Picked by Wine.com
Picked by wine.com is a unique wine club that offers both personalized selections and recognizable wine brands.
Original price was: $120.00.$70.00Current price is: $70.00.
- Free shipping
- Personalized wine choices
- Well-known brands
- Ability to pause shipments but stay in club
- Tasting notes in app
- 6 month options only
- Only gift option is a gift card
Shipments Curated by Experts for You
I recently ordered my first shipment of Picked by wine.com and had a terrific experience. Like many of the newer wine clubs, it is a “personalized” experience that is tailored to your personal wine preferences. I had ordered from wine.com, so I already trusted the company in general. The overall “club” experience did not disappoint.
Getting Started
Before you can join the wine club, you are asked a series of questions, including where you are starting your wine journey. This helps the experts determine how sophisticated of a wine drinker you are. I chose “intermediate” because I know some things… but certainly not everything!
You are then given the opportunity to choose Red Only, White Only, or Both Red and White. I always go for “both” when given the chance because I love variety. After that, you tell them how you feel about different varietals based on an easy scale of “Like to Open to It to Dislike.” These are basically your most well-known wines like Zinfandel, Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Moscato, etc. You can rate one, all, or even leave them blank.
You can even leave a note for your “personal somm” letting them know your favorite bottles, food pairings, etc!
After a few more questions including how often you want to receive your wines (6 bottles every month, every 2 months, or every 3 months), you get to the final state of choosing how many you want of each in your mix as well as how much you want to spend per bottle ($20-40 a bottle).
One big thing to keep in mind is that these boxes include FREE SHIPPING (which can ofter run $10-20 a box for other clubs).
In addition, you can use a promo code to save on your first box, which is a HUGE deal. Right now you can use code PICK50 to take $50 off the first box.
What's in the Box
Your shipment will come with 6 bottles of wine, packaged in groups of 3. The first shipment also comes with a bonus wine opener (we keep a spare one of these pretty much everywhere!)
Although the box does not come with wine notes, you can find the full notes for every wine selected on the website, including: winemaker Notes, professional ratings, Information about the winery, information about the region, and more. You can also download the app and just scan the labels to get the information.
What I really loved about the boxing was that every wine comes with a tag that you can put around the neck of the bottle while you store it. The tag will remind you the wine name, varietal, when you purchased it, the rating of the wine, and the price.
I wish that I had these for every single wine in my collection. So many times I go to grab a wine and I have no idea where it came from, what the value is, etc. This solves that problem!
The Wine
Because the wines that come in your subscription are from the Wine.com website, you will be able to learn a lot about them. Unlike many other wine clubs that send “white label” wines that are not easy to trace back to their origins, the wine you receive from Picked by wine.com is often rated by Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, James Suckling, etc. and all of those ratings are included on the site.
I liked that I was able to search for the wines in my shipment and see what they actually sell for elsewhere. It made it clear that not only were the wines chosen based on my stated preferences, but they were of the value that Picked advertises for the cost. None of the bottles sold for less than $20 anywhere else, and some of them sold for as much as $40. The value of my box was $150 (remember, the box costs $120 plus free shipping). So when you add in the expertise of the people picking the wines specifically for me, the club comes out well ahead (and that doesn't include the $50 off coupon!)
My selections were exactly in line with the types of wine I usually buy myself— a mix that included Pinot Noir, Malbec, Chardonnay, Riesling, a white blend, and a Moscato d'asti. I love that they took into account the preferences I stated in my quiz but sent me 6 wines that I have never tried before. Even better, I could easily reorder from wine.com the bottles that I liked the best.
Because the wines are handpicked by experts and come from all over the world, the possibilities truly are endless for what you might get in your shipments. They say that they have 100x more wine than the average wine club service, and I believe it from looking through their site.
The Membership
Membership continues with 6 bottles in each delivery, with shipments every month, every other month, or every quarter. You can cancel easily at any timeby calling or emailing. You can also “snooze” your subscription with at least 7 days' notice if you are not quite ready for your next shipment yet.
Although I didn't have to use it because I enjoyed all of my wines, they do have a 100% satisfaction guarantee that they will give you full credit to get a new bottle if a bottle “misses the mark.”
Picked as a Gift
Although there is not an actual “gift club” that you can gift through Picked, you can purchase a gift card for Wine.com that they can then apply to a Picked membership. It's not the best option if you want a splashy wrapped up wine club gift delivered. But you can get them from $25-500, so it's a flexible option. The gift cards are sent digitally along with your personal message.
Summary
Picked by wine.com stands apart from many of the other personalized wine clubs by the sheer volume of wines that they have in their collection. Individual shipments may be a bit more expensive because they only come in 6 bottle shipments, but the average price/value of each bottle is worth it. Although not the best option as a traditional “gift,” it is one of the better options for someone who wants to order a wine club for themselves in order to expand their wine experiences.
- Free shipping
- Personalized wine choices
- Well-known brands
- Ability to pause shipments but stay in club
- Tasting notes in app
- 6 month options only
- Only gift option is a gift card
Specification: Picked by Wine.com
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