Winc vs Tasting Room Comparison

About Winc

Winc was created in 2012 by three oenophiles with a passion for all things Californian. With their wine club, they spread the love of boutique winemaking from the Golden State with both wine lovers who already know the region and novices who want to start exploring.

About Tasting Room

Tasting Room won’t let any palate profile technology anywhere near its club because, when it comes to wine preferences, it says its members know their palates best.

This combined with one-to-one chat with a wine expert brings subscribers affordable, fine-quality labels from around the globe.

Winc Main Benefits Overall 

If you have a special interest in Californian winemaking and like exploring what’s new, Winc membership offers an ideal guide. Most of its line is made up of boutique labels from fine producers dotted all over the state. A few bottles from other important world regions give the valuable background of wine-world context.

Perks for members come in the form of discounts and club credits and customer service is reliable making this a prime choice for Golden State fans. Winc also gets to know what you like with a short tasting quiz and recommends perfect wines for you to choose from each month.

Tasting Room Main Benefits Overall 

Do you prefer to leave consumer technology at home when you select your Pinot Gris and Cabernet Sauvignon? If so, you’ll appreciate Tasting Room. You never get asked how you take your tea or what your favorite chocolate is and there’s not one rubric or algorithm around.

What you get instead is a personally-assigned wine expert who gets to know what makes you tick when it comes to reds, white, rosés, and bubbles and guides you to ideal labels time and time again. There’s the choice of several delivery frequencies and two different bottle counts and every name in the range is stringently vetted for quality.

Overall Winner

Winc and Tasting Room tie here since each have a bevvie of benefits for wine lovers.

Winc Wine Selection

If you’re seeking an outstanding red wine club, you’ll love Winc for its range of sun-drenched, rich black grape varietal and blend labels from all over California. Its selection of whites is equally fine, produced in a local style and represented by Old and New World regions further afield. Winc refreshes its range on a monthly basis, so it always has an edge.

Winc’s portfolio also gets bonus points for its delicious tranche of vegan, organic, and low-alcohol/ sugar labels as well as wines produced through sustainable farming.

Tasting Room Wine Selection 

Tasting Room is the consumer-facing arm of a global collective of winemakers criss-crossing the Old and New Worlds that pack the club’s shelves with the finest, latest, and best-value labels. With iconic varieties and styles from classic regions, if what you want is a top white wine club, you’ll find select bottles in Tasting Room’s range.

A choice of interesting, hand-picked reds also features in a portfolio that has an overall average rating of 4.25 stars out of 5 from subscribers. What’s more, Tasting Room works directly with producers, so you benefit from up to 60% off retail prices.

Wine Selection Winner:

Tasting Room

Winc Subscription Plans

The subscription fee for Winc is $59.95 per month which usually covers three to four bottles in each shipment. You select what you want from a selection specially curated by the tasting team for the tastes based on your palate profile. As a welcome gift, Winc gives you a $20 discount on your first shipment.

If you find you want to fill your wine rack, you can increase your bottle count to half a dozen bottles and take advantage of a 10% discount. You also get loyalty credits every time you introduce a friend or family member to the club.

Tasting Room Subscription Plans 

Tasting Room gives you a choice of either six or 12 bottle counts with a choice of monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly shipping timings. The mix in each case is based on the wine chats you’ve had with your personal concierge and can cover the gamut of your favorites as well as new styles and varietals that pique your curiosity.

The bottom line is you make the decision about what you receive with the savvy guidance of an expert. You’re free to change delivery and bottle quantity details in between shipments whenever it suits and redeem $40 in savings on your first six-bottle case of wine.

Subscription Plans Winner:

Tasting Room

Winc Pricing and Shipping

Winc shipments are monthly and as already detailed, cost $59.95 for three to four bottles a time (depending on what you buy). Shipping for up to three bottles is $9 while orders of four bottles or more include shipping. A handy feature Winc offers is the option to skip a shipment whenever you like as many times as you want.

