Loaded with lush red and black fruit, liquorice, chocolate, and tobacco notes, what's not to like about this flagship California wine? Also available as a fruity, off-dry rosé style, if you're a fan of this grape, you'll be glad to know we've got together a list of the best Zinfandel Wine Clubs.
What is the Best Zinfandel Wine Club?
It's no surprise to us that Winc is the top Zinfandel Wine Club. Based in California, it has its ear to the ground on the latest and the best with the state's famous grape enjoying a prominent place in its selection. From what we've seen, the Zinfandels look pretty good!
Check out how California features in each wine club's portfolio since a good representation means Zinfandels will make an appearance in your shipments. Also, go for a club that offers convenient bottle amounts and delivery frequencies. Once you've honed this, choose the best value for money club.
Top 10 Zinfandel Wine Clubs
1. Winc - high-quality selection
Pro's
Con's
Subscription Price: Starts at $13 / Month
Membership Plans: Pay as you go
Money Back / Satisfaction Guarantee: Yes
Customer Support: Call and live chat in office hours; email
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: 3 days in advance + skip a month policy.
Pros: Hand-selected and custom-made Zinfandels and other classics
Cons: Limited customer service hours
Subscription Price: Starts at $52 - $59 monthly for 3 - 4 wines
Membership Plans: Pay as you go
Money Back / Satisfaction Guarantee: Yes
Customer Support: Call and live chat in office hours; email
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: 3 days in advance plus skip a month policy.
Like its Red Blends, Zinfandel is synonymous with California and renowned around the globe for its emblematic character, light complexity, and drinkability. Winc features a superior range from jammy crowd pleasers to structured, barrel-aged styles.
Winc partners with hand-selected wineries to produce and source choice products. While the mainstay of these is in California, this club's reach extends beyond the state. It sources its 100 select products from all over the globe. It only goes for vibrant, ambitious producers that have something they're burning to share with lovers of the grape.
When you get the ball rolling with Winc, you answer a series of questions. From this 30-second questionnaire, the club can recommend wines for you to consider. If you go ahead with membership, based on your ongoing feedback about the bottles in your shipments, your deliveries are increasingly fine-tuned to your tastes.
Winc hits the sweet spot with a wide, high-quality selection that doesn't overdo it and leave you feeling swamped.
Watch our video review for Winc
The Bottom Line
With its wide reach of regions and varietals, relationships with artisanal wineries, and wallet-friendly prices, Winc has a big club feel but with a nice mom-and-pop vibe.
Customer Support: Calls and live chat in office hours; email
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: Cancel anytime and you can delay or put shipments on hold
The Wine of the Month Club never tires in its search for unique, high-quality reds, whites, rosés, and bubblies for its members. Second-generation owner Paul Kalemkiarian, tastes hundreds of wines a month and only passes a handful he thinks are good enough for his loyal subscribers. If he wouldn't be happy with it in his personal cellar, it won't make its way into members' subscription packages.
Memberships include a California and Napa Series so there's bound to be some excellent, tried-and-tested Zinfandel in there. There are also plenty of subscriptions that take in all the wonderful wines from around the world if you want to explore further afield.
Wine of the Month Club believes in providing a rounded experience for members so there's a 14-page newsletter in each shipment that gives you the full lowdown on regions, producers, food pairing tips, serving and storage advice, and tasting notes.
The Bottom Line
The Wine of the Month Club offers exactly what you want: membership options that hit the target for both wine novices and buffs.
The California Wine Club has decades of experience scouting around for the boldest and the best and it shows in your shipments. Boasting a network of top boutique wineries that go all the way across California and back, this family-run company sniffs out the finest and packages them up in budget-friendly membership packages.
Super hands-on, its team travels around the state meeting producers face-to-face, sampling their wares and when it's something to get excited about, adds it to its select range.
