One of our readers emailed us today asking what we thought about the Hamptons Wine Club deal currently posted on Groupon. Although we have never personally reviewed the club, we did a little research to help you make an informed decision about whether it is a good deal and what other clubs you might want to try instead.
The Club
The Hamptons Wine Club offers wine originating in Long Island, New York. It was actually known as the North Fork Wine Club until it was acquired in 2014 and the name was changed. Wines are selected from among approximately 50 wineries (mostly small, family-owned companies) in Long Island. You can choose red wine, white wine, or a mixed club.
The Groupon Deal
The value of the club is listed at $127.98 and you can buy today starting at $89.99. That's for 2 bottles for 2 months, making the club $45 a shipment. It does not appear that you will pay shipping on top of the deal.
The actual Hamptons Wine Club website says that 2 bottles of month would run you $48.99, which is a few dollars more than the Groupon deal but not much. It's definitely not the 30% discount listed on the Groupon page, so I'm not sure where that is coming from except maybe the $48.99 doesn't include shipping?
Pros and Cons
From what I can tell, the cons likely outweigh the pros on this one.
Pros: Try wine from New York, which is a region not covered by most other wine clubs. Price is a little lower through Groupon.
Cons: Cannot ship to 12 states. No mention of “extras” in the shipments like free gifts, tasting notes, winery profiles, etc. Wine club does not have a proven track record like many of the others we review. Must purchase at least 2 months to try the club.
Clubs You Might Want to Try
If you are interested in this club based on the price alone, there are some other really good wine club deals out there right now. A comparable club would be The California Wine Club Premier Series. It sells for $39.95 a month and if you order 3 months right now and use code APFHIPFREE15, you will get free shipping (ends July 1, 2015). We also almost always have a coupon for them on our review page.
Gold Medal Wine Club also has a great club in the same price range. The Gold Series Wine Club is $37 per shipment. Shipping would be on top of that, but they ship to pretty much every state.
Both of those clubs come with newsletters, nice packaging, tasting notes, and high quality wine.
If you are looking for REALLY low prices on wine, you might want to consider a case club like the WSJ Wine Club. The quality is not as high and the wines are often white labeled, overstocks, etc. But at 15 bottles for $69.99, you do get a lot of wine for the money.
We may end up doing a full review of the Hamptons Wine Club at some point in the future (especially since Eric hails from New York), and if we do, we will certainly update this post! But we wanted to get something out there for you while the Groupon is running.
