Caveat: I’m a huge Herman Story fan, and actually came across Barrel 27 later, based on a recommend from a wine retailer who recommended saying, the Barrel 27 owner and Russell From (Herman Story) used to be partners. Barrel 27 is OK, but it’s no Herman Story. No idea what it was like when Russell was doing the winemaking himself. By the way, my understanding is that Herman Story is/was the winemaker’s grandfather, hence the name.
Anyway, yes, I’m a Story wine club member. It’s a set ship if you want, but it’s also one of the better ones where you can adjust/remove/add bottles at will and they send out a mailer making that pretty easy, well in advance of shipment dates. I, too, loathe those, ‘We’ll send you this and you have to buy these bottles to get more of what you really want’ clubs. With Story, you don’t have to take a set amount of anything, so in that way it’s more mailing list-like, though everyone gets the same maximum allocation. Later, they then often offer extra wine to customers later, if it’s still available. They also have a tasting room, and sell from there, though I’ve never been. I discovered Herman Story via retail, so it is out there that way, too.
One thing I like about the club is that the wines are all, at least so far, identically priced and the shipping charge is pretty fair. (They’re not making money on shipping.) I think the current per bottle price from the winery is somewhere in the $33-$34 range, based on my recent CellarTracker entries.
Russell has recently added some new blends and vineyards (One Hit Wonder, Late Bloomer), to augment the classics from his line (Nuts and Bolts, On the Road, Casual Encounters, Larner, etc.) and last year offered a new bottling at a slightly lower price point, RPF (his initials), with some interesting wines, though I’m not sure if that’s going to continue, as I haven’t heard anything past the initial offering, which went out to current Story customers. (For what it’s worth, the RPF Cab-blend is drinking really well right now. A lot better than I thought it’d be after initial tasting. He did some whites and a rose, too, but I didn’t try them, so have no idea how they turned out.)
For me, Story is about the best QPR going, though you really have to like the big stuff to enjoy it.
For the uninitiated who want to get a feel for the label, I’d suggest trying the Nuts and Bolts Syrah, probably their most popular and prolific label, and one of the Grenaches, either the On the Road or Casual Encounters. If you like those, you’ll probably love everything else. Personally, I think the Late Bloomer might be the best bottling he’s put out, but I was told that was basically gone and not sure if they’re doing another vintage or if it was a one-time thing.
Again, I’m an unabashed fan, so take all of the above for what it’s worth. I recently noticed that while Herman Story, which makes a fairly limited amount of labels, isn’t #1 in my cellar make-up (that would be the super-prolific Bedrock), it IS #1 in my wine consumed … So take that for what it’s worth. (Basically, it just means we really, really like it.)