The Masters Series Review
Wine Club Overview & Details
Wine Club Rating:
This wine club is...
Summary
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 I Like
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.
Improvements
I'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 I'd probably pass on this particular subscription for I, we think it makes a terrific wine club gift — especially if you mix it up with some of their other cool monthly clubs.
The Masters Series delivers to
AL AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA ID IL IN IA KS KY LA MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX VT VA WA WV WI WY
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The Masters Series Review
In this review
The Masters Series Wine Club is a two-bottle wine club featuring wines from around the world. It is the mid-level club offered by International Wine of the Month Club. It includes some of the selections from International Wine of the Month Club's Masters Series and Collectors Series wines. This is an unique approach to offering a mid-level club. Other wine clubs typically increase the quality of the wines they’re offering slightly for the mid-level wine clubs, but this club offers one "everyday" wine and one "special occasion" wine.
Note: If you expect that each bottle you drink from this shipment will taste like a $25 bottle, think again. You'll get one that tastes like a $30 and one that tastes like a $20. You're still getting your money's worth, but we don't want you to be surprised by this.
One of three wine club levels
Masters Series Wine Review
My Masters Series
Wine Ratings
Quality of Wine | |
Price of Wine | |
Wine Curation |
Curation Process. International Wine of the Month Club uses a two-tiered tasting panel consisting of up to 30 tasters and is comprised of wine enthusiasts who run the gamut from industry professionals, to serious amateur collectors, to casual wine lovers. In this way, the diversity of preference, experience, taste, and style that exists within their club membership is correspondingly represented in the wine selection process. Only those wines that are most highly regarded by the panel, generating an affirmative consensus among the members, become featured in the club.
We've been drinking wine from International Wine of the Month Club's on a regular basis for more than seven years now. If you're looking to explore palate-friendly wines from around the world, you've found a great wine club to join. Most of the wines aren't special, but they're of good quality and they're consistent. We feel The Masters Series offers quality wine at a fair price (close to suggested retail).
Membership Benefits
My Masters Series
Benefits Ratings
Satisfaction Guarantee | |
Customer Service | |
Wine Education | |
Convenience |
Satisfaction Guarantee. They offer a top-tier satisfaction guarantee. We love satisfaction guarantees because it's a major differentiator between buying from a wine club and buying from your local wine store or grocery store.
"Our 100% satisfaction guarantee ensures that every item you purchase at International Wine of the Month Club meets your high standards or we will replace it or refund your purchase."
Customer Service Record. In more than 15 years of working with International Wine of the Month Club we have never had a single customer complaint. Our usual Internet sleuthing failed to turn up any significant customer complaints. Kudos to them!
Discount Opportunities. We look at three areas when evaluating the discount opportunities offered by a wine club. Is there an introductory offer to sweeten the deal? Are there discounts available for buying more of wines you loved in your shipments? Are there special discounts only available to members?
International Wine of the Month Club does not have an introductory offer and doesn't offer members-only deals, but they do have a "Buy More, Save More" promo code for gift-giving (Hint: You can buy yourself a pre-paid "gift" to take advantage of this discount). Save $10 on any 4-shipment order with code SAVE10. Save $15 on any 6-shipment pre-paid order with code SAVE15. Save $25 on any 12-shipment pre-paid order with code SAVE25.
Discounts on reorders are available, but the reorders are only discounted at quantities greater than six bottles. If you buy a case on reorder, you're getting a discount from your original monthly price.
Convenience. International Wine of the Month Club is a more old-fashioned company. If you need to hold your service for a vacation or want to cancel your membership you'll need to call and speak to someone during regular business hours. You can change your address online, as well as create a product review.
Wine Education. Cellar Notes, the International Wine of the Month Club publication that goes out with their wine club, is chock full of information about the winemaker, and a little light on info about the wine. Much attention is paid to accompaniments (i.e. food) and promoting their other products. We'd like a little more information on the wine region. Something we LOVE about this wine club is that they publish every single issue online, including all of the information found in the printed inserts.
Masters Series Gifts
We think The Masters Series from International Wine of the Month Club is an excellent gift. Whether you're buying it as a corporate gift or just a regular gift for your favorite wine lover, it's a great and affordable choice.
Always thinking about how to make their wine club great, International Wine of the Month Club gives you a tool to send an E-Gift Announcement on a specific date (this is unusual). If you want to print a Gift Announcement, they have a great tool to help you create your own! You can some basic style elements and personalize it with information pertaining to what you’ve purchased and for whom, as well as adding a personal message or use a pre-written greeting. IMPORTANT NOTE: Gift Announcements are not automatically generated for orders placed on the Internet.
Design Your Own Gift
International Wine of the Month Club is a part of a larger gift service called Monthly Clubs. A standout opportunity from Monthly Clubs is their Design Your Own Club feature. In addition to being a wine club they're also a Beer of the Month Club, Chocolate of the Month Club, Cigar of the Month Club, Flower of the Month Club, and Cheese of the Month Club. Not only do they offer all of these other clubs, you can mix and match to create your own special gift. Choose a different type of product each month, alternate products, whatever you want to do. Buying for a husband and wife? Alternate shipments with her faves and his!
Here are examples of the wine & cheese and wine & chocolate clubs we designed for ourselves!
The Masters Series