Drive around town enough and you're sure to see license plate frames that read "Sonoma Valley - Where Great Wines Begin."

And while it's true that Sonoma Valley gives birth to lots of fine wines, it's also a place that stimulates the senses and inspires entrepreneurs, particularly those with ideas about wine.

Like many of the fine wines it sells, Winery Insider, the online, members-only wine sales business launched here on March 22 by Tony and Danielle Westfall, succeeds because it is a perfect blend - maximizing the best qualities of each of its founders.

But this is more than a business success story; it is a love story too.

Tony and Danielle met while they were attending two different business lunches at the same Silicon Valley restaurant. Tony claims Danielle hit on him and she claims the reverse. Tony was the economist, an MBA with a sophisticated palate. Danielle had a marketing degree, a fine touch in the marketplace, plus a talent for writing. Soon these two bright, young, entrepreneurial "dot-comers" of Silicon Valley would learn that they had a lot in common, including a love of fine wine and a dream to move to Sonoma.

When the "dot.com" bubble burst, the couple moved to Napa where Tony started a new wine business career path, serving as purchasing director for Beringer and Sutter Home, among others. Danielle followed several months later and started her wine career at Wine.com. She eventually became vice president of marketing and operations at Viansa. Through the ups and downs of the wine business, their knowledge of what worked and what didn't, particularly in wine sales, grew.

Fast forward to late 2009, with Danielle testing a marketing idea via the web with an innovative wine retail company called Vino Fina, which engaged nonprofits in a direct sales relationship that also had an altruistic element. The idea worked, sort of, but not in a sustainable business model way. But through that experience, the Westfalls learned enough to believe that online retail innovation for the wine industry would work. Within three months, Winery Insider was launched.

A members-only concept (free for members to join), Winery Insider offers on average four wines at time as short-term wine sales events. Members are informed about the wine sales events by e-mail; only members can access the wines in each sale.

The quantities are limited, and the prices range from 40 to 80 percent off retail. The offers are limited in duration and are not repeated.

The Westfalls emphasize that they are "not wine liquidators." Winery Insider members are offered high-quality wines at bargain prices, tasted and cleared for sale by them before the wine goes up on the site. The wineries that offer the wine gain by adding a whole new marketing channel while the integrity of the label is protected.

In their first full day of operation, Winery Insider got 15,000 members and they've been growing membership rapidly ever since. Today, tens of thousands of interested, committed wine consumers receive a Winery Insider offer approximately every two days. Of those offers, more than 40 percent of their e-mails are opened and viewed. While doing business for less than 150 days, more than 76 percent of their members who have purchased wine have made more than one purchase.

Their Sonoma-based business doesn't just offer local wines, although local vintages have a significant presence among their offerings. They are licensed importers, distributors and retailers, and offer a wide selection of domestic and foreign wines. The business has grown so rapidly that they've had to add a bigger warehouse and more staff to handle it.

Danielle also operates Westfall Marketing Group, a business offering her expertise and experience in direct wine sales to small wineries that need assistance. In addition, the Westfalls have a "sommelier service," offered to members who need to purchase wines in lots of three cases and larger for special events, such as weddings.

Sonomans who are Winery Insider members can actually purchase the wine online and save on the shipping by arranging to pick it up at the local warehouse on Eighth Street East.

There is one other ingredient, perhaps the most important in the rapid growth of their new enterprise, and that is passion. The Westfall's eyes brighten and their voices rise as they describe how Winery Insider works. It is truly a family-run, hands-on operation. They take pride in their relationships with wineries and with their club members, and seem somewhat awed by their success. More importantly, they've realized a dream. "We love Sonoma. It is our utopia. It is a unique place to live and work." The dream come true now also includes two daughters, Alexandra, 6-1/2, and Audrey 2-1/2.