Wine of the month clubs

November 8, 2007 10:00 AM

Can you recommend a good 'wine of the month' club?

A couple of us are chipping in to give a 'wine of the month' subscription to a colleague. She's into wines, mostly reds, but on an enjoyment/drinking basis, not necessarily as a connoisseur or collector. In other words, the wines should be good and interesting but don't need to be the very top of the line. I'm open to domestic as well as international wines - ideally the selections would include a combination of both. There are a number of clubs that look OK - any personal recommendations?

Thank you!

posted by widdershins to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

I belonged to a K and L club - speficially, the signature red club - for a little while. It was good and I only stopped it because a trip to Napa put us into a serious wine surplus for a while.

If you're interested in giving a subscription to an individual winery's wine club, I could suggest some good ones too. In particular we belong to Chateau St. Jean's; I've liked every bottle of wine they've sent.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:14 AM on November 8, 2007

My wife got me a 1-year subscription with K&L out of the Bay Area. Their customer service was spot-on, and unlike a lot of these services, they don't screw you with exorbitant shipping fees. Check out the Premium Wine Club (mostly reds, an occasional white) or their Signature Reds Collection (more expensive). We never had a single problem with them.
posted by Skot at 10:15 AM on November 8, 2007

*falls to knees*

IIIIIIIIKKYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!
posted by Skot at 10:16 AM on November 8, 2007

I recommend the Foothill wines of California if you want just clubs from a single winery. Many ship but check your shipping regs! Seriously! The wineries are up on all of that, just ask. The benefit to belonging to a club or two from a region is you really get to taste the terroir, as they say.

Try the Nevada City Winery or, well, any place in the Fairplay appellation near Placerville. Both areas make mostly great and very distinctive reds, but they have some great whites too. Cab Francs and Zinfandels are superlative. Some of the wineries experiment with varietals that you dont normally see in California, like Tempranillo, Charbono and Nebbiolo.
posted by elendil71 at 10:23 AM on November 8, 2007

your location is going to matter as it is still not legal to deliver wine to many states.
posted by phil at 10:30 AM on November 8, 2007

K&L is well worth it. Great customer service and they really know their product. They're happy to work with you to find what you'd like, so give them an email or call. Their newsletters are very useful too, so I'd consider signing up.

Along ikkyu2's line, if you like whites, Cakebread has a nice selection of clubs as well - lots of variations on a theme. Being local, I've never had a use for individual winery clubs, but it's well-regarded as far as I know.
posted by kcm at 10:30 AM on November 8, 2007

k&l can not ship to connecticut, which i can see from your profile you are located... please confirm where the colleague resides.
posted by phil at 10:39 AM on November 8, 2007

Thx for the answers so far.

My colleague is indeed in CT - but I'm really surprised that K&L don't ship here. A few years ago some friends of ours who live in NY went to Napa and had all the wine they bought shipped to us in CT because they couldn't send it to NY. The state restrictions can't be dictated by vendor, surely?

So I guess I should add the condition that the wine club needs to be able to ship to CT...
posted by widdershins at 10:49 AM on November 8, 2007

State restrictions can sort of be dictated by vendor. For example, in MA you can't get wine shipped in to an individual from out of state, so you can only buy from MA-based vendors or vendors who stock that particular bottle in an in-state warehouse.
posted by phoenixy at 10:59 AM on November 8, 2007

widdershins

i believe the distinction is that ct allows you to have wine shipped directly from vineyards but not from retail stores.
posted by phil at 11:03 AM on November 8, 2007

OK, looks like phoenixy and phil have it right above. Which would explain why Chateau St. Jean's (also recommended by ikkyu2) can ship to CT but K&L can't.

Thank you everyone - if anyone has any other winery-specific recommendations (that will ship to CT), please let me know.

Thx!
posted by widdershins at 11:24 AM on November 8, 2007

K&L is unusually conservative in where they will ship to. Despite the Supreme Court ruling that it was illegal for states to prevent wine shipments, there's still a lot of vagueness in the rules. K&L may be more flexible if you call them and ask.

Another excellent online wine shop closer to you is Pop's Wine in New York. I don't think they have a wine club, but if you gave them a call I bet they'd have some ideas of who does and can ship to Connecticut.
posted by Nelson at 11:52 AM on November 8, 2007

Nelson makes a good point. This is from K&L's shipping page, after saying they "can't" ship to these states:

If you are ordering alcoholic beverages to be shipped to one of the following states...
[etc.]
...we won't be able to accept your order over the Internet. Please call [phone] for more information.

My emphasis. Who knows? Might be worth a shot.
posted by Skot at 11:55 AM on November 8, 2007

For individual wineries, I would second the Cakebread recommendation - occhiblu's father is nice enough to send us cases from them regularly and it is simply wonderful wine. Another splendid Napa winery right down the road is Merryvale and I like them a lot. The Merryvale Beckstoffer Clone Six is probably the best bottle of Napa wine I've had.

In the lower cost arena, two wineries we like in the San Luis Obispo area are Tolosa and Talley. SLO is a cooler area so it is more known for its pinots.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:55 AM on November 8, 2007

If you like big california reds (mostly zinfandel blends) I can't recommend the Ridge Vinyards ATP club or Z-list enough. I love it. It's not quite every month (more like 8 months out of the year) but they are always super terrific awesome (mostly.)
posted by Mr. Ugh at 12:40 PM on November 8, 2007