I've been a member of Club W for the last few months. The gist of the program is this: You sign up for this wine club. It's kind of like a wine-of-the-month club. However, it's for people like me. It's the wine club you join if you don't know what kinds of wines you like (besides Barefoot Moscato and... any kind of Moscato... and not Chardonnay, or most red wines)
So you sign up, then you take a quiz on what you like to eat and drink, then they match you up with wines they think fit those tastes, and they call it a, "Palate profile." Then, you pick 3 or more wines at $13 a bottle for your, "Wine box," that they send right to your door, so long as you're there to sign for it.
If you don't pick your own wines month to month for your box, they'll send you four wines that they think you'll like. Which is what I had them do for a while, since I have no idea what I'll like.
Now, I'll be upfront with you and tell you that I've decided to cancel my membership to Club W. However, I will be nice, and tell you the good points of the program before I tell you the bad.
The good of Club W
First of all, the concept is good. They send you wines that they think you'll like to take the guess work out of getting into wine.
The first box I received was delicious wine.
It got me to realize that the region where the wine is from is the important thing about finding which wines you like. For example, I really like red wine from Chile, and anything from New Zealand. So figuring that out was a good first step in becoming a bonafide wino.
They allow you to skip the month unlimited times without getting charged. And I've skipped a lot of months.
The bad of Club W
The price: when you're in college and can get a bottle of wine from Trader Joe's for $5 or less, $13 a bottle seems like way too much.
I don't think they really took my palate profile into account. I got sent all these dry white wines, and as I've stated above, I really like Moscato, and I'm recently getting into Pinot Grigio. I got sent some Zinfandels, and some really dry Pinot Grigios, and some wines that just said, "Red," or, "White," wine on the label. That was very vague since it didn't help me figure out what kinds of wines to stay away from. So in a sense, Club W didn't help me figure out what I liked or disliked as far as wine types. All I figured out was that I didn't like what Club W was sending.
Most of the wines are sold exclusively on Club W. So you can't even go out and buy a case of a wine that you drank and liked. Unless of course you fill your box with it from Club W.
When you rate the wines you drink, they update your palate profile accordingly. However, the only thing you can do is rate it on a scale of one (bad) to five (good). I would have liked to enter reasons why I didn't like it, so that they could update things accordingly. For example, I'd like to say, "This wine is too dry," or, "This wine is very heavy," or something that is actually helpful in altering my profile. A 1-5 ranking simply doesn't give enough information in my opinion. For that reason, consulting a friend who really knows wine is better than the Club W system.
You can't order less than three bottles a month, so for someone who wants to save money, ordering $39 worth of wine I don't really want to drink, every month, is just a completely unappealing concept.
Since you have to be there to sign for the package, and since I'm in college, I knew that getting the wines sent to my apartment wasn't going to work, so I ended up skipping the month most of the time.
What's the verdict?
Although the concept of Club W is good, I'm afraid it gets a resounding thumbs down from me.
Keep it Classy. Keep it Country,
Gretta Patrick <3
What's your favorite wine? Comment below!
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