The club offers six membership subscriptions with half focusing on the finest California has to offer while members with a soft spot for European and South American regions can go for subscriptions that cover France, Germany, and Argentina. Recognizing that Oregon and Washington are also doing great things, there's a package for fans of those regions. Members also get VIP tasting and tour passes to selected California wineries.
The Bottom Line
Fiercely proud of wines from the Golden State, the California Wine Club loves to share the greatest with fellow fans and newbies alike.
Customer Support: Call and chat in office hours; email
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: Cancel anytime
Naked Wines partners with producers in just about every wine region under the sun funding new and innovative projects with subscribers' membership fees. What members get out of it is exclusive access to new winemaking while winemakers receive investment to make something sublime.
Creativity is the exciting part of this club, but that's not to say that everything is weird and wonderful - far from it. Naked Wines' portfolio embraces the classics, but many are made by small wineries that simply have something worthwhile to offer in their approach and style.
As a member, you pay $40 every month which you cash in on wines that appeal when you're ready. The fun thing is you get to keep in touch with your favorite producers in dedicated chat areas so you can wax lyrical about that Pinot Noir, Viognier, or Zinfandel they've made. You can also compare notes on your finds with fellow subscribers.
Watch our video review for Naked Wines
The Bottom Line
Naked Wines is all about good deals, great conversation, and shipments you can be proud to have played a part in creating.
5. Wine Insiders - Best possible at staggeringly good prices.
Pro's
Con's
Subscription Price: Starts at $89 then rises to $155 quarterly
Membership Plans: Every 3 months; 12 bottle membership packages.
Money Back / Satisfaction Guarantee: Yes
Customer Support: Calls and chat weekdays; email; mail
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: No
Cancellation Policy: Cancel at any time and can skip shipments
Being in the Wine Insiders club makes you feel just that: like you have access to all that’s fine and artisanal. You receive exclusive, high-quality shipments full to the brim of stuff you simply won't find anywhere else.
You hone what you receive in each delivery as you wish. If you have summer in mind, go for all whites. Want to get ready for the winter with warming reds, go ahead. Prefer a mix of both, consider it done.
In each delivery, you get material that gives you a deep dive look at varietals, regions, and producers so you know exactly what you're drinking and can develop your sensibilities about your tastes. There are also plenty of free giveaways of wine accessories that make the opening, pouring, and tasting that bit slicker. These complimentary goodies begin with the second shipment when you receive a Connoisseur's Deluxe 7-Piece Lever Pull Corkscrew Set.
Watch our video review for Wine Insiders
The Bottom Line
Wine Insiders is ideal for you if you have fine tastes but want to leave the leg work to an expert and simply pour, swirl, and enjoy.
6. WSJ Wine - Direct access to all that's exceptional
Pro's
Con's
Subscription Price: $69.99/ $259.99 quarterly depending on membership
Membership Plans: Every 3 months
Money Back / Satisfaction Guarantee: Yes
Customer Support: Live chat during extended office hours weekdays; email; mail
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: Cancel at any time and can skip a shipment for up to four weeks
If you like to be the first to know about the most exclusive and the best, WSJ Wine is your ideal choice of club. With a "premier-league" network, it works with the most creative and classic producers to pack subscribers' cases with the finest and most innovative.
WSJ Wine knows its members inside out delivering the signature varietals like Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, and Zinfandel that they love. This club also knows variety is the spice of life so goes out of its way to get its hands-on limited editions to give members that extra buzz.
As you taste each bottle you check in with a rating that goes into WSJ Wine's magical data cruncher to come out the other end as a shipment perfectly tailored to your taste buds. There's no second-guessing and no disappointing deliveries, just exactly what you want. The more you rate, the more calibrated your caseloads are.
Watch our video review for WSJ Wine
The Bottom Line
With shipments honed to your palates and top quality from all over the world, what's not to like about WSJ Wine?
