Subscription-based businesses send out boxes of goods – anything from beauty products and pet food, to books and wine – to paying subscribers, on a regular, often monthly, basis.
In 2007, Mr. Sannino created a "vine to wine" program that allows subscribers to participate in every step of the winemaking process at Bella Vita.
Once Beyond Wine and Cheese topped 1,000 subscribers, it became impractical to keep doing billing in QuickBooks, says chief executive Jay Albright.
Then again, for a campaign with deep pockets and a creative statistician, the bazaar of personal information presents an almost infinite range of possibilities -- lists of magazine subscribers, investors, fine-wine lovers, world travelers, pet owners, you name it.
In a statement posted on his Web site, Mr. Parker described the new investors as, "three 30-, early 40ish, highly qualified business and technology people and enthusiastic wine lovers as well as longtime subscribers".
In April 2015, Majestic bought Naked Wines, an online retailer that lets subscribers fund independent winemakers in exchange for purchases of exclusive bottles at preferential prices.
Subscribers may have access to wines that are not available to the general public.
At the Lenz Winery, in Peconic, subscriber-only wines include its blue-chip 2008 Old Vines chardonnay ($25), 2007 Old Vines cabernet sauvignon ($40) and 2002 Old Vines merlot ($55).
Subscribers can turn around and purchase wines they've found they like through the Vinebox app.
But two weeks ago, Journal subscribers began receiving brochures for WSJwine — essentially, a mail-order wine club run by Direct Wines, a major wine-by-mail company.
