Multilevel marketing welcomes wine

USA: Modeled after the Tupperware home marketing concept, The Traveling Vineyard, an in-home wine marketing and tasting division of Geerlings & Wade, relies on a network of about 1,500 independent consultants who conduct 90 minute in-home wine tastings. The wines are sold exclusively through Geerlings & Wade, a direct wine marketer. The company operates in 25 states and said it reached 150,000 potential customers through 20,000 tastings in 2005. The Traveling Vineyard division brought in almost 50 percent of Geerlings & Wade's total 2005 sales, according to Gordon Romer, Geerlings & Wade's CEO.