I’m a big fan of NakedWines.com, especially because they make shopping for wine fun and easy. Wine delivery isn’t especially easy, but wine shopping should be!
They do so much to make sure that once you become a member, you’ll keep buying wine from them for a long time. They know happy customers are the best customers.
Learn how to shop Nakedwines.com like a pro.
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.
I’ve got a dozen reasons why I think people should at least try buying wine in my Nakedwines.com review, but here are the most important ones.
Some of the many wines I’ve received from NakedWines.com over the years.
Wine: 2021 Rick Boyer Unoaked Chardonnay
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Region: Edna Valley, Central Coast, California
Retail price: $18.99
Angel price: $15.99
Angels who would buy again: 92% of 100
A beautiful expression of Central Coast Chardonnay which went easy on the winemaking to let the Chardonnay’s bright fruitiness shine on its own.
Rick Boyer is a veteran winemaker who gave up on winemaking because the business is hard on small wineries. Naked Wines brought him out of “retirement” and now he’s focused on making delicate, layered wines from the Central Coast. This is one of my favorite wines and an incredible value.
My full review of: Rick Boyer Unoaked Chardonnay
Wine: 2021 F. Stephen Millier Legend Series Santa Barbara Pinot Noir
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Region: Santa Maria Valley, Central Coast, California
Retail price: $26.99
Angel price: $15.99
Angels who would buy again: 93% of 908 would buy again (and sold out)
For $15.99 this Pinot Noir was an impressive doppelganger for Santa Barbara’s more premium product, but the complexity and depth was missing.
A true Naked wines winemaking collaboration between fan-favorite Stephen Millier and long-time growers the Brothers Miller. Millier cut his teeth at Pinot mainstay David Bruce Winery before moving on to build his wine empire. The Brothers Miller are part of the family who owns and manages the acclaimed Bien Nacido vineyard in Santa Maria.
My full review of: F. Stephen Millier Legend Series Santa Barbara Pinot Noir
Wine: 2021 Patrice Grasset Chenin Blanc
Blend: 100% Chenin Blanc
Region: Loire Valley, France
Retail price: $30.99
Angel price: $15.99
Angels who would buy again: 91% of 235 would buy again
A more subtle Chenin Blanc than I’m used to, but it was balanced and food-friendly, and I’d drink it again.
Patrice Merceron is a third-generation French winemaker at J. de Villebois and joined Naked Wines and produces wine under the brand Patrice Grasset a few years ago. He mainly produces very popular white wines from Loire Valley for Naked Wines.
My full review of: Patrice Grasset Chenin Blanc
Wine: 2020 Camille Benitah Volute
Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon (dominant), Merlot (percentages not disclosed)
Region: Napa Valley, California
Retail price: $58.99
Angel price: $24.99
Angels who would buy again: 90% of 109 would buy again
When I taste wines like this one, I’m reminded that Napa Valley wines are mostly overpriced and overhyped. It showcases Napa’s red wine grapes and terroir without breaking the bank.
Previously a maker of cult wines herself, Camille Benitah was responsible for Merus ($150 back in 2008) and has worked with Paul Hobbs, too. She’s got serious chops and she works with Naked Wines because they allow her to focus on the creative side and they take care of the rest of the details.
My full review of: Camille Benitah Volute
Wine: 2020 Ana Diogo-Draper Red
Blend: Tempranillo, Touriga Nacional (percentages not disclosed)
Region: Alentejo, Portugal
Retail price: $21.99
Angel price: $12.99
Angels who would buy again: 88% of 1,011 would buy again
Portugal is one of the world’s best wine values right now and food-friendly red wine styles like this one are contributing to its growing popularity.
Portuguese-born Ana Diogo-Draper likes to work with several varieties, especially terroir-driven Tempranillo. There aren’t enough Portuguese wines being sold in the US, but this is a great example of why there should be.
My full review of: Ana Diogo-Draper Red
Wine: 2021 Franc Dušak Viognier
Blend: 100% Viognier
Region: Moon Mountain District, Sonoma Valley, California
Retail price: $28.99
Angel price: $15.99
Angels who would buy again: 93% of 164
A very subtle viognier offering typical varietal flavors like jasmine and honey, but the fruit profile was apple, not the usual stone fruits like apricot.
Franc Dušak is a third-generation Slovenian winemaker working with Sonoma grapes and Slovenian grapes. This wine was uninspiring, but still a solid alternative to mass-market white wines available around $15.
