Wine Club? You bet! What could be better than a small army of wine professionals traveling the world picking out the best wines in the categories you select? It is a leap of faith to hand over your hard earned money to a stranger for wine selections, sure. But if your experience is anything like ours has been you will be glad you did.
Here are five reasons that joining a (good) wine club is worth it.
1. Wine clubs allow you to experience a much larger array of wines than your local store, or even wine shop, may have. If, like us, you live far from any large wine shops a wine club is a godsend. A trip to the local chain store is not going to afford you the chance to find many of the great wines available from around the world. Nor are you likely to get a professional’s take on a selection at the local store as you will when using a wine club.
2. Wine clubs “force” you to widen your wine horizons. We all have our prejudices when it comes to wines. Even if you think you like to be adventurous and try new wines, often you may avoid certain wines based on a prior experience. Having someone else making your selections gives you the opportunity to try a wider range of wines than you would likely try on your own, or to give another chance to a type you normally avoid. For example if you asked Craig three months ago if he’d like a glass of Sauvignon Blanc he would hold his nose and back away slowly keeping the bottle in sight before making his escape. But through the wine club we got to try a lovely Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand that made him see SBs in a whole new light. Now he is eager to try more and we’ve found several he loves.
And Judy had had so many mediocre imports from the grocery store that she really had a low opinion of inexpensive French and Italian wines. Now we’ve had so many good, food friendly, imports we’re starting to go to the European wines first when ordering from a wine list.
3. Wine clubs offer great percs. Not only are you privy to bargains and special pricing, but their newsletters are a trove of information. What’s hot, what’s not, new releases, winemakers making news, etc.
4. Wine clubs save you money by removing bad choices. (And some just plain save you money by hunting down the best bargains.) How many people can say they’ve never bought a bad wine? We’ve glugged more than a few bad choices down the drain, and had some mediocre ones sit on the counter waiting to be applied to a pot of spaghetti sauce instead of our glasses. We can happily say we’ve never had to do that with a wine club offering. While not every wine we receive is our “style”, I can happily report that every bottle we’ve received has been of good quality, at least enjoyable and interesting, and a good representative of its type. Most have been just plain excellent. In addition, as we are in the “Best Buy Club”, the prices for the wines have been amazing. These are wines that generally taste like you paid twice or three times as much as you did for them.
5. Finally, and best of all, when that delivery van pulls up and the doorbell rings it’s just like Christmas… Every month of the year.
More info on our wine club…The Catz are members of the K&L wines Best Buy Club – and hope to add at least one more of the clubs one of these days (but how to choose?) K&L offers a Best Buy Club, Premium Club, Signature Red Club, Champagne Club, Club Italiano, and a personal Sommelier service. Check them out here. The Catz are NOT affiliates, and do not receive any free wine or perks for this recommendation. We just really like our wine club, and think you might too!
