Signature Series Wine Club Review

Wine Club Overview & Details

Wine Club Rating:

This wine club is...

• #1 Best California Wine Clubs & Gifts
• #1 Best Premium Wine Clubs
• #2 Best Red Wine Clubs

Summary

This wine subscription focuses on high-end, small-production wines from small family wineries in California. It is perfect to give as a gift or to join yourself.

What I Like

The Signature Series is one of our favorite premium wine clubs. I never get tired of exploring the different styles and terroirs of high-end California wine.

Improvements

Not every bottle is right in my wheelhouse, but I don’t hold that against them.

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 $70

Signature Series 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 Signature Series 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 $134.00
• Four Bottles - Ongoing for $279.00
• Six Bottles - Ongoing for $399.00
• Two Bottles - Three-Month Gift for $402.00
• Four Bottles - Three-Month Gift for $837.00
• Six Bottles - Three-Month Gift for $1,197.00

Signature Series Wine Club Review

In this review

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

What is the Signature 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. The Signature Series is their premium, mostly-red wine option. It is available as an ongoing subscription or as a gift membership (you choose the length of the gift). Signature Series, like all of their subscriptions, comes with an industry-leading satisfaction guarantee and a host of other membership benefits.

Ways to Customize Your Signature Series Membership

The Signature Series wine club can be customized in these ways:

• Number of bottles: When you join for yourself, you can choose a two-bottle, three-bottle, or four-bottle subscription. When you give a Signature Series gift, it’s a two-bottle subscription.
• Delivery frequency: This membership can be delivered monthly, every other month, or quarterly.

Ways to save on Signature Series

Depending on your preferences, there are two great ways to save on a Signature Series membership for yourself.

Option 1: send yourself a “gift” when you place your order. Discounts start at three months (around 13%) and go up to approximately 23% for twelve months.

Option 2: The California Wine Club kindly offers my readers a generous discount. Save 50% on the wine portion of your first shipment with code WCRHALF at checkout (ongoing subscriptions only, not for gifts). Shipping and handling will still be $21.

Signature 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 Signature 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 Signature Series shipment

Uncorked Signature Series example

Signature Series Wine Review

I’ve received several shipments of wine for review from the Signature Series at The California Wine Club since 2015.

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.

This club, like all of the premium subscriptions at The California Wine Club, is not value-focused. Membership at The California Wine Club comes with a lot of benefits, including the core benefit of sampling wines from small wineries you’re unlikely to discover on your own.

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

Volker Eisele and mystery wine I received in 2015

Daou and Soquel wines I received in 2016

Dutton-Goldfield and Pope Valley Winery wines I received in 2019

Barden and COHO wines I received in 2022

My most recent shipment of The Signature Series:

Wine: 2020 Barden Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Winery: Margerum Wine Company
Region: Sta. Rita Hills, Central Coast, California
Cases produced: 216
Retail price: $68

A beautifully-made Pinot Noir from Sta. Rita Hills featuring organic fruit from top vineyards in the region: La Encantada, Sanford & Benedict, and Radian.

This wine is an excellent example of why Sta. Rita Hills is a premier Pinot Noir wine region in California. When I drank it, it was a modestly complex earthy Pinot Noir with a strong oak profile, chewy tannins, and a long finish.

My full review of: Barden Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills

Wine: 2017 COHO Headwaters Napa Valley Red Wine
Blend: 81% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Malbec, 1% Petit Verdot
Winery: COHO Wines
Region: Napa Valley, California
Cases produced: 1,164
Retail price: $56

Perfect medium-bodied, Bordeaux-style red wine to enjoy with any food not requiring a high-acid companion.

This wine showcases why, if you can, you should try to lay your red wines down for a few years before consuming them. It was likely more puckery and astringent when it was younger, but has matured into a food-friendly red wine.

My full review of: COHO Headwaters Napa Valley Red Wine

I received a two-bottle sample shipment of the Signature Series. If I had signed up for the four-bottle version, here is a bit about the additional wines I would have received:

Winery: Deovlet Wines
Wine: 2020 Zotovich Family Vineyard, Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Region: Sta. Rita Hills, Santa Barbara County, California
Cases Produced: 108
Winery retail price: $50

There’s much to unpack about this wine (aside from the fact that I’m bummed this wasn’t one of the wines I received). As noted earlier, I spend a lot of time (and money) in the Sta. Rita Hills AVA as the wines produced in this area work for me — they’re fruit forward, complex, and there are many artisans at work in the region, both in the vineyards and in the cellars.

