Premier Wine Club Review

Wine Club Overview & Details

Wine Club Rating:

This wine club is...

• #1 Best Wine Club Gifts
• #4 Best White Wine Clubs
• #4 Best California Wine Clubs & Gifts
• #5 Best Wine Clubs

Summary

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 I Like

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

Improvements

It's hard to find anything to complain about.

Benefits

• Only artisan winemakers in California
• Great gift presentation and deals
• 100% satisfaction guarantee
• Wines not available in stores

Drawbacks

• Shipping is extra
• Not every bottle tastes like $22

Premier Wine Club delivers to

AK AZ CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS LA ME MD MA MN MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC TN TX VT VA WA WV WI WY

Don't see your state? The California Wine Club does not ship there. Browse wine clubs by state.

Join Premier Wine Club

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.

• Two Bottles - Ongoing for $49.00
• Two Bottles - Three-Month Gift for $147.00

Premier Wine Club Review

In this review

• What is Premier Series?
• What does Premier Series cost?
• Membership Benefits
• Wine Review
• Compare Premier Series
• Gift Review
• Why Trust this Review

What is the Premier Series from The California Wine Club?

Founded in 1990, The California Wine Club is a California company which sells artisanal wines from small family wineries. Their Premier Series is the most affordable among several wine subscriptions they offer. It is available as an ongoing subscription or as a gift membership (you choose the length of the gift). Premier Series, like all of their subscriptions, comes with an industry-leading satisfaction guarantee and a host of other membership benefits.

Ways to Customize Your Premier Series Membership

The Premier Series wine club can be further customized in these ways:

• Delivery frequency: This membership can be delivered monthly, every other month, or quarterly.
• Wine Selection: You can choose red wine only, white wine only, or a mix of both (half of each). If you choose just red or just white, you can also choose to receive two different bottles or two of the same.

Premier Series membership benefits

Any time you become a subscriber to a company’s services, there should be a benefit to you for loyalty. Sometimes that benefit is discounted members-only pricing and sometimes that benefit is extra perks. Here are the membership benefits for joining or gifting Premier Series.

• A full-color magazine each month called Uncorked. The magazine is both entertaining and informative. It details each wine shipped each month and also covers a particular wine topic, like fermentation vessels.
• The “Love It” Guarantee - they’ll refund any bottle a customer isn’t happy with. The California Wine Club is among very few wine clubs with this level of a guarantee, and they definitely offer the best wines of any company that offers a top tier guarantee.
• Free access to personal wine consultants - these helpful staff members can get to know your wine preferences and needs to make sure you’re getting the most of your membership.
• Members-only discounts - save 10% on wine club gifts (can’t be combined with other offers) you purchase for others; enjoy $1 shipping on supplemental orders of six or twelve bottles.
• Access to VIP Tours at the wineries they feature. Heading to wine country? Call The California Wine Club and tell them which wineries you’ve tried that you want to visit. They’ll get you set up with a VIP tour and tasting at the winery, often complimentary.
• See all membership benefits

Unboxing Premier Series shipment

Uncorked Premier Series example

Premier Series Wine Review

I’ve received several shipments of wine for review from the Premier Series at The California Wine Club since 2011.

The wine selections are remarkably consistent, and while their prices have inched up over the years as the industry’s prices have soared, they’ve managed to maintain that consistent quality that keeps their members coming back for more.

The California Wine Club specializes in small-batch wines from family wineries producing less than 15,000 cases per year. Small production wines typically offer the most character as the grapes are farmed for optimal taste, not optimal yield. Learn more about why these small producers are so important.

Here is a selection of wines I’ve received from the Premier Series over the years.

Robledo wines I received in 2013

Owl Ridge wines I received in 2016

Peltier wines I received in 2019

Brutocao wines I received in 2022

Here is a review of my latest shipment of wine from October 2022. The shipment contained one Chardonnay and one Cabernet Sauvignon, both from Brutocao Cellars (pronounced brew' tuh coe).

A true family winery, Brutocao’s main vineyard, Bliss, was first farmed in 1943 by Irv Bliss. When Irv’s daughter married Len Brutocao, the families joined forces to convert the Mendocino farm into a vineyard. After selling their grapes to well-known wineries in Sonoma and Napa, they began making their first wines in 1980. Still family owned and operated, the fourth generation of descendants has joined the team, wearing many hats as most people do in family-run businesses.

