Editor’s Note: this article and several like it are highly-detailed breakdowns of the Firstleaf subscription. This may be too much information for your needs, and if so I recommend reading my main Firstleaf review.
FYI: I find great wine deals so you don’t have to. To keep me on the hunt, I earn a commission when you buy wine based on my recommendations.
Aside from offering good value on a variety of wines, Firstleaf is an excellent subscription service. This is important because while the wine is foremost, a bad service would ruin a great wine experience. The best part about their service is how you can manage absolutely everything online.
There are several ways to customize the wines in your shipments.
100% satisfaction guarantee. To me, this has always been the biggest reason to join a wine club. Firstleaf has what I consider a 5-star guarantee: if you don’t like a wine, they’ll give you a credit toward your next order. They’ll ask you about why you didn’t like it for quality control purposes, no questions asked. They’ll ask questions for quality control purposes, but they’ll make it right, too.
Many wine clubs claim to offer a 100% guarantee, but there are a variety of policies out there. On any review on my site you’ll find a Satisfaction Guarantee Rating. 5 stars means they’ll replace anything to make it right. 4 stars means they’ll replace any bottle at no extra cost for any reason except that you didn’t like it.
Personal wine concierge. If you find that the algorithm isn’t doing a great job of matching wines for you — for whatever reason — you can schedule a free appointment with your personal wine concierge who can listen to what’s not working and help customize the wines recommended for you going forward.
They do more than just tweak your algorithm settings. These friendly people all have some level of formal wine education (it varies) and are trained in Firstleaf’s inventory.
They are available to suggest new wines for you outside of your regular shipments, help you organize wine for events and celebrations, and to chat about which wines to drink for the current season.
Members-only discounts. As a member, you get wines labeled Firstleaf Exclusives for $15 each when you order six or more bottles at a time.
This discount does not apply to the Fine Wine Collection, or wines produced by other wineries, but members do get 30% off the Fine Wine Collection. Side note: these wines don’t come with the satisfaction guarantee.
Extra-mile convenience. One of the hardest parts about wine subscriptions is actually receiving the wine (which also happens to be one of the most fun parts).
While most wine clubs encourage you to get deliveries at work (because it costs less for them and means your wine is more likely to arrive in good condition), that’s simply not possible for everyone. Nor is it possible for a lot of people to ensure someone 21 or older is home on delivery day.
This is one area where Firstleaf shines. While both FedEx and UPS offer deliveries to stores for you to pick up when it’s convenient for you, only FedEx has integration with Firstleaf’s store. FedEx works with a number of drug stores in addition to their own FedEx Office locations so there’s likely one on your daily route somewhere.
You can set all this up right at Firstleaf instead of having to separately negotiate this with the FedEx app each time a shipment is inbound. I LOVE this feature. I’m guessing it’s expensive to implement as I’ve only seen it in use at large-scale wine clubs like Picked by Wine.com, Firstleaf, and Wine Insiders (not a personalized subscription).
Also in support of their convenience-related features, they allow total management of your account online (should you choose not to avail yourself of their live customer support team). You can easily manage your personal details like credit card and address, but you can also manage notifications, see past orders, rate wines, track deliveries, and even cancel with the click of a button — all on your account page (and related pages).
Ready to join? Get your first six bottles for $44.95, including shipping.
Need more info? Learn more about Firstleaf or read my full Firstleaf review.
Deal 6 bottles for $44.95
Save 50% — Try Firstleaf and get 6 bottles of wine selected just for you for just $44.95. Shipping is included in your first order. Click for this deal
Deal Save $100
Save $100 — Try firstleaf and get $100 off (total) your first three personalized boxes of wine. Shipping is included for the first box. Until Dec 31. Click for this deal
Firstleaf Wine Subscription