Regular access to older/mature wines is the reason I am a member of he two clubs I joined recently.
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I think most of us WBer types are not in any clubs or maybe one or two.
I think conventional wine clubs mostly appeal to more casual drinkers, who get caught up in the moment during a visit and/or just want to get a steady supply from that producer and donât want to hassle with sourcing it. And either donât realize or donât care that they are usually overpaying at club prices.
To the extent folks like us belong to any clubs, it would have to be very desirable wine that you canât otherwise get and/or is at substantially below market pricing. But wines like that are almost always mailing list not wine club.
I am in zero actual wine clubs. On a lot of mailing lists though.
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Yeah, same, Chris. I am not in any clubs. I guess if you count Monte Bello as a club, I was in that one for a while (but I dropped this year). Apart from that, the only wine club I have ever been a member of was Chateau Ste. Michelle, when I lived very near the winery. And that was solely for pre-sale access to concert tickets, not the wine.
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There were a lot of reasons in the past, but now it is really just for access. I am in one club and on one mailing list. The former has a very unique proposition - rare grape varietal that I look forward to seeing evolving over time in CA soils; the latter is considered a cult wine producer. They are both customizable, and small production for their most sought-after wine. I find it difficult to manage more than a couple of them so try hard not to add myself to more!
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These are my 4 criteria to join a club or have a standing allocation.
- I like the wine and canât be found locally (retail or restaurant list).
- Some sort of connection, usually an enjoyable visit and/or I like the winemaker style.
- Smaller minimum purchase requirements (3 or 4 bottles, twice a year).
- Perks like reduced price or complimentary tastings.
Currently, I belong to 8 Napa, 3 Paso, and 2 Sonoma wine clubs. However, planning to shed a few in the coming years.
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- Wine is exceptional
- I canât find the wine locally, or my loyalty is rewarded with a slight discount to retail pricing
- The people are passionate, genuine, humble and I want to support them
- They do clever things to build remote relationships like zoom tastings and other engagements that are not just about the locals
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Need to add 2 or 3 SBC ones 
Cheers
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I have been a subscriber on a number of winery lists for many years, some like Williams Selyem and Rochioli for over 30 years, but I have never once joined a wine clubâŚif by that you mean a membership where you receive a number of bottles chosen by the winery 2-4 times a year. I always bought enough wine, Burgundy and domestic Pinot Noir, that I did not need to populate my cellar with 1, 2, or more cases from a single winery each year where I did not get to choose every bottle I purchased.
While I have been in wine clubs in the past, I am no longer, and think thereâs near zero chance I would join another. Youâve gotten lots of great answers from the WB crowd on this thread. So my perspective is as a wine lover, non-wine business owner, and marketing professional.
Donât try to do everything folks have mentioned. Select a target customer (ideally with some data to back your choice), do the homework to figure out what is most important to them, and market relentlessly to them.
Examples - letâs say you have data to support the idea that you have enough folks within 100 miles who love your wine and love in-person tastings and events. Build a regular program of events and get your clients (and their friends) out to the winery 2 or three times a year or more. Free shipping, etc. isnât going to be real relevant to this strategy.
Or maybe you find an under-served bunch of wine lovers in Ohio (or whatever state works). Market like crazy to them, find their hot button subjects (college football tail-gates, rose sipping in summer, etc.). Lean into being a part of their lives, and make the shipping, selection, etc. fit.
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Collecting verticals, library access, supporting good winemaking. Iâm only a member of one wine club at a time and I want to do a lot of back-filling. I mostly buy directly from winemakers as a nonmember and from third parties.
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I wish more wineries did this. Walter Scott does a fun version each year where they send out 3 oz bottles of this yearâs releases and then do a Zoom tasting. I did it once and it was a lot of fun.
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We like to support small producers and join some of their clubs. I do like to be able to customize or pass on a shipment. A lot of our travel is centered around wine, so having complimentary tastings is nice (especially when we travel with friends or our daughter and son-in-law).
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Exactly who I had in mind when I wrote that 
one of my favorite events of the year.
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- Quality of wine/Ageability
- Is it in my affordable price range
- Fully customizable
- Winemaking ethos
- Winemaker
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based on membership in several clubs, in order of importance:
- quality of wine/wine-maker/ story (i.e.-family owned, your support makes a difference, wine not readily available in retail)
- price - not having to pay more than retail/market level including shipping is a factor but not a deal breaker, biggest related issue is having some flexibility on annual level of participation (i.e. - no matter how much I love your wine, donât need 24 bottles per year)
- being able to control mix of wines (i.e. - only want reds not whites - in my experience most clubs with fixed requirements will respond favorably to a call or email)
- preferred access to library wines, special offers, tastings, etc.
full disclosure - no longer a member of any wine clubs for various reasons including:
- had to commit to too many bottles per year (24)
- price I was paying plus shipping was more than what my local retailer could acquire same wine for
- spending too much on wine and needed to whittle down purchases
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The thread has a lot of short lists like this one, and theyâre all good points.
