(Forbes) - Despite the fact that so many professional critics have reduced wine to a series of number ratings, the romance lingers. Wine geeks and everyday wine drinkers alike wax philosophical over the artistry, craft and spiritual mystique of wine. We cherish the warmth and comfort the stories behind our favorite winemakers and wineries provide. Many of us dare to dream the gentleman/gentlewoman farmer wine life—some set out to make that dream a reality.

Yet, since its first cultivated vintage about 8,000 or so years ago, wine has largely been what many of us do not like to admit it remains today, a commodity.

If you don’t believe me, consider this: according to Impact Databank, just two companies, E & J Gallo Winery and Constellation Brands, represent more than 35 percent of the U.S. wine market’s volume. According to Denys Hornabrook, who has twenty-four years of experience in the international wine trade, 25 percent of the world’s wine production is traded as bulk wine —anywhere from 6.6 billion to 10 billion liters annually (approx. 1.6 to 2.6 billion gallons). Added to all that bulk liquid is large volumes of grape juice concentrate that goes unreported.

Hornabrook, an Australian, is the managing director of a United Kingdom trading company, Vin-Exchange Group, Limited. On March 13, 2016, the company rolled out its online start-up bulk wine exchange service named (what else?) VINEX.

Seduced by and having succumbed to the romance of wine, I admit to giving little thought to the bulk sector of the wine industry, but Hornabrook says that although bulk wine supply has been historically the purview of producers pushing inexpensive generic products, technological advances in freight equipment, a reduction in shipping time and lower packaging costs have made it easier and more cost effective to transport better quality wines, including regional and single vineyard labels.