You only find the best wines in expensive stores, right? Wrong. If you want to keep your shelves stocked up with the finest reds, whites, and bubbles without breaking the bank, our list of Premium wine clubs below will point you in the right direction.
| Written by Lucie Robson Updated on December 6, 2021 |
What is the Best Premium Wine Club?You’re spoilt for choice but, without a doubt, the top slot goes to the Gold Medal Wine Club. This club only stocks labels that have made their mark at international wine competitions and it has more than a few gold winners in its ranks in a range of exciting membership options. |
There are three key factors to keep in mind when choosing a Premium wine club. From the off, make a selection of appealing clubs for their range of styles, grapes, and regions covered. Then, check that the delivery options suit you. Finally, make a final pick of the club that gives you the best bang for your buck.
Everything in the Gold Medal Wine Club is a winner so your glass is always filled with the finest. There’s a selection of six carefully-crafted subscriptions to pick and choose from. If you like the rich pickings from California, there’s a club highlighting this region. On the other hand, if off-the-beaten-track wines are your thing, there’s a club inspired by the iconic Bordeaux Garagiste movement. Pinot Noir one of your favorites? You can go for a subscription plan devoted to all the wonderful expressions this grape has to offer from all over the world. If you won’t touch anything unless it’s a top-tier competition winner, there’s the Platinum Club.
What's more, The Gold Medal Wine Club lays on the TLC with delivery wherever you may be. If you’re traveling for work or play, it will send your selection to your temporary address to save you the trouble of tracking down fine wine.
Enjoy a diverse selection of accolade-dripping labels with The Gold Medal Wine Club.
The quality of labels in Bright Cellars’ portfolio is very high owing to a tireless tasting team that’s stringent about the standard of each bottle it tries. It tries a veritable ocean of wine only passing one in 12 for its range and, ultimately, your glass.
As soon as you join Bright Cellars, you get right down to business. First, you take part in a palate quiz that delves into what you like and produces a customized taste profile that informs what goes into each of your cases. As you sip away, you get to rate the different components of what’s in your glass, automatically renewing your profile. This paves the way for a steady stream of finely-honed shipments. To make things taste even better, every time to provide feedback, you receive club credits to cash in as you wish with Bright Cellars. A concierge team is available to discuss a new direction whenever it suits you.
Hand-picked quality reds and whites and customized cases are all yours at Bright Cellars.
Since it launched in 1990, The California Wine Club has built a huge membership, but it still has a friendly family vibe harking back to its early days. Ferreting out the best that boutique California producers have to offer, its tasting team meets winemakers in person, tries their wares, and if they make the grade, adds them to the portfolio for your pleasure.
This club offers six membership packages with several showcasing the fine Californian approach to Old World noble grapes. Chardonnay features prominently in these packages and, if you want to explore further afield, there are bundles covering Oregon and Washington wines as well as international regions.
Member perks include discounts when you reorder a favorite, a personal advisor who'll guide you to new favorite reds and whites, and VIP passes for tours and tastings at partner Californian wineries when you’re in the area.
The best of the Golden State and member perks are yours to enjoy with a California Wine Club subscription.
Second-generation owner Paul Kalemkiarian only gives the stamp of approval to a handful of hundreds of wines tasted each month so you can be confident about top quality.
Wine of the Month Club boasts a select range of subscriptions that are ideal for the tastebuds of connoisseurs and beginners alike. It has a very focused choice of clubs showcasing variety and quality across much-loved themes. You can opt for ten 2-bottle clubs or 6 and 12 bottle case options covering regional, grape, and other deep-dive category themes. These include iconic wine-producing areas like Bordeaux, California, and Napa, plus organic and natural labels.
Education for members is as important to Wine of the Month Club as enjoyment and, indeed, regards it as part of the pleasure or wine. To this end, each of your labels arrives with a classy 14-page booklet covering full background notes about its origin, detailed tasting notes, and delicious ideas for food pairing.
Experienced on good service and choice, fine subscription plans are yours to enjoy with Wine of the Month Club membership.
The majority of names in Winc’s selection come from leading Golden State artisanal wineries, hand-crafting reds, whites, bubbles, and rosés in a select choice of styles.
