According to many reports on Thursday, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) launched its own wines in partnership with Oregon’s King Estate Winery. However, the online retailer confirmed that it hasn’t entered into the wine business but only offers an online platform for the new wine brand launch.
Amazon isn’t selling its own wine in a deal with King Vintners, which launched a new brand for wine, called NEXT, in Eugene, Oregon.
King Estate Winery launched the brand on Amazonwine.com. In a press release announcing the brand, King Estate Winery said that “NEXT is the first wine ever developed from conception to release with Amazon Wine.” This sentence may be created a confusion.
Amazon told TechCrunch that it hasn’t launched its own wires and it doesn’t own NEXT wines. Also, the online retailer made it clear that it didn’t play any role in developing NEXT wines.
“Next is not owned nor developed by Amazon,” an Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch. “The wine is owned and developed by King Estate it and can be purchased on Amazon Wine. Amazon’s role is to give wineries, like King Estate, an innovative format to launch new brands and reach more customers,” the e-commerce giant said.
In an earlier statement, Nick Loeffler of Amazon Wine said:
“Amazon Wine provides a convenient destination for customers to shop a vast selection of high quality and every day wine brands. We’re thrilled to connect wineries, like King Estate, with millions of customers and give them an innovative format to launch new brands.”
Meanwhile, shares of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) were trading up 1.12% on Friday. The stock of the online retailing giant has been performing well this year, moving up nearly 30% year-to-date. During the last 12 months, the company’s share price has surged by more than 32%.
