A friend’s wife wants to give him a wine club membership for his birthday, and asked me for recommendations. I have no idea. Do any of you have any recommendations?
The only wine club I ever was a member of was the Ridge ATP. IA good choice if the giftee enjoys these kinds of wines.
http://www.ridgewine.com/membership/advance%20tasting%20program
What kind of wines does he like? What’s the budget? Where do they live…
Tablas creek might be a good choice lots of Varity
I’m a Tablas Creek club member and have enjoyed it. They have good wines (consistently rate them at 88-92), great customer service and everyone at the winery is very friendly and knowledgable.
Another recommendation would be Bargetto. The value for dollar quotient is amazingly high. Their wines are consistently good across all varietals.
If this person is new to wine, Frank Family does a nice club with a lot of variety.
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If they aren’t too into wine or very new, I’d suggest considering one of the retailer clubs. That way they’ll get introduced to multiple styles across producers. I think K&L has a couple of options here.
If you want a selection of different wineries and small production wines, I might recommend Maisonry in Napa. They are a “wine collective” that represents wineries that don’t have their own tasting rooms. They represent about 12 high quality producers and have various club levels you can join.
They are located in Yountville, and its a really classy place to visit as well.
I agree with the retail option – a couple small wine bars near me offer wine clubs that seek out interesting wines each month. One of them even pairs a cheese (or in some cases a chocolate) with the wines. The only trouble is you have to go to their physical shop to pick them up (it’s not online) – but usually there’s a “pick up” party with tastings.
Hope you don’t mind me piggybacking on this one, as I was just about to start a new thread on wine club suggestions…
After living in Napa for five years, I became quite spoiled with the accessibility and availability of local wines from surrounding areas. However, I recently moved a few hours North, and quickly realized that even a short distance away, the selection at local shops was not quite sufficient. As a member of exactly zero wine clubs, I figure it’s time to consider joining a few. Below I listed a couple options that come to mind, along with the good/bad of each. I wanted to get some thoughts on why others choose the clubs they do, along with any feedback or suggestions for alternatives based on my thoughts.
My wish list for a club:
- Ability to choose red/white
- Smaller shipments, 6 bottles or less. A case is simply too much for me.
- Representative of a particular region. I want to explore wines from beyond Napa/Sonoma, but probably mostly from CA.
- Varietal specific clubs. For example a “Pinot Only” choice.
- Multiple producers in one
#1 - Ehlers Estate.
I love this place for a few reasons. First and foremost, I thoroughly enjoy every wine they make. They’re also pretty affordable, though not cheap by any means.
#2 - Mount Eden
I’d like to depart from the Napa region and get some good stuff from Santa Cruz, Lodi, or the Central Coast. The Mount Eden wines seem to be consistently good, fairly priced, and remind me of Ridge’s offerings, only cheaper. They fit with my “baller on a budget” mentality.
Club details: 2 shipments, 2 bottles each. $100-200 depending on what they include. I’d really like to get only their Cab, or reds…unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be an option.
#3 - Terra Valentine or Keenan
This is a toss up between two of my favorite Spring Mountain producers. I want wines that bring a distinct profile with them, and I really love the Spring/Howell Mountain fruit.
Keenan does two shipments of four bottles, at around $120 each. Terra Valentine offers three club levels, with a minimum of 1 case/year at $600. Both offer the typical club benefits like discounts, recipes, and the privilege of reading their crappy newsletters. Again, there’s no choice to get reds, whites.
#4 - Honigs “Rutherford 850” club
I love Honig’s wines, and put them in the same league as Ehlers - consistent quality across the board, good prices, and a really friendly and fun, unpretentious atmosphere (if you haven’t tasted here, definitely put them on your list). Their club ships 4x/year, and costs only $90-100 each time. They claim to send large-formats, verticals, single-vineyard cabs too. But they don’t indicate how many bottles you get. I’m guessing it’s between 2-3 on average.
It seems like most wineries have a pretty limited club. I understand that it can be difficult to please everyone all the time, so they need to restrict it in some ways, but the overall lack of flexibility is really disappointing. If anyone has seen the Bounty Hunter’s club offerings, I think they have one of the best approaches that I have found. They have 12+ clubs, split up by delivery frequency, varietals, and more.
Someone suggested Maisonry, which is an excellent place that has a huge variety of small-production boutique producers. I think they have a fairly customizable club too. Frank Family is also a great choice. Also, after looking at some of the “Best P/Q” threads, it seems like there are tons of small producers that I’ve never heard of who probably have affordable clubs. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.
Unless the wife really knows what the husband likes/doesn’t like to drink, a wine club gift isn’t a very good idea. Whether it’s a winery club or a retailer club, you’re getting whatever THEY decide to sell via the club. A much better gift is a gift certificate to a local retailer with a large selection (or if there isn’t one, a gift certificate to a large online retailer who can deliver there).
Bruce
Hi Jeff,
I’m ITB and launched Stash Wines last year (www.stashwines.com). We have a wine club that might be of interest to your friend. If you’d like, please forward our website address. On the home page, there is a direct link to our wine club page. Thank you for considering, Scot Wagner @ Stash Wines.
Thanks all, I think that the retail idea is what she wants. She has a pretty good idea of what he likes, so she is really just looking for a place to start. I’ll let her know of the retail ideas mentioned above.
I agree, but my partner told his wife that is what he wants, and she came to me for advice (apparently his suggestion). What’s a man to do?
I would look at something like Acme Fine Wines in St. Helena. They have some pre-established clubs and even a “do it yourself” club based on parameters you set.