnight Central time on the morning of Monday, September 29. By Tuesday morning, all 11,610 bottles were sold.

"It could have been a much higher number, and we still would've sold out," says Michael Hartmann, Director of Sales & Marketing Lucas & Lewellen. "Wine.Woot is a true phenomenon. I've never seen anything like it before."

This was not the first time that Lucas & Lewellen and Wine.Woot have had success working together. "We've placed two prior deals with Wine.Woot with some great results," says Hartmann. "So we were very happy to work with Woot on an even deeper level."

That "deeper level" was L&L's collaboration with Woot to develop TAAthstejnn the Red, this year's highly anticipated Woot Cellars offering. In a departure from Wine.Woot's usual approach of offering deals from known labels, the Woot Cellars program works with a different winery every year to introduce new blends under the whimsical Woot Cellars label. TAAthstejnn the Red is the fifth such Woot Cellars offering, featuring a humorous label illustration of a Viking (TAAthstejnn himself) wielding a giant corkscrew like a sword.

Although the marketing style is light-hearted, the winemaking approach is not. Lucas & Lewellen and Wine.Woot carefully choose and develop blends that have historically out-performed wines at higher price points.

"The Wine.Woot community has very high expectations," says David Studdert, Managing Director of Wine.Woot. "We have our work cut out for us every time we undertake this endeavor. The unprecedented momentum we have established can stop on a dime if the quality-to-price ratio isn't there with these wines."

"To say we're pleased with Lucas & Lewellen's work on this year's Woot Cellars campaign would be an understatement," Studdert says. "This is some quality juice for the money -- and our audience responded."