What do you do when you want to keep the good times rolling, but can't find the wine that's been on your your mind? Luke Campbell says the answer is simple – you text Vinni, the nifty new subscription text service that tracks down that sublime chardonnay or palate-pleasing pinot that you just can’t find on the shelves.
It’s not an app, and there’s no longer need to spend hours scouring the internet or ringing around – just text Vinni and he’ll do the hard work for you. Founder Campbell says you should think of him as “your back pocket sommelier”.
The idea is simple: come across a wine you like and snap a photo of its front and back labels and text them to Vinni, the cheeky, unpretentious and extremely knowledgeable character at the other end of the mobile number you’ll receive when you sign up for a month-by-month, or annual, subscription. Then, he'll track it down, name the price and ship it to you free of charge, six or 12 bottles at a time. If he can’t find it, he’ll be happy to recommend some alternatives that might “broaden your horizons”, says Campbell.
“He’s got a real personality of his own. And he’s an effective little guy,” Campbell says of the amalgam of nearly a century’s worth of wine knowledge that is Vinni. Vinni, of course, isn’t a real-life individual (though the interactions will make it feel like he is). Rather, the person responding to you will be one of the five experienced sommeliers, including Campbell, charged with managing the text line.
“Whether it’s a birth-year Rioja, and we’ve sourced a few of those, [or] a 2018 Fighting Gully Road, Smiths Vineyard chardonnay from Beechworth, one of our guys will dig it up for you.”
Campbell says the wines are sourced worldwide, from tiny cellars to well-known vineyards. The furthest afield was a cult Georgian creation, the elusive 2016 Pheasant’s Tears “Kisi” from Kakheti, a wine that Campbell says took about a week to find. He says the Vinni team searched “high and low”, trawling wine stores and private cellars here and abroad before finally tracking it down in a private collection in Hong Kong. Six bottles of the rare amphora wine “that seriously tastes like gingerbread” swiftly made their way to the customer in Melbourne.
Putting wine-lovers in touch with their wish lists is something Campbell thrives on. Broadsheet first met the veteran vinophile in the context of his role as cellar manager of Melbourne’s Pearl, an intimate and highly specialised oyster bar tucked away on Bourke Street that pairs rare chablis with swish seafood offerings, where he curates one of the world’s largest chablis wine lists.
Born and raised in the Hunter Valley, Campbell has been immersed in wine culture for decades and trained at the prestigious Wine and Spirit Education Trust in London. His love of wine is infectious, and thanks to his gig at Pearl, hosting his own wine podcast with comedian Luke Morris (Lukes Talk Wine) and Vinified, the private cellar management service he’s been operating for over a decade, he is constantly getting texts from friends in search of fabled drops. “Someone is always searching for something,” he says. His response to those queries is now simply, “Text Vinni.”
Since its launch in January this year, Vinni has been chatting with the wine-curious in Melbourne and Sydney, but Campbell says the service plans to expand across the country and even internationally in the future.
Campbell is loving the “casual, cheeky” interactions with clients and gets a kick out of seeing the diverse locations photos are sent from, from beaches to swanky bars and private cellars.
And it isn’t just “wine people” that are hitting Vinni up. Campbell says many of Vinni’s subscribers are in touch because they’re relatively new to the wine world – and that’s fine by him. The service is proudly unstuffy and welcomes everyone from seasoned connoisseurs to weekend warriors. Regardless of wine knowledge, Campbell says: “They’re all wine enthusiasts chasing the wine they’re loving right now, and their tastes change quickly, they’re very adventurous.”
In the same way that people are travelling closer to home, Campbell says they’re drinking closer to home too – and one of the only wines to stump Vinni was a rare and highly sought-after 2020 Timo Mayer “Dr. Mayer” Pinot Noir from Yarra Valley. “It was just nowhere to be found.” When that search runs dry, Campbell says Vinni will always suggest “something in the wheelhouse instead”.
That elusive pinot noir was an exception, though. Campbell says that Vinni has connections far and wide and is able to source bottles your average sipper simply wouldn’t have access to. “It’s not commercial stuff, it’s usually something [subscribers] have tasted on an exclusive wine list, and our guys will have that background knowledge to know where to track it down.”