My full review of: Franc Dušak Viognier
Wine: 2021 Derek Rohlffs Pinot Gris
Blend: 100% Pinot Gris
Region: Anderson Valley, Mendocino County, California
Retail price: $26.99
Angel price: $16.99
Angels who would buy again: Too soon to tell
Fruity and bright, light white wine that tasted a little bit hot to me (the taste of alcohol). As with most Naked Wines whites, a great price for an easy drinking wine.
Derek Rohlffs, one of very few Native American winemakers, has worked with Naked Wines for a long time. He is known for other projects, too, like his highly-rated Bravium wines lauded by several critics and Master Sommelier Ian Cauble.
My full review of: Derek Rohlffs Pinot Gris
At the time of this write-up, there were 570 wines available for sale. 338 were American wines and the others were sourced from around the world.
Despite their reputation as cheap wine — mostly perpetuated by people who haven’t looked at Nakedwines.com in a long while — they’ve made a concerted effort to focus on premium wines for a few years now.
More than one third of their wines are $25+ and their line-up includes an ultra premium $200 Napa Valley Cab, wines by famed winemakers Rudy von Strasser and Jesse Katz, and reserve-level versions of many customer favorites.
Here’s a breakdown of their wine selection on March 17, 2023 (it’s still pretty similar):
Not everyone likes the same kinds of wines, so Naked Wines helps customers pick the wines they’ll like best. This type of categorization, based on the style of the wine, is especially useful if you want to explore similar wines and learn about new wine regions based on wines you’ve experienced and enjoyed previously.
Here are the styles they offer and some examples of what’s in each category:
As much as I love Naked Wines, it’s not for everyone. Their wine selection is American-dominant (though there plenty of International wines to keep explorers busy) and their red wine selection is Cab/Pinot-heavy which may not be one of your go-to reds.
That said, they’ve got enough variety to keep most wine drinkers interested unless you fall into one of these categories.
Sweet wine drinkers. If you exclusively drink wines on the sweeter side, Nakedwines.com won’t have enough of a selection to keep you interested.
Organic, natural, sustainable wine drinkers. At this time Nakedwines.com has an almost non-existent selection of organic wine, and no wine that the natural wine community would endorse. Even though I can be fairly certain there are plenty of organic and sustainable vineyards producing fruit that goes into these wines, they don’t tell you which ones, so shopping here is difficult if sustainability is important to you.
Wine drinkers on a very tight budget. While Nakedwines.com does offer a selection of wines under $15, roughly 50% of them are between $15-25 and roughly 40% are over $25.
One of my favorite features of Nakedwines.com is all of the member feedback. Angels are encouraged to rate their wines (it helps Nakedwines.com predict future wines each member might like), and many provide a qualitative review, too.
You can see member feedback when shopping “95% of 123 would buy this again,” and when looking at wine pages where people can rate wines from 1-5 and leave a review, too. I love that the winemakers interact with the members here, too!
The Nakedwines.com way is a really good indicator of whether or not customers felt they got a good value of the wine and that the wine was they expected. I find this information so helpful when shopping on their site — and I’m picky! A wine needs at least 92% before I’ll try it, unless it’s a new wine that’s right in my wheelhouse, like a sparkling rosé.
Reminder: wine taste is subjective. For any given wine on a site that crowd-sources reviews (like Nakedwines.com or Vivino) you’ll find some people thought a wine was disgusting swill to be dumped down the drain and other people will think it was the best wine they ever tried. As such, crowd-sourced ratings like “4.2 stars” or “90% would buy again” have little bearing on what you’ll personally like.
Naked Wines became famous for their innovative business model. Essentially it goes like this:
Nakedwines.com calls the price you might have paid “Market price” and decides these market prices based on the various costs of getting wine made and sent to retail establishments.
Market Price is intended to reflect what similar wines cost. But there’s no way for people who don’t work at Naked Wines to verify these supposed Market Prices because we don’t know what the grapes cost or what they were worth even if Naked Wines got a deal on them.
The discounts they offer — whether these are Angel Prices or Sale Prices — are based on the Market Price. Since the Market Price is fabricated, the discounted prices aren’t really discounts.
Here’s how I think about pricing at Nakedwines.com: if you normally spend about $30 on a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, you can expect a $30 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon at Nakedwines.com to be a little bit better quality. My experience with their wines tells me their Angel (sale) Price is what the wine would cost at market, but offers slightly better value in the form of better quality (taste is subjective).