After encountering a great wine in a restaurant or at a friend’s house, instead of vowing to remember the name and vintage, Dutch consumers can now dash off a text to BuyYourWine.com. The online wine seller will then get back to them with a price and delivery details.In the US, WineZap offers a similar service. If someone emails or texts them the vintage and wine name, WineZap will email or text them the current low, high and average prices for that wine. If a user adds their zipcode, WineZap includes a list of the nearest retailers that stock the wine, as well as their prices.

Both companies are currently offering the service at no charge. Another example of catering to people’s insatiable desire for relevant information, when and where they want it. Wine-by-text is a great little add-on both for merchants like BuyYourWine, and for intermediaries like WineZap, and it could of course be expanded with such obvious options as letting customers send in cameraphone pictures of wine labels or barcodes.

Websites: www.buyyourwine.com / www.winezap.com