From the article: > We always knew that people bought this wine for fun. > The buying process, and talking to others about the wine, > turns out to be p

From the article: > We always knew that people bought this wine for fun. > The buying process, and talking to others about the wine, > turns out to be part of that fun. So yes, you can strip out all of the fun bits and come up with a very efficient transaction process, it's just that the customers want the fun bits more.