wine.com comes to Connecticut

One way to sidestep the state based shipping requirements of wine is to have many, say about 51, locations. San Francisco-based wine.com has taken that kind of step by purchasing East Hampton, Conn.-based wine retailer Chatham Spirits & Fine Wines. Wine.com noted that since wine cannot legally be shipped into Connecticut by out-of-state retailers, the move enables it to ship to its online customers in that state from its new in-state retail and warehouse location. The deal gives wine.com access to the 17th largest state for wine consumption, according to the 2007 Adams Wine Handbook. In all, the company said it ships to 25 states and the District of Columbia, which cumulatively account for 75 percent of U.S. wine consumption. wine.com has been ranked the number 1 online wine seller by the Internet Retailer Magazine for the past three years. Now if they could just gain access to the other 25 states, either through acquisition, licensing agreements or by permit, wine.com could push it's rankings on the food and drug list [13th] and all Internet retailers [199th].