This description typifies what you can expect from the region in general: “For this wine, fruit was hand harvested then pressed to tank for settling 24 hours. Upon onset of fermentation, the lot was transferred to barrel to finish alcoholic fermentation. Secondary fermentation progressed until stylistic decisions were made to arrest fermentation to preserve some malic acid. The wine aged 15 months on fine lees in 100% French oak, 20% new barrique, plus a combination of neutral 400L and 228L.”

And the tasting notes from the winery: “Exotic tropical fruit and citrus tones with feijoa (pineapple guava), green mango, finger lime zest, and hints of blanched almond and vanilla bean lifting the fragrant bouquet. The palate is electric and taught, while maintaining a stunning balance of richness and intensity, juicy and saline. The acidity brings persistent length and tenacity for a minutes-long finish.”

The “exotic tropical fruit” is what happens when you mature Chardonnay “on the lees*,” especially for 15 months. The use of mostly neutral French oak prevents the Chardonnay from getting too oaky. That fermentation was stopped to “preserve some malic acid” was a great choice — the acidity makes the wine lively and food-friendly.

* When you ferment wine, the yeast have a byproduct as they gobble up sugar and turn it into alcohol. That byproduct is called “lees.” Some winemakers choose to leave it in while the wine matures because it adds complexity and, depending on the grape, brings out certain specific flavors in the finished product. The French call this “sur lies.” I have a soft spot for wines made this way.

Lastly, the Zotovich vineyards are well-respected in Sta. Rita Hills and a great vineyard to know if you’re learning about the area. Their organically-farmed land produces fruit used by many acclaimed wineries like Dragonette Cellars, Ken Brown Wines, Tyler Winery, Crawford Family Wines, Rideau Vineyards, and more. They also grow Pinot Noir, Syrah, Viognier, and Grenache.

Winery: Sojourn Cellars
Wine: 2019 Home Ranch, Sonoma Valley Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon
Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: Sonoma Valley, California
Cases Produced: 650
Winery retail price: $60

This Cabernet Sauvignon is predominantly made of the 337 clone — hey wine geeks, you might want to read this fascinating dissertation on 337 and other Cabernet clones — one of the most popular in Napa because it reliably produces that “typical” Cabernet flavor popular in America (less herbal, more red fruit and plush).

Tasting notes from the winery: “Home Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon explodes with blueberry fruit flavors and silky texture. The signature blue fruit aromas shine through with notes of mocha and cassis. The 2019 vintage offers exceptional structure, with fine grain tannins and a long finish.”

Hand-harvesting grapes at night. Source: Sojourn Cellars

The California Wine Club makes a point of highlighting the tightly-spaced rows of grapevines in this vineyard. Aside from helping increase the yield per acre for the vineyard, tight spacing also means the vines are hand-harvested (picture below shows the team at work at night when the temperature is lowest and the grapes sustain the least harvest damage). Sojourn Cellars also points out the berries are hand-sorted before fermentation begins with native yeasts. These are all practices associated with the highest quality wines.

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 Reserve Reds Case Club where you can get twelve bottles per shipment for $780 plus $21 shipping and handling. These are all the same high-quality wines you’d expect from Signature Series but you pay around $20 less per bottle.

Here’s how the math works out:

There are some important considerations to upgrading your shipments this way:

• If you don’t drink 12 bottles a month, you can get the Reserve Reds Case Club every other month or quarterly
• The Reserve Reds Case Club does not come with Uncorked magazine, but all other membership benefits still apply (more details below)
• The Reserve Reds Case Club is not available as a gift and no discounts can be applied to Case Club subscriptions

Join the Reserve Reds Case Club and save.

(Purchasing note: you’ll be taken to the Case Club page. Reserve Reds is a selection under Wine Options before you add it to your cart.)

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 $435 ($393 + $42 shipping and handling)
  • 6-month gifts are $852 ($768 + $84 shipping and handling)
  • 12-month gifts are $1,584 ($1,416 + $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