Wine Access Discovery Club
$25 a bottle. 6 bottles per shipment and shipping is included for all memberships. A selection of International wines, with six different wines in each box. Choose red or white wine or a mix. Ships quarterly.
Wine Journey: Beginner · Enthusiast · Connoisseur
In keeping with the idea of the wine journey many of us make, if you’re not a wine newbie and you’re not a collector or a wine expert, well, you must be an enthusiast. This unofficial designation, propagated by the eponymous magazine and their catalog of wine-related goods, encompasses a broad range of wine drinkers.
Here are some characteristics of wine enthusiasts, as we see it:
Despite what you may have heard, there are great wine clubs for you wine enthusiasts out there, offering interesting high-quality selections you might be able to find yourself, but often can’t. When looking to upgrade your wine drinking, the $20-60 price range typically offers the best value (best quality to price ratio).
When you’re into wine but don’t have the budget to drink the best wine every day, you might find you shop in the $18-25 per bottle range, delighting in special deals when you can snag ‘em. But because you’re busy, learning about the details of these wines isn’t realistic. Great news! There are many wine clubs who are interested in you as a customer. They specialize in good quality wine, either selected by sommeliers, made by small family wineries, or picked for food pairings.
Wine Access Discovery Club
$25 a bottle. 6 bottles per shipment and shipping is included for all memberships. A selection of International wines, with six different wines in each box. Choose red or white wine or a mix. Ships quarterly.
Sunset Magazine Wine Club
$20 a bottle. 6 bottles per shipment and shipping is included. A selection of craft wines from Washington, Oregon, and California in each box. Mixed red, white, and rosé. Ships quarterly.
Gold Wine Club
$24.50 a bottle. 2-12 bottles per shipment and shipping is extra. A selection of award winning wines in each box. Choose red or white wine or a mix. Ships monthly, every other month, or quarterly.
Plonk Wine Club
From $27 a bottle. 4, 6, or 12 bottles per shipment and shipping is free. An eclectic selection of four different unusual wines from around the world in each box. Choose mixed, red, or white wine only. Ships monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly.
You worked hard all week, at the office, out in the field, or at home wrangling the kids. Friday and Saturday nights are when you tend to break out the good stuff — maybe $30-40 a bottle? There are perfect wine clubs for you, too. Maybe this is when you take the time to read up on what you’re drinking, savor the aromas and flavors in the glass, prepare a nice meal to pair with the gem you’ve picked out.
Wildcrafted Wines Enthusiast Club
$38.33 a bottle. 3 bottles per shipment and shipping is free to most states. A Napa insider selection of wines from Northern California wine country; one red, one white, and one rosé in each box. Ships two-three times per year.
GrapeSeed Selections
$150 per shipment. 4-6 bottles per shipment and shipping is included to most states. Unusual, high-quality wines from California are featured in each box. These are artful wines made in “the new California” style. Mixed red and white wine only. Ships quarterly.
Collectors Series from The International Wine of the Month Club
$36.48 a bottle. 2 bottles per shipment and shipping is $12 to most states. Unusual, high-quality wines from around the world are featured in each box. Choose mixed or red wine only. Ships monthly, every other month, or quarterly.
Note: There are at least four weekends in a month — join more than one of these clubs to keep your cellar stocked for the whole month! You can cancel anytime.
Tip: For some of these clubs, you get better prices if you prepay for 3 months or more. Be sure to explore the details at each wine club.
You love wine. You love learning about the winemaker, the vineyard, the soil, and the story that holds it all together. You sometimes want to treat yourself to something a little pricier, like $40-60 a bottle. There are perfect wine clubs for this part of your wine drinking, too.
Now is a good time to mention that wine clubs typically offer Satisfaction Guarantees. If you don’t like a wine, many wine clubs will replace it with one you do (some only replace “bad” bottles, but others just want you to be happy no matter what). Does your local wine shop offer that? Oh, they don’t? Well, that’s why you should consider a wine club for your splurge wines!
Surprisingly there aren’t too many wine clubs in the $40-60 per bottle price range — most are under $30 and over $60. Here are two that we think are splurgeworthy, but still under $60 a bottle.
Platinum Club
$57 a bottle. 2, 3, 4, or 6 bottles per shipment and shipping is extra. Small, critically-acclaimed, artisanal wineries from California and around the world in each box. Choose mostly red or red wine only. Ships monthly or quarterly.
If you like a particular variety or region of wine, you’ll find the wine clubs specializing in it typically fall into the $30-50 price range. Here is a selection of variety-specific and region-specific wine clubs we think you’ll love.
Champagne Club from Wine Access
$50 a bottle. 4 bottles per shipment and shipping is extra. Discover NV Grower Champagne (10% of what gets imported to the US, is the equivalent of "Estate Bottled") and vintage cuvées from the big Champagne houses. Ships quarterly.
French Wine Club from SomMailier
From $29.66 a bottle. 3 (or 6) bottles per shipment and shipping is extra. Unusual, delectable French wine with plenty of info about the region and winery in every box. Ships quarterly.
Two Options from Italian Wine Club Roscioli
Both wine clubs ship to the US twice per year (April and late October), and are paid in four quarterly installments. Shipping is included in the stated cost. Each wine is selected by a well-known restaurateur in Rome (the only middleman is an importer who receives Roscioli shipments and then redirects them to you).
Each shipment includes companion content with pairing ideas, drinking windows, wine descriptions and a video of each winemaker with subtitles.
Level 1
179 € per payment (716 € per year, 29.83 € per bottle). 12 bottles per shipment. Natural, biodynamic Italian wine from small producers in every box. Eclectic selections sent to you from Rome, not imported by other companies.
Level 2
249 € per payment (996 € per year, 41.50 € per bottle). 12 bottles per shipment. Featuring premium, age-worthy wines like Brunello di Montalcino and Barolo from small producers in every box.
If you want luxury-level wines of a particular grape, style, or region, check out the Connoisseur wine clubs.
Try Nakedwines.com… you’ll find everything you’re looking for if you’re not chasing a brand name or critically-acclaimed winery. Just good wine at a great price. We love Nakedwines.com for a variety of reasons:
For more choices, here are our Best Premium Wine Clubs and all wine clubs I’ve reviewed which you can filter by price.
A few we haven’t reviewed but are interested in trying: Fat Cork, Winestyr, SommSelect, Viticole, and The Grand Tour.