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

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.

Wine Club Gift Info: Gold Medal always offers beautiful gift packaging, but you usually need to order a whole year's worth of wine to get it free. Our readers get an exclusive deal on their premium gift package, included with any Gold Series gift of 3-months or longer. Your wine lover will also get a bonus bottle of red wine in their first shipment.

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.

Wine Club Gift Info: Since Firstleaf is a personalized wine subscription, gifts are given as electronic gift cards. This gives the recipient the chance to customize the wine selection, as they're meant to do. Gift cards are issued in denominations of $25-200. We recommend at least $100 to make sure he or she doesn't have to pay for any part of the first box.

Overview: This is the entry-level wine club from the International Wine of the Month Club, but unlike some other wine clubs in this price range you'll always receive Estate-bottled wines. Also for a wine club in this price range you get excellent tasting notes and winery information for every wine that's shipped.

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.

Wine Club Gift Info: Wine club gifting is an area that this company excels at. They give you the most options of any two-bottle wine club, from when you pay for each shipment, to all of the standard customizations, gift notice options, etc. The first shipment of all gifts includes organza-wrapped bottles for an extra touch.

Overview: This wine subscription focuses on good-quality, well-priced wines from small family wineries in California. It is perfect to give as a gift or to join yourself.

What We Love: The California Wine Club appears on many of our lists of best wine clubs because they overdeliver on value, customer service, and quality.

Wine Club Gift Info: The Premier Series is the perfect wine gift for a Californai wine lover. For an extra $18 you order a pre-wine gift package announcing the gift. Send it to yourself to present in person on the big day or send it directly to your wine lover so they know the wine is coming.

Overview: A rare French wine club featuring affordable selections from a variety of wine regions within France. They tend to work with smaller producers offering either exceptional value or something unusual.

What We Love: Everything you want in a wine club, especially if you love French wine. Their wine program is created by a multi-generational wine family from Bordeaux with great connections and taste in wine. Unlike some other specialty wine clubs, this one is priced perfectly.

Overview: The Plonk 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).

Overview: This wine subscription focuses on high-end, limited-production wines from small family wineries outside the US. It is perfect to give as a gift or to join yourself.

What We Love: They only work with small family wineries, so nearly every wine they ship typically wouldn’t be distributed inside the US.

Wine Club Gift Info: The International Series is the perfect wine gift splurge for a wine lover who likes to explore new wines. For an extra $18 you order a pre-wine gift package announcing the gift. Send it to yourself to present in person on the big day or send it directly to your wine lover so they know the wine is coming.

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.

Wine Club Gift Info: This is, by far, our favorite wine club gift for adventurous drinkers, light drinkers, and even wine professionals. In addition to a top-notch sommelier-curated wine selection, the packaging is novel and fun, and really well-constructed. Save big with longer subscriptions and when you double the order for two people to enjoy.

Overview: This wine subscription focuses on high-end, limited-production wines from small family wineries in the broad wine region called Pacific Northwest. It includes Oregon and Washington and is perfect to give as a gift or to join yourself.

What We Love: The Pacific Northwest wine club is one of few such wine subscriptions available. They only work with small family wineries, so nearly every wine they ship typically wouldn’t be distributed outside the state it was produced in.

Overview: This quarterly wine club features true luxury wines rated 93+ and finds California wines so exclusive that the club is limited to 500 members. You get collector-level access without the hassle of doing your own research. A lot of wines (and wine clubs) call themselves "super premium" but most of them fail to live up to the hype, this one does.

What We Love: This wine club ships mostly red wine and occasionally a stunning white at prices well below retail. We love seeing superstars like Blackbird Red Blend from Calistoga, Odette Estate Cabernet Sauvingon from Stag's Leap District, and the 97-point Matetic Syrah from Chile. You can shop these luxury wines online at their store.

Wine Club Gift Info: With elegant gift packaging as an upgrade option, you can make any wine subscription gift really stand out. Send a personalized greeting card ahead or ship it to yourself to present on the big day. When the wine arrives, the first shipment's bottles are wrapped in organza and presented in a beautiful artist-designed gift box.