This New App Is the Deliveroo For Fine Wine

We've all been there. You've got people round and suddenly it's 9 PM and the place has been drunk dry. Or you think you're being time-savvy by picking up a bottle en route to a party, only to discover all that's open is a dodgy offy with a choice of Jacob's Creek rosé or Archers peach schnapps.

But could the days of last-minute wine scrambles be over?

Drop is a new London-based wine delivery app from the founders of vino-centric shop and restaurant 10 Cases in Covent Garden. The app offers its users a choice of 150 wines, which it promises to deliver direct to customers' doorsteps at the touch of a button.

Sounds dangerous and genius in equal measure.

The service is currently only available for those living in London's Zones 1 and 2, but could ordering Pinot and Merlot at the tap of a screen really be the future? We spoke to Will Palmer who, along with Ian Campbell, co-founded 10 Cases and Drop to find out more.

MUNCHIES: Hi Will, so what's the premise of Drop? Will Palmer: It's an app to order wine between midday and midnight, seven days a week. There's no minimum order and you can get it delivered ASAP, which costs £3 or it's free if you can wait a few hours.

Why did you set up the app? We couldn't find anything else that gets you decent wine immediately at fair retail price. The only other apps that can get it to you are UberEats and Deliveroo, but the selection isn't great and because the wine is coming from somewhere else, the price is elevated quite significantly.

I think more people are interested in wine and more people are getting used to getting things delivered to them at the tap of a button. There aren't currently any well priced, good quality wine companies that do that.

Was it always the plans to develop from the 10 Cases shops and restaurant into an app? Not at all. We're still hoping to expand 10 Cases into other restaurants. The app came about when we were struggling to find another site as quickly as we wanted to. And there were definitely a couple of glasses of wine involved as well.

The idea also stemmed from a site that we were really keen on with a large basement area. We didn't want to send customers to eat down there so we thought we could use the space as storage for wine which we'd deliver.

We did a little trial at the start of the year as an e-commerce site delivering to a very small area. That gave us enough confidence that there were people interested in getting decent wine delivered from us and not their local corner shop.

What did you have in mind when you were designing the app? We wanted to keep it simple and not have lots of lengthy lists of wines and descriptions. We didn't want the pages too busy but at the same time, have a fun search criteria which you can play with as much or as little as you like.

If you want to go straight to a wine, you can type it in as a keyword and all your Chablis will come up. We also wanted people who might not be interested in wines to play around and enjoy the descriptions but not to feel overwhelmed about whether it's peppery or acidic.

Is part of the aim to demystify wine? "Demystify" was the word we used a lot when we were developing the app. It can be daunting for some people going into a shop and not knowing what you want. Wines are also at a price range for those who might just want to spend around £7 to save them carrying a bottle home or going out on a bitterly cold afternoon.

I imagine it could be easy to get carried away buying wine through an app … especially if you're already a couple of glasses down. Well, I hope so from our point of view!

How did you go about choosing wines for the app? Some are wines we have at 10 Cases but it's mainly about getting the price point right. They're all around the £8 and £15 mark which is slightly lower than the majority of the ones in our restaurant or shop. The selection will be changing regularly.

How does food come into it? You can only buy food after you've purchased a bottle of wine as an add-on. At the moment, we have a slim selection—some saucisson, cheese, smoked salmon, chocolate, and baguettes. They're already things that are popular in our restaurant and easy to transport. Before going too wild and extravagant, they seem like a good base to go with wine as little extras.

Next week, we'll be adding the option to have ice. We might have beers as add-ons. Not necessarily your Stella Artois but something more interesting. Who knows after that? Salt beef sandwiches for 3 o'clock in the morning? We'll see.

At the same time, wine is still our main thing.

Drop has only been going a week but have you noticed any trends across post codes? East London had an initial hit and they were the early adopters. The majority are still heading out that way as well as the City during the week. Fitzrovia in West London has picked up in the last couple of days. Part of how that works is the referral scheme on the app, so if you refer someone else who buys a bottle of wine, you'll get some credit to your account.

The types of wines ordered is pretty varied. I'd be lying if East London was Pinot and North London is Chardonnay. There's a real mix. I'll be monitoring daily to see if there are any trends. Maybe we'll set up a shop selling just Burgundy in W1.

Watch this space. Thanks for talking with me, Will.