Traveling Vineyard has announced it is abandoning its MLM business model.

As per a December 18th press-release;

Traveling Vineyard today announced the launch of a revamped retail model that will operate through direct-to-consumer, wholesale and affiliate channels, moving away from its previous direct selling party plan model.

Product inventory is also being reduced, with Traveling Vineyard opting to “focus solely” on sweet wines.

While there is still an affiliate program for former Traveling Vineyard distributors to participate in, commissions are only paid out on sales to retail customers.

 “Our consultants have been integral to Traveling Vineyard’s story. Under the new model, consultants can continue working with their customers in a single-level affiliate role,” Libby said.

Traveling Vineyard first popped up on BehindMLM’s radar through the 2019 MLM “wine wars”.

At the time Direct Cellars had just collapsed. Corporate appeared to have struck a deal with Traveling Vineyard CEO Rick Libby (right), but specific details weren’t disclosed.

BehindMLM formally reviewed Traveling Vineyard a month later in November 2019. While we took issue with the company’s lack of transparency with respect to its compensation plan, we praised several retail oriented aspects of the business.

A visit to Traveling Vineyard’s website today reveals a simple Shopify storefront. There’s no information about the affiliate program, so I’m not sure how that’s being handled.

Traveling Vineyard’s official FaceBook page has also been recently deleted.

In the lead up to its MLM collapse, SimilarWeb tracked ~40,000 visits to Traveling Vineyard’s website in November 2023.

17% of that traffic came from the US, followed by 4% from Guatemala, and 3% from Turkey, Chile and Colombia.