New UK wine merchant up for two industry awards.

Online wine retailer Naked Wines , which supports and funds independent winemakers from around the world, has been shortlisted for two Drinks Retailing awards: Innovator of the Year and Online Wine Retailer of the Year.

The awards, organised by trade publication Off Licence News, were set-up 15 years ago to recognise the leading lights and the most outstanding retailers in the take-home drinks market.

Founded by former Virgin Money and Virgin Wines CEO Rowan Gormley, Naked Wines was recently named the UK’s Startups Business of the Year for its phenomenal growth both in sales and registered customers.

Rowan Gormley explains:

“When we launched, we knew we would only survive if we could deliver genuinely better wines for genuinely less money than our competitors and the only way to do that was to come up with a game changing model.

“In just over 2 years, we have over 100,000 customers investing £1m a month, for us to support independent winemakers. We have helped 22 winemakers establish their business by investing in the wines before theyve been made and between them, they’ve created 85 excusive new wines and won 37 international wine medals.

“The only reason that these 100,000 people trust us with their money and our 22 winemakers trust us with their wines, is that we are naked. Customers pick the wines and decide on the prices, and our winemakers can focus on what they do best as sales are guaranteed.”

Judged by a panel of top industry representatives and journalists, last year’s Drinks Retailing winners include Majestic, Waitrose, Sainsburys and Tesco.

To find out more about Naked Wines, whose latest innovation invites UK wine drinkers to buy their wines on the vine, visit www.nakedwines.com

Winners to be announced in February 2011.