Imagine a wine-shopping experience in which anyone, whether seasoned oenophile or first-time taster, can shop for wine by taste. No pressure to understand the different wines. No ratings gurus to dismiss what they think are pedestrian choices. Just pleasure in the search itself. That's what CoolVines is all about: making sure that people enjoy the process of finding great wine at a great value. Sound simple? Try simply innovative. Not only does CoolVines hand-select its wines according to both true taste and value, but it also offers its customers a variety of online tools for remembering their favorite wines and creating an online journal that records each wine they buy, as well as "theme pack" choices for the novice shopper.

Why Soapbxx
The people behind CoolVines had a clear idea of how they wanted the website to function and feel. So when the time came to put their vision into action, they tapped Soapbxx to design and develop an e-commerce wine store and community platform with the latest Web 2.0 functionality, while ensuring that usability, content management and ease of maintenance didn't get lost in the snap and flash. Developed on a Ruby on Rails platform, the new website includes numerous features, such as:

• the ability to reorder based on past purchases;
• a journaling platform on which customers can save, review and share wines they do and don't like;
• the ability to view others' ratings and personal journals;
• the unique Theme Packs, for those who don't know a great deal about wine, offer choice of theme, price point and quantity - and CoolVines fills the shopping cart with the best values in that particular theme;
• and an online Flash tutorial for new site visitors.