Red Wine of the Month Clubs

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: Pinot Noir is one of the most beloved red wine grapes and this Pinot of the month club is the best one for discovering Pinot Noir from California. Discover boutique wineries producing world-class Pinot Noir in Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and other regions around California. Stunning Pinot from Joseph Jewell, Dragonette Cellars, and Kessler-Haak to name a few.

What We Love: We're big fans of California Pinot Noir in general, and we love how Gold Medal sources award-winning selections from small producers we may not have heard of or haven't had access to for purchasing. A membership with the Gold Medal Wine Club Pinot Noir Series takes Pinot lovers on a trip to California for wine tasting without leaving home. Check out their Pinot selection.

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: We really enjoy this International wine club where each shipment contains six different wines from a single wine region somewhere in the world. Of the many clubs that offer an International selection, most aren't themed for additional wine discovery and education.

What We Love: We received shipments of this wine club for years because it always kept a good variety of food-friendly and affordable wines on hand, we never opened a bottle we were disappointed with, and we feel this club offers a good quality-to-price ratio.

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: Among other "journey around the wine world" clubs Wine Awesomness stands out for exceptional educational materials. This is a great wine club for you if you're not sure yet if you're a "wine club" person or if you're looking to give a gift to a young wine-lover who's just starting to discover the world of wine.

What We Love: The level of sophistication in both design and writing of their monthly magazine and how the wine isn't expensive but is a very good value.

Could Be Better: So many people love to give wine subscriptions as gifts, and we think a gift packaging option and customizable gift notifications would add to the subscription gift option.

Overview: Our favorite series offered by The International Wine of the Month Club, we really dig the interesting, high-end, European-focused wines that arrive at our door. We've been able to find Italian and French red wines we enjoy courtesy of this wine club, which helps us understand the wine from these countries in a more nuanced way.

What We Love: More than anything, we love surprise factor of these wines. Every time we open a box, we sort of grimace at the prospect of drinking a Rhone red or an Barolo (wines that we typically don't enjoy because of our own palate preferences), but we're always surprised at how the wines are enjoyable anyway, and usually much better than we were expecting.

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. At the level of The Collectors Series (which we think has an over-inflated name), the discount aspect of the wine club is not a primary concern.

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: A 12-bottle personalized wine club that begins to get to know your preferences with a six mini-bottle wine tasting kit delivered for $6.95. By signing up for the tasting kit experience you are automatically enrolling in regular wine club shipments, 12 bottles delivered quarterly for $149 plus $19.99 shipping.

What We Love: Their best feature is total control of your account online without having to contact customer service — change the contents of your shipment, change your shipment size, have your next shipment sent exactly when you want it, or even cancel online.

Could Be Better: The wines offered in the $6.95 tasting kit have extreme profiles (likely the best way to identify the boundaries of your palate) but the experience is fun anyway. It's important to note: rating the wine triggers the first full-price case to be shipped.

Overview: The Bold Reds club features International red wines showcasing, yep, bigger and bolder flavors, that are more tannic and fruit forward. These are not your typical easy-drinking wines but they're perfect for pizza, grill nights, and all forms of meat.

What We Love: More than anything, we love surprise factor of these wines. Every time we open a box, we sort of grimace at the prospect of drinking a Rhone red or an Barolo (wines that we typically don't enjoy because of our own palate preferences), but we're always surprised at how the wines are enjoyable anyway, and usually much better than we were expecting.

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. Given its specialty nature, the discount aspect of the wine club is not a primary concern.

Overview: A personalized wine club that gets to know what kind of wine you like through a wine-preference quiz and the ratings you give for wines from previous shipments. Sends four bottles of wine that match your preferences, monthly.

What We Love: Bright Cellars has amazing customer service and offers a cheese-pairing option as an add-on. We've liked each shipment better than the last, and this corresponds to seeing our Bright Points (accuracy of matching) increase, too.

Could Be Better: While the wine is fine, we'd like to see a more focused adherance to selecting wines that resemble the grapes on the bottle. Typicity is a hallmark of quality wine. At $15 a bottle, great quality is rarely achievable, but better typicity would certainly increase the value being offered here.

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.