Retailer Clubs

If you want to be introduced to new wines or a variety of wine styles, look to a brick and mortar wine store. San Francisco-based K&L Wine Merchants, who have made a name for themselves as one of the best wine retailers in the country, have a variety of clubs designed to give their customers an introduction to new or unknown gems. Membership here can augment the Old World and Imports section of your cellar since retailers can offer wines from their entire inventory. Their Signature Red Collection Club recently shipped Chateauneuf-du-Pape and a Bordeaux to members for less than $30 each. Oregon retailer Avalon Wine has several wine clubs dedicated to northwest finds, including one that will send you Oregon-only wines and another dedicated to reserve pinot noirs, a staple of the region. Unlike a winery club or allocation, this isn’t about access or exclusivity, but rather discovery. Think of it as an automated way to get your wine merchants best buys. Look for retailers that have made a strong name as an authority in the industry, and you likely won’t be duped into buying bad selections.

The other segment is the growing number of online retailer and group clubs. Think Wine.com, Bottlenotes.com, the Forbes Wine Club and Vinfolio. In general, each of these online options have a choice of clubs that will send you wines within a set price range, and also options on the frequency of shipments and number of bottles in each delivery. Overall, it can be a crapshoot, since you never know what you’re getting and might only be able to narrow down your selections by red and white. Your best strategy may be to target clubs that offer a narrower selection rather than clubs with names like “premium” and “platinum.” For instance, Vinfolio has a pinot noir club and a European club, while Forbes offers a “Killer Cabernet” selection. If you opt for the online club route, keep your pioneering spirit on hand. If all else fails and these wines fall flat, you can easily cancel your membership.

The $150,000 wine club

Experience Clubs

In recent years, a new type of club has arisen to feed the would-be-winemaker in all of us. Take San Francisco’s CrushPad. This winemaking facility helps the average wine consumer source fruit from top vineyards, crush it, age it, bottle it and essentially become their own winemaker. The investment yields approximately 25 cases per barrel and takes 12 to 24 months from harvest to bottle depending on the grape variety selected.

Five things to know before joining a wine club