New Vine Logistics suspends business operations

New Vine Logistics, a Napa wine shipping and fulfillment company that two years ago seemed poised to ship 20 percent of California’s direct to consumer market, is no longer receiving or processing orders.

The company’s voice mail on June 1 said “New Vine is no longer receiving or shipping orders for shipment from our facility,” and noted that it has “limited staff” to handle a transition.

A June 1 report on Wine Business.com said that company founder Katie Hoertkorn sent an email to clients over the weekend indicating that New Vine “has abruptly gone into a state of financial crisis and is currently working on the plan forward.”

Wine Business quoted industry sources as saying that New Vine -- which as recently as March 2007 had 63 staffers and plans to acquire a similar firm and nab up to 20 percent of the direct-to-consumer wine shipping market in the Golden State -- now has a skeleton crew that includes a handful of executives who are working to wind down operations.

In March 2007, Hoertkorn told the San Francisco Business Times that New Vine would ship about 4.2 million bottles that year for about 260 customers, and expected to ship wines worth about $200 million, the vast majority of them for California producers, along with small amounts for Oregon and Washington state wineries. At the time, New Vine’s annual revenue was approximately $10 million annually, officials said.

Customers at the time included Viansa Winery, J Winery, Cline Cellars, Clos du Val Wine Co., Fisher Vineyards and Araujo Estate Wines.

But times have changed. On June 1, a phone line for the company’s media contact person has been disconnected, according to a recording, and attempts to reach company officials for comment were unsuccessful. Financial backers include Menlo Park’s Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altos Ventures and Thomvest Ventures Inc.

New Vine has approximately 200 customers, said Wine Business, about half of them wineries and the other half marketing agents and others. It also had plans to partner with Amazon.com to launch a wine buying and shipping site, plans that now appear to be kaput.

Wine Business reported that consultant Roy Kim, brought in recently to turn things around, “is said to have left the company.”