Read about wines and then buy them at new online magazine Grape Collective

Launching weeks after Punch, a new online magazine devoted to drinks culture, comes an online magazine devoted to wine. Grape Collective is the project of Christopher Barnes, former president of New York Observer Media Group.

“Most of the more thoughtful serious writing online from wine magazines such as Wine Spectator, Decanter or Wine Enthusiast is behind a paywall,” he told me in a phone conversation. His idea for Grape Collective is to produce a quality wine magazine with a slightly broader viewpoint than that of those devoted to wine geeks and professionals.

To support the magazine, his solution is to sell wines from the site. So you can read about a wine and then, with the click of a button, arrange to have it delivered to your door.

A story on the whites of Campania, Italy, in the premiere issue that debuted last week includes a gallery of wines with a brief description of each wine, scores from Wine Spectator or other critics and, most important, a button to click to buy, say, Benito Ferrara Greco di Tufo 2011, a wine I’ve always loved. I do it, and the wine is added to my cart at $18.99. I fill out the form to get a shipping quote: Delivery charges range from $13 to $32, which seems steep for a single bottle. But case shipments are $37 to $97, a surcharge of only about $3 on each bottle, which sounds fair.

It’s also quick -- and highly convenient, leaving more time to read up on wine.

Despite the wine sales angle, Barnes emphasizes that Grape Collective is primarily a content site that will have commerce as its revenue component. The editor in chief is Nick Fauchauld, a former editor at Food & Wine, Wine Spectator and Tasting Table.

The lineup of contributors is impressive. Writers include Dorothy J. Gaiter, who co-wrote the Wall Street Journal’s wine column for a dozen years; Katherine Cole, author of “Voodoo Vintners: Oregon’s Astonishing Biodynamic Winemakers”; and Barbara Fairchild, former editor in chief of Bon Appetit.

Rather than passing out scores and publishing detailed tasting notes, Barnes plans to focus on storytelling. “I think the difference for us is that the magazine is about the winemaker and the stories, not about three people sitting behind a table and using the same 30 adjectives to describe an individual wine.”

Check out the story on Montalcino by Anthony Giglio, wine columnist for the Italian magazine La Cucina Italiana. It includes half a dozen video interviews with estate owners and/or winemakers. Video will be an important part of the package, Barnes says. “So far we’ve shot in Rioja, Chianti, Montalcino, Finger Lakes, Sonoma, Napa, Barossa and McLaren Vale in Australia.” He’s been doing a lot of the video himself. A nice way to get out of the office.

The magazine will also cover importer profiles and picks from sommeliers and critics. A value hunter column will, for example, point readers toward Vacqueras as an alternative to Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

In the current issue Monty Waldin contributes the article “The wild ones: The sweetest sting” about nettle tea used to control pests at biodynamic wineries in the Rhone Valley. And travel and restaurant correspondent Barbara Fairchild writes up a dinner that Wolfgang Puck and guest chef Daniel Boulud, in town on a book tour, cooked at the Hotel Bel-Air.

Articles coming up: a feature on a winery in Michigan that Dorothy J. Gaiter thinks makes some of the best Riesling in the country, an article on a winery housed in a former insane asylum, and a story on an Italian wine producer who plays Mozart to his vines.

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Twitter: @sirenevirbila