The club’s portfolio boasts the finest existing labels plus Winc commissions the production of bespoke wines from top vintners crafted to match the tastes of members. While California is the mainstay, a healthy slice of the portfolio comes from other New World regions and artisanal European wineries offering a cast range of varietals, styles, and the occasional off-beat grape that could very well become a new favorite of yours. Winc also has organic, vegan, and low-alcohol/sugar options in its range and the overall selection is refreshed every month for variety.
As soon as you get going with Winc, you take part in a short and sweet palate quiz that identifies your preferences. As you sip each bottle, you give it a rating which leads to even more precise customization next time around.
Enjoy top-quality, artisanal wines from California and beyond with Winc.
Naked Wines stands for quality and innovation making it one of the most exciting clubs around for oenophiles seeking reds and whites with an edge. It connects small producers with blossoming and seasoned lovers of the grape through a monthly membership fee. How it works is you fund new winemaking, choose from a selection of projects, and await splendid cases to arrive at your doorstep. This unique model avoids the middleman meaning a 40-60% discount for you.
Don’t be put off by the innovative slant of this club. Naked Wines is very picky about the vintners it collaborates with and where it invests your fees. You’ll have a choice of fine labels covering different grapes, styles and regions each made with skill and passion. There’ll be nothing wild and weird!
In touch with today’s trends, Naked Wines also has a choice of organic labels.
Support small international winemakers and get first choice over the finished product with Naked Wines membership.
If you like to hand pick what reds and whites you have in your wine rack, Vinebox is the closest it comes to enabling you to do so. In short, you never get a bottle you don’t like because you’re the one who’s picked them!
The way it works is, every quarter, Vinebox ships nine 100ml-tasters from fine European wine regions for you to try at home. As you swirl, nose, and sip, you decide if you’d like a full bottle of any of the vials just like you would at a tasting event. If there’s something you enjoy, Vinebox gets hold of the full bottle/ s and arranges shipping. You pay for this with credits you acquire with each shipment.
It’s very important to keep in mind that each glass-sized taster is fresh and fine because components like flavors, body, and acidity are carefully sealed in by state-of-the-art fractioning tech.
If you’re serious about filling your wine rack filled with bottles you love, Vinebox is for you.
Being a member of WSJ Wine, is like having a friend who drops by every so often with delicious, top-quality finds and only charges you a fraction of what you’d pay in a brick-and-mortar affair.
The club taps into its A-list network of leading large and small, family-run wineries, accessing the season’s latest and finest to fill your cellar with a delicious and interesting range of reds and whites. You’d have a tough time finding such value for money elsewhere.
To welcome you to the club, WSJ Wine really rolls out the red carpet. Your first shipment is a mouth-watering dozen bottles for only $69.99. You have the choice of two clubs following this, each boasting a top-quality range of styles and grapes. The Discovery Club spoils you with labels that receive consistently top ratings from your fellow club members. The Premier Club elevates your wine-drinking experience with cases brimming with top-rated limited-edition and award-winning labels.
A super-exclusive selection of labels is yours with WSJ Wine.
First Leaf shines when it comes to giving members what they want with no detours or unwanted surprises.
Firstly, its experienced tasting team tries 10,000 wines annually and only passes the cream of the crop for inclusion in its selection so you can be confident you’ll receive outstanding bottles. Secondly, it has tasting tech that works as the template for case after case of bottles that suit your tastes to a T. What happens is, when you get started, you respond to 13 probing questions that finetune what you like in a bottle. What’s more, so that the template remains up to speed, you have the chance to rate each label as you sip along.
As if all this isn’t enough, Firstleaf doesn’t work with middlemen, passing on savings of up to 60% to you in every fine shipment.
Enjoy carefully selected wines customized to your preferences with Firstleaf.
Your first case from Wine tells you all you need to know about the quality that lies ahead. This “welcome-to-the-club” shipment comprises 15 fine hand-picked bottles including three Bordeaux red blends with the “Supérieur" categorization. Incredibly, this all costs just $90 meaning a 75% saving for you. Going forward, you can expect the same fine quality and good value from a range of reds and whites in Old and New World styles.
Wine Insiders also likes to make your drinking experience more enjoyable with complimentary opening and pouring accessories. You’ll get used to surprise gift accessories arriving with your bottles that make serving that bit more professional. To give you an idea of what you can expect, in your second shipment there’s a Connoisseur's Deluxe 7-Piece Lever Pull Corkscrew Set packed up in a beautiful cherry wood box.
Wine Insiders Membership stands for good value, top quality and loads of handy, free goodies.
