SommSelect wine clubs - "benchmarks" experience

WINE TALK
1

I joined SommSelect’s Benchmarks club during their July 4th sale and had some issues. I cancelled already but I’m curious to hear about other people’s thoughts about the SommSelect wine club. Do folks feel like it’s worth it.

I have two main complaints:

  1. Booklet accuracy problems - The Condrieu has the correct title, but the image and tasting notes are for a completely different wine I didn’t receive. The Domaine Weinbach from Alsace is listed as “Emilia-Romagna, Germany.” Some of the other pages have subtler mistakes which is annoying because I have to figure out if the information is really talking about the wine I received.

  2. Shipping timing - I asked them to hold until cooler weather and they agreed, but they shipped in July anyway. No ice pack, over 80°F in NYC, week-long transit. To their credit, they offered to replace any heat-damaged bottles, though I haven’t opened them yet to test.

In terms of value, it feels like a good deal during the sale (around $450 worth of wine with free shipping) and fair at full price. The wine selection itself seems solid and the sale pricing is attractive, but the execution could use improvement. The booklet mix-ups are especially frustrating when I feel like what they’re selling is also the educational material.

Has anyone else tried SommSelect clubs (any of them)? The other clubs seem interesting, maybe it was just a bad combination of the sale time or maybe this club just wasn’t a good fit for me.

Pictures of the mistakes in the booklet:

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d754f0e6-473e-4d89-896b-419c2929da4f2160×2880 266 KB

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055f7bf8-79e5-4671-af3e-7e7a5fae45322160×2880 286 KB

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c840b692-6c6b-4afe-a3b4-f3603a61b42b2160×2880 271 KB

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26dc0b02-2254-4fd0-96b3-fbb7e95d9ecc2160×2880 295 KB

1 Like
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Haven’t tried it, but welcome to the community! (even though I see you technically joined last year)

2 Likes
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Thank you for the warm welcome! I’ve been lurking for a while, just enjoying the discussions. See you around!

4

Mistake one doesn’t seem like a big deal to me. As a former college newspaper editor, I can say printing errors happen and cause a lot of headaches, but I don’t see how it affected your enjoyment or value of the wine.

Mistake two is a bigger deal, but so common, it should be a berserker meme. I’m not super worried about 80* unless it’s (an) older wine and/or I’m planning on laying down for 15+ yrs. And even then… And that they offered to replace any flawed bottles would make me a repeat customer, not an apostate.

Value the above at what you paid. :berserker:

Edit: no experience with the club/retailer, specifically.