Review of Palate Club
Over the past few years, the number of wine clubs has skyrocketed. Most of them seem to go the extra mile to offer vintages that are bound to excite your palate. But what makes a wine club truly stand out from the bunch?
As wine tasting and collecting is all about personal preferences, the ideal club should offer customer experience unlike any other. And the Palate Club appears to provide exactly that – an experience that could meet the demands of budding wine connoisseurs.
To help you understand how it all works, the following sections feature a detailed Palate Club review.
If you want to visit the Palate Club website now, you can click here.
Wine Meets E-Commerce and Tech - Short History of Palate Club
Nicolas Mendiharat, a French native, is the serial entrepreneur and wine aficionado behind the Palate Club. Being inherently passionate about wine, he was fascinated by the online wine clubs in the US.
Soon enough, Mr. Mendiharat became a member of more than a few, but his initial excitement was short-lived. None of the clubs could offer the wines or experiences he expected.
To him, they all appeared to follow a similar model. Join, do a quick quiz, and you get presented with an assortment of mass-market wines. This is where Mr. Mendiharat spotted an opportunity to capitalize on his business experience and passion for wine.
The idea behind the Palate Club is pretty straightforward. Take advantage of data science software to keep tabs on individual wine preferences. And then, deliver a curated wine selection to each club member. But it shouldn’t be just any wine with a fancy label.
The goal is to present users with vintages straight from the winemaker. Combine that with software that puts the labels at everybody’s fingertips and you get a customer experience that’s hard to rival.
Join Palate Club for Fun Blind Tasting at Your Home
You can join the Palate Club via the official website or through the proprietary app. Either way, the process is not that different from other clubs. It might be more streamlined, but the next steps are what matters.
First, you need to do a quick wine quiz. And this is when the software starts doing its magic to gauge your personal preferences. Unlike some other quizzes, the Palate Club’s is more geared towards the drink itself, not spices, foods, or general tasting notes you like.
With that out of the way, you’re ready to receive your first personalized shipment and this is where the fun starts. The shipment features tissue-wrapped bottles to keep the labels a secret. Okay, you might be compelled to tear off the wrapping, but don’t do it.
Blind tasting gives you an opportunity to make an unbiased judgment about a particular label. You get to focus on the bouquet, texture, and fine nuances in the tasting notes. And this helps you rate the wines based on your palate, not the labels’ provenance.
In turn, the software will create a sharper Palate Profile and the more you rate the better. This data allows the Palate Club to keep presenting you with wines that are likely to meet or exceed your expectations. But this is not the only thing that makes this club special.
You can personalize every aspect of your membership and orders. This means you choose the price, number of bottles, shipping frequency, and wine styles. Plus, you can change the preferences at any time or pause your membership.
Palate Club App
Their app is the key to outstanding customer experience the Palate Club aims to provide. So it pays to take a closer look at what it has to offer.
One of the main assets of the app is the user-friendly interface. The navigation is super simple and you’re always one or two taps away from your profile or exciting new wines you might want to try.
Your actions, preferences, and orders are automatically updated and the app also provides suggestions. The main menu is always at the bottom of the screen so you can easily navigate through different membership options.
To rate a wine, you tap on the bottle, select the number of stars, and then you get to see the label. But the really cool thing is the label’s profile page. It features a snappy video about the winemaker, regional information, tasting notes, and links to similar vintages.
Your profile gets populated after rating four wines and then you can do some fine-tuning to unlock more options. At the time of writing, the Palate Club app is not the only one in the market, but it offers some features that others don’t.
Blind tasting and rating plus options to unlock more features are there to gamify the entire experience. This is a neat digital trick that may keep you coming back for more. However, the wine takes the center stage and doesn’t play second fiddle to fancy subscription software.
What Wines Does Palate Club Offer?
The focus is on European wineries and vintages, most notably those that come from Spain, France, and Italy. The Palate Club also keeps an assortment of American labels from California.
The important thing is that they don’t purchase wine in bulk. The club partners with winemakers from around the world to showcase up-and-coming labels that are worthy of your attention.
The goal is to give you a chance to taste sustainable boutique wines that are not readily available on the market. Of course, all the labels are native to the wineries and represent some of the best vintages from a given region.
All this may lead you to believe that the Palate Club is expensive, but you’d be mistaken. The price per bottle ranges from $17 to $40 and you get free shipping if you order 6 or more bottles. Members have special perks and you can get a Palate Club Promo Code for additional discounts.
As for the membership price, it was at $49 per month at the time of writing and the basic box includes three bottles. Though you should take this price with a pinch of salt. Custom membership preferences regarding box size and shipment frequency may drive the price up.
Get Ready to Fine-Tune your Palate
At the end of the day, the Palate Club offers good value for the money and the software behind the club is hard to rival. This makes it a great option for aspiring wine collectors and aficionados.
The added perk is that this club gives you a chance to grow your passion and become a more knowledgeable connoisseur. And the best thing is, you’re not locked into a subscription should you wish to try out other clubs.
Interested in learning more, take this quiz.