What The Best Wine Clubs Offer
When we rate a wine club, we look for features and benefits that justify the expense. They must deliver value beyond just shipping wine to your house.
Novelty
It doesn’t make much sense to join a wine club that ships the same wines that line the shelves of your local market. There are some enjoyable mass-produced wines, but buying them at your local store is cheaper and easier.
Explorers and adventurers head up the best wine clubs. You want the experts at your wine club to be out of the office visiting wineries, tasting wines, and discovering gems for you.
Stewardship Of The Planet
This is a BFD. The idea of drinking wine underwater from the vineyards in Antarctica sucks. We want wine clubs that at least try to minimize their carbon footprint. That means shipping from warehouses closer to consumers, keeping packaging light and preferably recyclable/biodegradable.
Look out for styrofoam packing, unnecessary ice packs, and assorted swag in the box; if they offer to buy carbon offsets and send wines from wineries certified as environmentally conscious, all the better.
Price
Wine Clubs need to make money or go out of business. They make money the old-fashioned way, buy low (large orders equal lower prices), and sell high. We want a wine club that doesn't add an egregious markup.
You also need to gauge your tastes. Don’t sign up for a premium wine club if you don’t have a trained palate and enjoy discovering tertiary aromas in your wine. You are throwing money away unless you plan to learn enough to appreciate the most expensive wines. If you are collecting wine as an investment, that's a different story.
Flexibility
The one-size-fits-all model can work in some businesses. For a wine club, you want to be able to customize your preferences. How many bottles, how often you receive shipments, and whether you can pause your membership will make a big difference in how enjoyable your wine club is.
We often hear complaints from wine club members about excess wine. Make sure you consider how much wine you drink before you sign up. Wine by the case clubs can save you money, but you will need lots of storage space if you don’t drink several bottles weekly.
Honesty and Customer Service
As we said above, a wine club is a business and needs to make money. Unfortunately, some wine clubs get greedy. This usually translates into a terrible customer experience. Wine clubs that put on the hard sell are annoying and not worth your time. The last thing you want is to be charged for wines you don't want and then spend hours trying to get them to stop charging your card.
Spend a few minutes on the Better Business Bureau website. You can get a sense of the wine club's customer service. Read a few reviews and see if the club responds to the complaints reasonably.
The better-run wine clubs will make it easy for you to contact them and respond quickly. They will have clear policies about pausing or canceling your membership. You should also be able to find a dispute resolution process and a policy on bad bottles (damaged, funky smelling, or not what you are into).
A Few More Things To Consider
Are you still reading this? I applaud your commitment. We will give you our last bits of advice before we release you into the wild world of wine club wonder.
The Fine Print and Wine Club Customer Service
Much of the joy we get from wine clubs comes from our relationship with those working there. You want to find a club that is easy to contact and does what they say they will do. It also helps to read the fine print upfront before you have an issue.
What to look for in the fine print
- Shipping costs
- Cancellation policy
- Criteria of wine selection and duplicate bottles
- How to pause shipments
- Bad bottle guarantees
- Shipping methods in hot weather
You are better off knowing where the potential issues are than being surprised later.
How To Assess Customer Service
- We suggest you do the following:
- Go to the social media pages of the wine clubs and read the comments
- Call the 800 number and ask about canceling
- Initiate an online chat and see how long it takes to get answers
- Visit the Better Business Bureau website and read any complaints and how the wine club responded.
Wine Club Shipping
You may overlook shipping when selecting the best wine club. This is a mistake. Once your new wine club packs your wine and hands it over to their shipping company, the relationship is now between you and the shipper.
Issues like tracking, location holds, returns, non-contact deliveries, reroutes, and damage claims are all part of the wine club and wine subscription experience. You should ask who the wine club uses for delivery and then find out what the shipper's policies are for the following:
- Multiple delivery attempts
- Return shipments
- Filing damage claims
- Adult signature requirements
- Hold at location
- Rerouting shipments
Also, research the nearest pickup locations for that shipper. It's no fun driving 50 miles to get a wine club box.
The best wine clubs make information about their shipper and shipping policies easy to find on their website.
How Good Is The Wine Quality
When choosing the best wine club, don't just think about quantity. A case of poorly made wine isn't a "value buy" just because the wine is cheap. Some cheap wine clubs try to hide behind known brand names or celebrity endorsers. You end up with bulk wine that is dressed up and then marked up. The club may include a generic wine pairing sheet in the box or a "newsletter" to increase the perceived value of the shipment. Don't be fooled.
You can learn more about how to taste wine to determine the quality, but you won't have a chance to taste the wines before you join.
Ask the wine club manager to send you a list of the wines that went out in the last three shipments.
Here is what you should look for
- Where the wine is made
- How is the wine graded (you can find regional grading systems here)
- Is it made from the grapes of a single vineyard, a single AVA (region), or an unknown number of vineyards and regions
- Look at reviews on Wine Searcher and Vivino. You should also look at the average price for the wine on these sites.
What you are trying to avoid are wines that don't have any clear origin. These are most likely bulk wines that are made from the cheapest grapes. The grapes are often a blend from various vineyards. You can assume a fair amount of chemistry is used to make these wines palatable.
Here is a list of bulk wine producers. You should move on if the club you are considering includes these wines.
Conclusion
There are many great reasons to join a wine club or wine subscription service. Doing your homework upfront will allow you to avoid the pitfalls and find the right wine clubs for your taste. We hope you find a club you love!