Customer Support: Call during extended hours weekdays and weekends; email; mail
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: Cancel or pause shipments at any time
A wine club doesn't get the International Wine Challenge "Merchant of the Year" award and 700,000 members by fluke. Laithwaites is very particular about what it dishes out to subscribers and nothing short outstanding will do.
Members show their loyalty with their subs and Laithwaites in turn repays this with one-off varietals, creative blends, and brilliant bubblies sourced from top regions and producers. Its years of experience have given this club a discernment that shows in each shipment. As its sommeliers scour the world, they keep a profile of member's tastes close to their hearts. There'll be nothing weird and funky in your case, just wines you can get excited about.
Complimentary tasting notes accompany each bottle for more enjoyable sipping, and you can opt for reds, whites, or a mix depending on what's on the agenda - a birthday, cool weather, or just a string of lazy, hot afternoons by the beach.
The Bottom Line
You have it all with Laithwaites: excellence and great value, a thoughtful variety, and top customer service.
Membership Plans: Monthly, bi-monthly, and quarterly; 2, 3, or 4 bottle packages.
Money Back / Satisfaction Guarantee: Yes
Customer Support: Call, live chat, out-of-hours answer service; email; mail
Gift Memberships & Gift Cards: Yes
Cancellation Policy: Cancel or pause shipments at any time
The Gold Medal Club boasts well-crafted membership options that cover a range of tastes, styles, and prices. What they have in common is the wines are all top-rated award winners from artisanal wineries and large estates alike.
The Gold Wine Club brings members the best from California, while the Platinum Club features rare collectibles from the same region. If you want to explore, the International Club takes you on a journey of tastes from France, Italy, Chile, and more. Really raising the bar is the Diamond Club which only features 93-plus scoring wines and a membership capped at 500. There are six subscription options in total and boy, do they all glimmer with the finest of the finest!
If you want to try another club in between shipments, you can hop over with ease and if you're traveling for work or play, the Gold Wine Club will deliver to your temporary home.
If you have a weakness for silver and gold labels, you'll be right at home in this club.
The Bottom Line
The Gold Medal Wine Club's savvy mix of award winners, good prices, and flexible customer service give you that birthday feeling every time you open your shipment.
It isn't often you get the chance to support a cause you feel strongly about while engaging in an activity you love. This is why the NPR Wine Club is a gem for public radio supporters. Members receive shipments of delights from Mendoza, Rioja, and Tuscany with part of their subscription fee earmarked to give public radio a boost.
Both the Old and the New World feature in deliveries taking you on a journey of super interesting sipping and sharing with each shipment. Newbies won't find a better baptism of fire than these carefully selected goodies while members who are a little more seasoned will discover new favorites in old regions and varietals.
Tasting notes accompany every bottle so you can gain deeper insights into why you enjoy what's in your glass. There's also in-depth material on regions and producers plus handy tips on how to serve and enjoy.
The Bottom Line
The NPR Wine Club is a chance to enjoy excellent wines that taste even better with the knowledge that you're helping much-loved public radio out.
Plonk has made waves on the natural wine scene with Founder Etty Klein being featured in Wine Enthusiast's Top 40 Under 40 Tastemakers List. The club has made its name with its organic and biodynamic products free from pesticides, acidifiers, artificial sugars, alcohol enhancements, or chemicals of any kind. If you have an uber-healthy lifestyle or simply want to see what all the fuss is about with this growing style of wines, Plonk is your club.
Experts sniff out the shiniest gems that are worthy of your tastebuds. Hundreds are tasted and only a few make it to Plonk's membership packages. Etty also digs out exciting indigenous varietals that you might never have tasted which just makes this club even better.
It's all put together in a shipment that's tailored to your preferences on body, acidity, tannins, and all that good stuff along with tasting notes and food pairing ideas.
The Bottom Line
Plonk isn't cheap but it’s worth it for its healthy, environmentally-friendly approach and you just know you're getting the royalty of shipments.