Wine of the Month Clubs Rated 4-Stars and 4.5-Stars

Overview: This wine subscription focuses on high-quality and value-priced wines from small family wineries in California, and is perfect to give as a gift or to join yourself. Even though California wine is legendary, most of us can't afford legendary wine prices. The California Wine Club's "Love it" Guarantee means you'll love your wine or they'll send you something else at no additional cost.

What We Love: The California Wine Club appears on the most lists of best wine clubs on our website because they overdeliver on value, customer service, and quality. The Premier Series is their biggest wine club and is the perfect gift for a California wine lover. If you join for yourself, you'll also enjoy wine credits, concierge service for wine tasting trips to California, and more perks of membership. The California Wine Club now regularly offers introductory discounts, and that makes this wine club a better value while still delivering fantastic quality.

Could Be Better: Our only complaints about the Premier Series are twofold. First, if you order red wine only or white wine only, you'll get two of the same wine in your shipment. Second, they offer a 4-bottle version of the wine club (with free shipping), but you have to call to upgrade and we wish they would just offer it on the website when you sign up.

Overview: California is home to some of the world's best wine regions and wineries, many of which are boutique wineries. A boutique winery is typically a small-family operation with limited distribution beyond their tasting room. This wine of the month club is a great way to get introduced to what California wine has to offer at reasonable prices and it makes an excellent gift.

What We Love: Consistency. We've been receiving their shipments for years and we've never had a wine we didn't like. You can't really ask for more than that from a wine club.

Could Be Better: As a general rule, we think Gold Medal Wine Club has little they can do to improve. Whether you're buying for yourself or as a gift, they've really done a lot to create a wine club worth joining.

Overview: One-of-a-kind wine tasting club which delivers wine by the glass instead of in full size bottles so you can taste your way through sommelier-selected grown up juice. Reorder full bottles or more glasses of what you love. Now delivered quarterly.

What We Love: We especially love that sommelier Tyler Kennedy picks the wine — and it shows. We’ve been super impressed with the quality of each wine we’ve received. The unusual selection genuinely seems like a somm picked the wines. We also love the pricing which rewards bigger customers.

Could Be Better: Given the care taken to select interesting wine, we want more more information about the wine regions, the wineries, and the winemakers in the tasting notes.

Overview: A super-fun Pacific Northwest wine and coffee subscription featuring artful labels born of celebrity and tastemaker collaborations. Each quarterly shipment also includes a t-shirt with extra goodies around the holidays.

What We Love: Among other things, we love the uniqueness factor. This isn't a wine club where a celebrity slaps his or her name on the marketing. This is a winery that collaboratively produces with celebrities, and then lets the celeb pick the art for the bottle. Sometimes the celebs even design the labels themselves. This all adds up to a lot of personality and a feeling of being on the inside of the Hollywood industry.

Could Be Better: This wine club does not yet offer everything we expect from a top-rated wine subscription box. We'd like to see more information about what's in the bottle to accompany the quirky insider anecdotes, the ability to personalize shipments (choose a wine color), gift subscriptions, and an end to the two-shipment minimum (there's a $40 early cancellation fee).

Overview: Garagiste is a term which describes up-and-coming winemakers who toil away creating artisanal wines in their, well not usually, garages. If you're someone who wants to be up on the latest and greatest future stars of California winemaking, try the mostly red wine selection of Garagiste wines from the Gold Medal Wine Club.

What We Love: We look forward to discovering new wineries from all over California. We know we're getting very good wine at below-retail prices and helping small family businesses grow.

Could Be Better: Like other Gold Medal Wine Club series, we'd really like to see more information about the winemaking and viticulture in the educational materials.

Overview: An affordably-priced personalized wine club that learns what you like as you receive, drink, and rate six bottle shipments. International, domestic, and award-winning wine from a thoroughly modern wine subscription box service.

What We Love: Compared with other wine subscriptions in this price category, we think Firstleaf has nailed ease-of-use, presentation, and offers reasonably-interesting wines. We also really like that they identify the body, acidity, sweetness, fruitiness, and tannin level for each wine they sell. You can review the wine before it is shipped and swap out wines that have characteristics you don't like.

Could Be Better: We think their marketing materials make them seem better than they really are, but with a 100% satisfaction guarantee and inexpensive introductory shipment, you can decide for yourself.

Overview: This international wine of the month club is delivered quarterly and features wineries you can't buy from any other company in the U.S. Each shipment features a new winery and wine region.

What We Love: Whether you choose just the wine or you upgrade to include the regional gourmet treats with the Adventure Package, this quarterly wine club will take you on your own wine-drinking adventure around the world. Extensive regional and winery information goes out with each shipment, chock full of photos that help you feel like you've gone wine tasting in a far away land.

Could Be Better: As a general rule, we think Gold Medal Wine Club has little they can do to improve. Whether you're buying for yourself or as a gift, they've really done a lot to create a wine club worth joining.

Overview: This is the happy medium of wine clubs they offer as you get one bottle from their entry-level subscription and one bottle from their premium membership. If you're doing your math as "average price paid per bottle" you might not love this club, but if you consider that you're getting one value-priced wine and one special-occasion wine in each shipment, it's a neat concept.

What We Love: Unlike some other wine clubs which focus on acquiring closeout wines to ship to their members, this wine club cares a great deal about coming up with consistent selections befitting their reputation of 25 years in the business. Their tasting panel includes proprietor Kris Calef, wine professionals, and everyday wine drinkers, so they excel at finding palate-friendly wines with wide appeal.

Could Be Better: We'd love to see four-bottle shipments offered by this wine club as a way to help mitigate the cost. The company offers a reliable, quality-driven service, so you don't really get deals on the wine in the shipments. While we'd probably pass on this particular subscription for ourselves, we think it makes a terrific wine club gift — especially if you mix it up with some of their other cool monthly clubs.

Overview: We recently received several shipments from Vinesse, including the Chardonnay club, and they've really stepped up their wine buying. If Chardonnay is your thing and that's all you want to drink, now you can get monthly deliveries of your favorite fruit juice. Plus, you get Vinesse's rock solid satisfaction guarantee for every bottle, taking all of the risk out of joining a wine club.

What We Love: We strongly support all niche wine clubs. The taste of wine is subjective and we think everyone should drink what they love. Given the high delivery fees on this Chardonnay subscription from Vinesse, we recommending joining the 12-bottle wine club and have the shipments sent as often as is appropriate.

Could Be Better: We'd love to see customers rewarded for buying bigger allotments. "Buy more save more" pricing would be a great addition to the line-up. We'd also really like to see the shipping costs come down dramatically.

Overview: The Plonk white wine club has always been among our favorites because of the proprietor's preference for quirky but delectable wines. Etty Lewensztain sources interesting wines made from grapes and regions you've never heard of (and some you have). Whether you choose four or twelve bottles you'll be glad you picked Plonk.

What We Love: Lately we've come to think of Plonk as the "Somm club" that isn't run by a sommelier. With a focus on wines under $30 that will delight any curious wine drinker, we think the value is top notch. Also, unlike most wine clubs, if you're thinking of going red-only or white-only, you'll actually get four different selections (three of each if you upgrade to 12 bottles).

Could Be Better: When it comes to Plonk we have little to ask for in the improvement department. Because the wines are so great, we'd really like to see a more giftworthy version of the subscription which includes gift wrap and maybe even store credits so they can order more of their favorites.