How to Choose a Wine Subscription

Everything You Need to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

When we reviewed our first wine club way back in March of 2009, there were only a small handful of subscriptions to choose from. Most of these wine subscription services are still in business, but now there are dozens of companies offering regular wine deliveries.

We've reviewed more than two hundred wine subscriptions which cater to every kind of wine drinker and every wine budget.

With so many options, you may be overwhelmed trying to pick the right wine subscription for yourself, so we’ve created this guide to the world of wine subscriptions, full of tips and tricks to maximize your wine enjoyment and budget.

Giving a gift? Try our How to Choose a Wine Club Gift guide instead.

Select the state you live in

Why you should you select a state. There are only 36 states which freely allow wine to be shipped directly to consumers. The others have a series of rules governing who can and cannot ship directly to consumers, and some forbid it entirely.

We make this super easy as we have catalogued the available wine subscriptions and organized them by the states they ship to. You can browse wine clubs by state or, since you’re here, pick the state you live in.

Start Shopping for a Wine Club

Select a Shipping State

What kind of wine drinker are you?

After 13+ years of reviewing wine subscriptions, we’ve identified a few groups of wine buyers and the wine subscription services that cater to them. We use the per-bottle price to make these judgments because that one factor typically drives the both the wine in the subscriptions and the wine buyers’ enjoyment of them.

Here are 3 types of wine lovers we’ve noticed

1. Just starting out. Someone who doesn’t yet know much about wine and wants to explore a little. We think wine clubs priced under $15 a bottle are the best option. Our ratings will help you steer clear of the stinkers that show up in this price range.
2. Wine enthusiasts are people who have a more refined sense of what they like and tend to prefer unusual or high-quality wines. We suggest a wine subscription in the $25-45 per bottle price range for these savvy drinkers. These wine delivery services offer boutique, small-production, and otherwise very hard to find wines.
3. Wine connoisseurs are typically comfortable spending upwards of $45 a bottle for special wine. There are some pretty incredible subscriptions to join when you want high-end wine with a guarantee.

Remember which kind of wine drinker you are as you read the rest of this guide, we’ll point out the best options for you.

Choose either personalized or curated wine subscriptions

In this modern era, you can opt to have a professional pick your wine for you, or let an algorithm figure out what you like and match it to an available wine inventory. Read on to see how these curated and personalized subscription services are different.

A curated wine subscription is one where someone else picks all of the wines you receive and every wine club member gets the same wines as each other. Most often a professional is picking wines for the broadest appeal. Sometimes these services can be personalized a bit, but typically you only choose basics like how much wine and what color it is.

The pros and cons of curated wine subscriptions:

• PRO: There isn’t any “work” for you to do
• PRO: You’ll grow your wine knowledge and discover new favorites faster
• CON: You may occasionally get wines that you don’t prefer
• CON: You may rarely get wine you do prefer

A personalized wine subscription uses a palate quiz (for your first shipment) and your opinions of their wine (subsequent shipments) to determine which wines they’ll send to you. While they want to match you with the best wines for your palate, you’re limited to the wines available at the wine club.

The pros and cons of personalized wine subscriptions:

• PRO: Wines are selected for you based on preferences you’ve stated, either through a quiz or by rating wine
• PRO: Most personalized wine clubs let you swap out bottles if you’re in the mood for something different than what they recommend
• CON: It might take several shipments before the wine club knows what you like and they may never get it perfect (patience is a virtue)
• CON: Some only send wine that fits a generalized palate profile shared by many consumers, not your specific palate
• CON: These services are all priced under $15 a bottle, so if you want a higher-end wine subscription these are not a good choice for you.

Tip: If you want a personalized wine subscription but want better quality wine, or a mix of cheap and premium, we strongly recommend Nakedwines.com. You pick every wine you ever receive and they have a huge variety to choose from (100s of different wines). Get more info in our detailed Nakedwines.com review.

What kind of wine do you want to drink

The simplest form of a wine subscription is a two-bottle mix of red and white wine from either California or a several International regions. This is exactly what many people want — a variety of wines that show up at your door on a regular basis. Before you pick the wine you want to get, take a moment to consider what you want from a wine subscription.

• Do you want specific grapes or regions?
• Do you want to go on a no holds barred wine adventure?

Okay, now that you’ve pondered the “goal” of your wine membership, let’s dive in.

Choose among loosely-focused wine subscriptions — These are best for discovering new wines

By wine color or style:

• Red wine clubs
• White wine clubs
• Champagne wine clubs
• Sweet wine clubs
• Rosé wine clubs

In a broad wine region:

• California wine clubs
• Pacific Northwest wine clubs
• French wine clubs
• Italian wine clubs

Natural, Organic, Vegan, and Sulfite-free wine subscriptions exist, but we rarely recommend them. Our additional guidance for these wine subscriptions: not all of their claims are accurate — the most heavily marketed organic/natural wine subscriptions exaggerate and mislead the most. For all of your needs in the "healthy wine" department, we recommend the subscriptions offered by Organic Wine Exchange (OWE). OWE is a small family business that values transparency, so they tell you which wines they’ve shipped, offer low prices, and will personalize your wine subscription to your needs.

You can also get very specific — These are best for finding more of what you love

• The Pinot Noir Series offers only California Pinot
• The Aged Cabernet Series offers library wines mostly from Napa and Sonoma, aged 7-12 years, and ready to drink now
• Other varietal wine clubs for just one grape variety
• The Light & Sweet Wine Club offers sweeter white wines like Moscato and Riesling
• Napa Valley Wine Clubs or Bordeaux Wine Clubs for just one wine region
• Nakedwines.com gives you exactly what you want, because you pick your selection from among their hundreds of wines.

How much wine you should get delivered

While this is largely a personal decision, the answer is probably not “barrels of wine.” We recommend considering the following factors: how much wine you drink each month, how much of your wine you want to buy through a wine subscription, and how often you want to receive shipments. Read on to learn about the merits of larger shipments delivered less often.

There are real benefits to ordering larger shipments

1. The lowest prices. Wine subscription services often give the best pricing to their best customers. The best wine deals are usually “by the case” (12 bottles). There are many subscriptions that use the “buy more, save more” price structure.
2. Reduced shipping costs. Most wine subscription companies pay part of the cost of shipping wine and use flat rate shipping.
   
   Example: Two bottles of wine costs the customer $14 to ship. In this scenario you’re paying $7 per bottle for shipping. In contrast, most 12-bottle wine subscriptions offer $19.99 shipping. In this case you’re paying just $1.67 per bottle for shipping.
   
   Ordering larger shipments means you’ll spend more of your money on wine and less of your money on shipping that wine to you.
3. Convenience. As much as we don’t want to rain on the wine subscription box parade, it’s true that waiting around for deliveries can be a drag. There are ways to get around that issue, but if you receive fewer shipments, then you’ll deal with that annoyance less often.

You’ve decided to join a wine club? You chose wisely.
See which wine subscriptions we think are the best or narrow your selection below.

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Wine Subscription FAQ

Guide by: Jessyca Frederick |

Inspired by frequent questions from friends and family about different wines and wine practices, Jessyca writes Useful Wine Guides so that people she doesn’t know might benefit from her knowledge and desire to share information, too.