Was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or wanted to share their experiences with Underground Cellar?
I placed a few orders back in 2015. I thought it was fun, albeit gimmicky. It’s entertaining, especially if you like a bit of gambling. None of the wines I bought were magical, they were generally fine. I did not get any crazy “jackpot” upgrades - mostly they were more like $16 bottles being upgraded to $21 or $28.
However I’m suspicious about the “retail values” they assign to these wines in the first place. The wines seem to be pretty obscure producers, ones you cannot easily look up on Wine-Searcher for verification. I was upgraded to a “$35” carmenere that I just recently looked up on Wine-Searcher, out of curiosity, and it says it historically averaged $12-16.
I don’t have any personal experience with the site, but I’ve seen quite a few damning complaints on Reddit and not many good reviews (however, I’m aware that people are much more likely to post something when they are upset vs. when they are satisfied).
However, ignoring whether the experience and service is ultimately satisfactory, I still don’t consider it a good idea. First, the retail prices are very inflated vs. the lowest price you can find online and likely vs. the average market price (and they more or less admit to this if you read carefully). Second, the offers seem to always be filled almost entirely with wines I’ve never heard of, can’t find reviews of, or know that I don’t like for the money. For example, look at the sparkling wine collection. Sure, I’d love to have a 1998 Piper Heidsieck Cuvee Rare magnum, or even Ruinart NV for $35; however, the chances are that I’d primarily be buying bottles of Chandon for $35. Ignoring the fact that Chandon isn’t something I’d choose to buy (I don’t dislike it though), I can buy Chandon from almost anywhere that sells wine for $20 - $25. If I bought even 100 bottles, chances are that I would not get the Piper Heidsieck. Sure, I should get 3 Ruinarts, but with all of the money I’m wasting by over paying for Chandon and other random bottle, I could’ve just bought a bunch Ruinart and some 1998 Piper Heidsieck Cuvee Rare anyway. Instead of paying $140 for 3 bottles of Chandon and some other random sparkling wine, I’d rather buy 3 bottles Chandon/Schramsberg/cremant/etc. for $60 total and a bottle of Ruinart for $70 or so.
Instead of trying to get lucky on UC, I’d rather just shop around and get the best prices I can on affordable bottles that I actually want or think I’ll like and buy a nicer bottle once in awhile.