I took my parents tasting at a local (lol--the MOST local) winery around here. The wine was good (but not great), only about a 10 min drive, and an awesome atmosphere. I am thisclose to joining their wine club--mostly because it is so close and would be a nice place to hang out when dh and I can't figure out what to do on a Saturday.
So tell me about your experiences. Are you a member? Is it local? Would you choose a local winery with good wine vs. one too far away to visit regularly but with great wine?
I have one local winery that I'm a member of. It is absolutely yummy, and there are many benefits to being a member beyond the actual wine we get. Free tastings for us & guests, exclusive events (some of which are very cool), and I just love that I am supporting this beautiful and special place in our town.
Ours is about 15 minutes away and we LOVE hanging out there (me more than H to be fair, he is always the DD). I love that they know our names - it is our "Cheers," no joke.
I also am a member of a few wine clubs that ship us wine, though I have cut back on those since I am finishing the basement (no good wine storage until we're done & wine fridge installed.) We have a few that were FAR away wineries that we'd visited & loved that we are members of.
The WSJ wine club is also good, I am still in that right now.
Post by crashgizmo on Jul 10, 2014 17:22:26 GMT -5
How much time do you have? @mrschicken, you know where I live, so I may not be the typical response, but here you go.
DH and I have been members of various wine clubs for 5 years in New Mexico, Napa, and now where we live in Southern CA. We are currently at our highest number of clubs at one time, which is 6. Here are my thoughts:
If you know you are going to drink a bottle or two of wine a month and you like the wine, it's a great deal if it's a local winery. We spend nearly every weekend at wineries, and even in NM we went to the local winery we were members of monthly or every other month to hang out. Most wineries have perks like free tastings and "members only" areas that are nicer. DH even proposed to me in the vines at our favorite winery in NM.
Right now we have a lot of options (as you know) and we stick to wineries that have 4 things:
- good wine. - pickup parties or special members only events - free tastings for 4 people (since most of the time when people come visit they want to go wine tasting.) - either a quarterly or e/o month pickup
We were members at a great winery in Napa that to this day is still the best chardonnay I have ever had, and I paid $20/month to have them ship it to NM. It was worth it until we moved, and here we just have too many options.
We pay anywhere from $50-70 for every wine club either quarterly or e/o month, so it's definitely an expense. Both DH and I really like the art of wine and enjoy drinking it, and have a good social circle we have developed from the people we have met. We often go to 2-3 wineries in a weekend and have free wine everywhere, so the expense evens out.
In short, I say definitely go for it, especially if you like the wine and you think you'd hang out there on weekends.
We joined one when we went to Napa (Bouchaine), but since we lived ~300 miles away, it was just to get wine shipped to us once a quarter, so I can't speak to the other benefits. I would say that you should probably like their wine, though, if you are going to join.
Ditto Msmerymac- we joined a few while in Napa, even though we live in GA. Don't have any wineries too close right now, but there is near our cabin we visit but I dont think they have a club. There is also one that is right down the road from our cabin, but hasn't opened yet.
Post by badtzmaru22 on Jul 10, 2014 18:19:49 GMT -5
We are in one here- Finger Lakes region, NY. It's $50 a quarter and they ship two bottles each time, plus you can add on more for free shipping. We live about 45min away, but we are there pretty frequently bc we get a lot of visitors. They have free tastings for us, 20% discount on wine, and members only events and perks- new/limited releases, etc. we love it, and it's totally worth it for us for the discount.
Thanks for all the feedback. This would be it joining more for social benefits/atmosphere, and there are a lot of added benefits (free tastings, discounts, special events). It's $50 3x a year for 4 bottles. It seems like a no brainer try it for a year, right?
Post by curlygirlygirl on Jul 10, 2014 19:09:32 GMT -5
Mostly a lurker, but I'll bite and say wow, that's a really good deal!
Is there only one type of package? One thing we like is that at ours we can do whites only, reds only, mixed, or dessert only. Sometimes we'll switch over depending on our inventory. Since we live close we always pick up our wines to save on shipping - plus, it just makes for a nice trip.
We're members at one and really enjoy being able to drive up on the weekends for free tastings! It makes for a really fun date day after working hard all week.
I will admit that when I'm there it totally puts me in the mood to come home and open another bottle while enjoying cheese fondue while watching old episodes of Mad Men.
Post by crashgizmo on Jul 10, 2014 19:23:11 GMT -5
Yes, that's definitely a good deal! I agree with curlygirlygirl that if you can change from red to white to mixed, definitely try that. We are all red in the winter but like to add in whites in the summer since it's hot.
We have a couple of local-ish (1hr away) memberships. We don't go out there too often, but it is a really nice excuse to have to get there every 2-3 months to pick up our shipment. The cost is the price of 3 bottles of wine, with a 20% discount, so we usually end up paying $70-$90 per shipment.
In addition to the shipment, we get 20% off any wine order, free tastings for up to 10 people, free use of the private tasting room up to 2 times per year, free cave tours/reserve tasting, and discounts on all of their events.
It's easily worth it to us, because the only cost is the price of 3 bottles of wine/shipment. Both wineries we belong to also let us switch out any bottles we don't like, so we are basically just committed to buying any 12 bottles of wine per year, with all the other benefits of the membership.
I belong to 3 wine clubs from Napa. I joined mostly because they send special wines that are only available to club members and some of the clubs do not sell their wines in regular stores, just through the club. The benefit is we get free tours/tastings whenever we visit but that's not often. Still, I just calculated and every visit (and we go at least 1x a year), if we go to those 3 wineries, we save a total of $240 on tastings so that's a big savings.
We have a couple of local-ish (1hr away) memberships. We don't go out there too often, but it is a really nice excuse to have to get there every 2-3 months to pick up our shipment. The cost is the price of 3 bottles of wine, with a 20% discount, so we usually end up paying $70-$90 per shipment.
In addition to the shipment, we get 20% off any wine order, free tastings for up to 10 people, free use of the private tasting room up to 2 times per year, free cave tours/reserve tasting, and discounts on all of their events.
It's easily worth it to us, because the only cost is the price of 3 bottles of wine/shipment. Both wineries we belong to also let us switch out any bottles we don't like, so we are basically just committed to buying any 12 bottles of wine per year, with all the other benefits of the membership.
Good point about swapping out wines you don't like - although we have yet to do that, it is a nice thing for the wineries to offer!