When I tell people that I belong to a couple of wine clubs, they immediately assume that I must be spending hundreds of dollars a month. In fact, I don't even spend $100 a month total between my two favorite wine clubs. I like to always belong to one local wine club and one online wine club at a time because the perks and wines are completely different. How can you join or give wine clubs without breaking the bank?
$30 a Month Wine Clubs
Believe it or not, some of our highest rated wine clubs are around the $30-40 a mark month. When you consider that you are getting 2 high quality bottles of wine plus various newsletters, tasting notes, and gifts with purchase for that price, it's a really good deal. For most of those clubs you can choose either 2 bottles of red or a bottle of red and a bottle of white. The wine is NOT white-labelled or overstock or anything like that. Rather, the wine clubs have done a lot of homework to find smaller wineries and make deals directly with them to get the wine at low prices.
What are some of the clubs that you can get for this price? Here are a few that we have consistently rated highly and tend to have exceptional feedback from their members:
- The California Wine Club Premier Series ($39.95 plus shipping)
- Wine of the Month Club Classic Series ($21.95 plus shipping)
- Wine of the Month Club Vintner Series ($31.95 plus shipping)
- Gold Medal Gold Series ($37 plus shipping)
We've tested at least 2-3 different clubs from every one of these wine clubs and have had nothing but positive experiences. Each of them also offers more expensive clubs if “affordable” to you means more like $50-100 a month.
Volume-Based Wine Clubs
On the other end of the spectrum from the clubs above are the clubs that do get their wine from overstocks or relabel the wine with private brand names. It doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with the wine. It just means that you can't expect it to be at the $15-20 a bottle quality range. If “affordable” to you means the most wine for your money, these are clubs that would be a good deal. Here are a couple of clubs that fall into that category:
- WSJ Wine Club (15 bottles for $69.99)
- American Cellars Wine Club (6 bottles for $41.94)
Based on the prices, you can expect the quality of the wines in these clubs to be in the $7 per bottle range.
Wine Club Discounts
Did you know that you can actually shop around for deals for wine clubs? Although you will not often find them listed directly on the Wine Club sites themselves, sites like ours are often given exclusive coupons and discounts to provide to our readers. We list these deals on the review pages themselves to make it easy for you to save. We also keep an up-to-date page of all of the current wine club coupons. At any given time you might find free shipping, extra gifts with purchase, or even dollars off deals there. If you are looking for a deal for a particular club and don't see one, reach out to us and we will see if we can get one!
Whether you are joining a wine club yourself or want to give one as a gift but get a good deal for your money, there are some really great alternatives out there.