The Hopland Ranches Vineyard Maps

Over time Brutocao has added new vineyards to their holdings, and they now call their Mendocino vineyards, collectively, Hopland Ranches. At the Bliss Vineyard, the Feliz Vineyard, and the Content Vineyard they grow: Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Merlot, Sangiovese, Barbera, Dolcetto, and Primitivo (sometimes confused for Zinfandel, but a distinct grape).

Side note: it took some DNA fingerprinting to figure it out—but Primitivo and Zinfandel are actually both clones of a Croatian grape called Crljenak (source: Wine Spectator). A clone is a specialized variety of a grape, cultivated to add certain characteristics in the finished wine — like roundness, acidity, or tannins. Famous examples include the Wente Chardonnay clone, and a group of Pinot Noir clones called the Pommard clones.

My most recent shipment of The Premier Series:

Wine: 2021 Über Chard
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Winery: Brutocao Cellars
Region: Mendocino, California
Cases produced: 1,250
Retail price: $22

A somewhat complex Chardonnay from Northern California, showcasing vanilla and caramel from the oak and stone fruit on the palate.

The Brutocao family uses the ‘Über’ designation for wines that are intensely varietal and delicious. The grapes for this Chardonnay come from the family’s Bliss Vineyard where they grow Dijon and Wente clones.

My full review of: Über Chard

Wine: 2019 Über Cab
Blend: 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 2% “mixed Reds”
Winery: Brutocao Cellars
Region: Mendocino, California
Cases produced: 1,980
Retail price: $28

Made in a popular style, this Cabernet uses conventional winemaking techniques to achieve a specific flavor profile from medium-quality fruit.

This is an example of a wine where I tasted more winemaking that I prefer. That assessment is due to the prominence of “spice” and the mocha and toffee finish. The spice likely came from the fruit, but the mocha and toffee are oak-imparted flavors.

My full review of: Über Cab

How to save money on these wines

If you like the sound of this club, but don’t necessarily want to spend that much per bottle, I’ve got great news for you. The California Wine Club also offers a Case Club Series where you can get twelve bottles per shipment for $180 plus $21 shipping and handling. Like the Premier Series, you can still choose red wine, white wine, or a mix of both. Further, these are all the same high-quality wines you’d expect from Premier Series but you pay just slightly more than half the price.

Here’s how the math works out:

There are some important considerations to choosing the Case Club over Premier Series:

• If you don’t drink 12 bottles a month, you can get the Case Club every other month or quarterly
• In addition to the wines like those from Premier Series, you may also occasionally get a wine or two from Oregon or Washington state
• The Case Club does not come with Uncorked magazine, but all other membership benefits still apply (more details below)
• The Case Club is not available as a gift and no discounts can be applied to Case Club subscriptions

Join the Case Club and save.

Here are my top reasons to recommend The California Wine Club above all other clubs for gifts:

• The bottles in the first box come hand-wrapped in festive tissue paper.
• Gift recipients get a $25 credit toward a wine purchase in the wine store, and enjoy all member benefits while their gift membership is active.
• Buy more, save more pricing. Discounts start with three-month shipments.
  • 3-month gifts are $146.49 ($125.49 + $42 shipping and handling)
  • 6-month gifts are $333 ($249 + $84 shipping and handling)
  • 12-month gifts are $654 ($486 + $168 shipping and handling)

• They make it easy to get your shopping done early.
• The Love It guarantee helps ensure your gift recipient is satisfied.
• You can choose the Gift+ option and send them a small package in advance to let them know the wine is coming. The package, seen above, includes a corkscrew, a stainless bottle stopper, and a personalized gift note. This can be added on to any gift for $22 (includes shipping via USPS).
  
  Why Gift+? Delivery services being what they are, it’s hard to predict which day a wine club shipment might arrive, but you can order the Gift+ option and have it sent either to yourself to present in person on the big day or have it sent directly to the recipient to let them know the gift is on its way. This is a unique feature that no other wine club offers.

Gift-wrapped bottles in first shipment

Gift+ send-ahead gift