Cru Wine Online is LIVE!

Cru Wine Online makes wine accessible by bringing tastings and fun-forward multimedia education home via the Internet

St. Cloud, Minn., June 9/PRNewswire/ -- How do you revolutionize the timeless tradition of wine tasting? Pair a charismatic cork dork with a media-savvy computer geek.

That’s what St. Cloud, Minn.-based Cru Wine Online has done to create a multimedia experience that takes Web-based wine education to a new level with high-end production and a fun-forward approach. The site,http://cruwineonline.com started taking memberships June 9 and lets enthusiasts learn about wine through live tastings, video segments, audio specials and more.

“This is literally revolutionizing the wine industry because we’re making wine accessible by bringing it home,” says Nick Barth, the certified sommelier who hosts the tastings and audio and video segments.

For $7.99 a month, members can access a collection of features that are heavy on information with a generous splash of humor.

“We see entertainment as the focal point and wine as the medium,” Barth says. “We want people to have a good time, and if they learn something along the way, great.”

The main event is the weekly Cru LIVE Tasting hosted via the Web by Barth and designed for hands-on learners of all levels.

Another key attraction is Cru Wine TV, with two sizes of video: weekly two-minute Splits; and monthly Magnums, half-hour shows that explore grapes, regions, and food and wine pairings ($3.99 for members, $9.99 for nonmembers).

Members also can tune into Cru Wine Radio’s weekly episode focused on a particular region.

Other features include a wine blog, newsletter, “Nick’s Value Pick of the Week,” MyCru online cellar, Cru Wine Shop and Cru wIneQ trivia game.

Cru Wine Online is a division of Cru Wine Specialists, Inc., a company Nick Barth, the “cork dork,” formed in March 2009 with his brother, Andy Barth, a sales and marketing specialist. The “computer geek,” J.C. Turner, joined them this winter. Inspired by an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that featured a live tasting via Skype, Turner came up with the idea of online tastings and provided the IT and media expertise to make them happen.

In less than six months, Turner and the Barths have taken their idea to the global market and made their slogan, “Making Wine Accessible,” a reality.

Sign up for a 7 day FREE trial today!

Contact Information:

Nick Barth, Cru Wine Online wine director

(320) 309-6914, or e-mail, nick@cruwineonline.com

http://cruwineonline.com

We Are LIVE!

With the number of people I need to thank I feel like I need to give an Oscar speech. It has been a crazy last 3 months and an even crazier last three days. As you may know, the Cru Wine Online division of Cru Wine Specialists has received a lot of local attention over the past week.

It all started when we moved in to our new location in downtown St. Cloud last month. Ms. Downtown herself Pegg A.K. Gustafson came over to welcome us to the neighborhood. She asked what we were all about and if she could put our new location in her weekly email.

The email got in the hands of a KNSI reporter, Cassie Hart. She called and began asking questions about our new business venture. She then aired a news feature about Cru on KNSI 1450. Within 15 minutes of the KNSI interview being aired WJON called. They wanted to know more. From that we received a call from UTVS, to which they did a 2 minute feature on our new addition. Later that day the St. Cloud Times called and wanted to know what all the fuss is about.

This is all fine and dandy, I mean, don't get me wrong, I love publicity, but we were not exactly ready yet. The launch of our site was to be the first week of May, not April. However, after countless hours and hard work by our Chief IT Director J.C. Turner and his mad scientist web developer Mark Monn over the weekend we were able to get our public site up and running. I am not exaggerating when I say that J.C. has logged over 50 hours in the last 3 days. If there were an Olympics for Information Technology J.C. Turner would have won the gold.

You can check out our new and improved website at www.cruwineonline.com. While the full launch of our membership page will not be ready until May, we encourage you to check out the public site and pass it along to anyone you know who may be interested in having fun and learning about wine. The site is loaded with videos to explain exactly what our new adventure entails. In addition we have posted a sample of an online tasting as well as an example of a Cru radio podcast. I will keep you up to date with any changes, postings, or additions made.

This is the most excited and nervous I have ever been. Thank you again to everyone for your continued support, because without you, we would have to drink alone!