The thing I keep wondering is, what wine clubs (and I mean clubs not mailing lists) are even out there that meet all these criteria?
Obviously there is a lot of subjectivity so I canât speak for everyone else, but it really doesnât seem to me like there are hardly any lists in existence that meet the criteria of us WBers.
I think clubs are mostly for a different crowd. Your neighbors who like wine and have money for wine but arenât geeks, arenât highly discriminating, like the autopilot convenience, donât really care that much about the selections and pricing, maybe like visiting and going to events, probably originally joined on impulse during a visit.
I think if I ran a winery, Iâd just sort of be aware of that and aim my club design at those folks.
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Calluna seems to check these boxes. Yes, there is still the 12 or 24 bottles per year issue but that is the difference between a club and a list. But otherwise, it seems to fit based on five minutes of searching retail options and pricing.
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Certainly an interesting perspective. I think where most wineries struggle is trying to define their base. Some try to appeal to all. I know my winery has tried to appeal to all consumers in the past and it doesnât work well.
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We live in Yakima Valley Washington, moved here from the midwest 17 years ago as casual wine drinkers. We were a prime target audience for winery clubs since we were new to the region and were tasting wines that exceeded anything we had bought before, mostly grocery store wines, and our minds were blown with the concept of living in true âwine countryâ. I lost count, but my goal early on was to visit/taste as many wineries as possible, along with many wine events, and between WA, and frequent trips to OR and (fewer) to CA, we tasted probably 500 west coast wineries. My job took me to many of the towns/areas and I always added an afternoon or weekend to taste wine.
Early on, the clubs we joined were based off, a) wine quality vs the others, b) access to special perks, parties, one winery had a âhidden roomâ for club-members only, and c) access to wines not available anywhere else. We joined 30+ winery clubs over the years, dropping for various reasons, usually tiring of the wines, too many random clunkers, too frequent shipments, or a sour personal experience.
Today we belong to 4 clubs, minimum 6 bottles/year, and fully customizable, price discounts are good vs. list price, and with an exception or two, the wines are not available at retail, and some are âclub member onlyâ wines. We also know the owners/winemakers and that is biggest reason we stay with these few, weâve developed long term relationships, and we call them friends, even though we are always mostly customers to them. We typically buy case quantities after tasting, or sometimes just knowing the particular wines from prior vintage.
We also belong to 4-5 wineries where we are on list with a fully optional allocation. We go back and forth on buying from those depending on when they hit, and how much room we have for new wine, (which is typically zero), and if there is something particularly interesting. These all also cover a range of wine variety types that we enjoy most, and kinda fill our cellar with a good range, even if producer heavy.
All of these with exception of Turley in California, are local to us WA/OR so we donât pay any shipping, though occasionally we will ask them to ship if we are not able to pick up. We pick up in Oregon from a couple that are Washington based, but have facilities/tasting rooms in Oregon, and that saves 8% sales tax.
Recently, Iâve made an attempt to purge our cellar of wine that might be on the downhill of their life, so have revisited a lot of wines from earlier winery clubs. For the most part they have all held up at 10-15 years past vintage, some have been fantastic even, so at least this confirms we made some good choices early on, and that wines made here can stand the test of time.
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Great thread, thank you for opening a discussion about wine clubs. We have a wine club as well, and it is a really key part of our business model. As much as I like the idea of allocation only, here one minute gone the next, that isnât how things work for us and so we adapt but I definitely donât think it means we arenât keeping up with our allocated peers quality wise.
A big part of our group do live nearby in the Willamette Valley, though at least 20% live outside of the state. Things that have really helped us over the past few years is ensuring club members get the best pricing on our wines, ease of purchasing from our website, and shipping is cheap and up front ($30 flat rate for wine club members across the US). Two releases we will charge for and another two are optional and coincide with a gathering in June and November.
I think visions of wine clubs being drops for expensive wines only, pandering to those who want a âsubscribe, save and forgetâ deal might reflect different regions and probably different times. I see a lot of wineries here in the W.V. and those on this board from California creating what look to be wonderful, nuanced experiences for customers. The other side to this is, I see so many âallocated winesâ in portfolios or discounted locally that I canât help but grow leery of the smoke and mirrors of scarcity.
I like to believe we provide a club where we build out an offer that our customers can adjust and if they need to they can skip or drop. And for them buying directly from us, they receive the best pricing possible along with a heap of other benefits.
If I werenât in the trade, what would entice me to join a wine club: good people, good wines, good pricing, fair shipping, ease of purchasing and the ability to drop or add wines if I needed to. And if I am in the area, a chance to visit with the winemaker and taste if that were an option.
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