There’ll be no penalty for skipping as long as you let Winc know 48 hours in advance. This facility can be a lifesaver because you never know when you might have a cash flow problem, or you’ll be out of town for a while.

Tasting Room Pricing and Shipping 

You have a choice of two bottle counts with Tasting Room; six bottles cost $75 while 12 are $150. The bottom-line cost depends on which shipping frequency you’ve selected. It’s important to note that, in addition to the case cost there’s tax and shipping fees with the latter costing $20.

Tasting Room uses reputable couriers to ship giving you the chance to track your order as soon as its left the warehouse. If you have an “oops” moment where you’ve put in an order and realize you need to change the address for some reason, you can do so free of charge but only for one hour afterward.

Pricing and Shipping Winner:

Tasting Room

Winc Customer Service and Guarantee

There are several ways of contacting Winc’s customer service team: chat and phone in office hours and email. Winc is big on keeping members happy so if something’s amiss with your case whether there’s damage or the wines aren’t what you were expecting, contact the club, and it’ll look into how to compensate you. This will usually be by crediting you the full value of the dodgy or damaged bottle/s for you to spend on another you’ll enjoy more. As always, the club’s concierge team is at hand to give you recommendations.

Tasting Room Customer Service and Guarantee

You can reach Tasting Room by chat, drop-down customer support messaging, email, or mail. If it’s simply that you don’t enjoy the wine the club has sent, there’s a “Total Satisfaction Guarantee” so the concierge team is available to hear you out and find a solution. Usually, they’ll add a gift bottle to your next shipment or give you club credit to spend as you wish. If a bottle arrives in a compromised condition, contact customer service and it will sort things out, but you may have to send a photo of the damage. You can also return a case as long as it’s unopened and you’ll have to cover shipping.

Customer Service and Guarantee Winner:

Winc and Tasting Room are neck-on-neck as they’re both committed to customer service.

Winc Cancellation Terms  

Close your Winc subscription any time by contacting the club through the methods detailed above. Customer service will discuss your reason/s for canceling as it might simply be that you’re not using the club facilities to your full benefit. It will make sure you’re using its rating system for customized service and its shipments and the delivery skipping option if you have too much wine.

In short, you might just need to tweak a few features to improve your experience. If you’re certain you want to cancel though, Wink will facilitate this smoothly and there’s no fee for doing so.

Tasting Room Cancellation Terms  

You have the freedom to terminate your Tasting Room subscription at any time without any charge. Keep in mind that cancelation will stop unprocessed orders. However, if renewal and payment have already gone through, the order can’t be stopped and will still ship. In short, cancelation will take effect on the next scheduled subscription payment.

As far as contact goes, to cancel you have to get in touch via its support page. Want to put off your shipment? Simply go into your account and alter the date of the next delivery to one that’s more convenient.

Cancellation Terms Winner:

Winc and Tasting Room both do their best to accommodate cancellation so it’s another draw.

Winc Gifts 

If you love Winc so much and think a loved one might feel the same way, you can open the club door to them with a handy gift card. Values start at $60 and go up to $600 so your recipient can try out a month of the club at the very least.

Alternatively, they can spend the credit on whatever takes their fancy in Winc’s fine and varied store selection. You have the choice of sending the gift credit by email for convenience or by mail to give your loved one that extra-special feeling.

Tasting Room Gifts 

Tasting Room has a wide choice of gift options, so you’ll never be stuck over a birthday gift for that wine-loving friend or family member. You can go for an all-out subscription and pick and choose from a one, three, or six-month gift membership depending on what suits your recipient.

Gift subscription costs start at $89 and go up to $350. If you prefer to give your recipient the option to choose their own gift, you have a range of gift card values. They start at $25, and carry on up to $50 and $100 denominations. 

Buy as a Gift Winner:

Can’t fault either club so it’s yet another draw.