Many of our speakers this quarter have talked about how wine clubs are often the winery's best source of revenue. These comments led me to become curious about which wine clubs are most popular among consumers today, and whether there are new forms of wine subscriptions that have become more popular over recent years.
Budget-friendly wine clubs: One reviewer defines budget friendly wine clubs as $20 a month wine subscriptions, where customers don’t necessarily have the ability to pick which wines they are getting. One “budget-friendly wine club” frequently mentioned is K&L Wine Merchant Wine Club, which sends one white and one red wine monthly for $20. But as with K&L and other budget-friendly wine clubs, many of the wines include white label brands.
Curated wine clubs: I noticed that a lot of these “curated” wine clubs were centered around master sommeliers. One was “SommSelect” which includes six bottles of wine, curated by a master sommelier (Ian Cauble) for $199, and another very similar one was “The Grand Tour” which sends four bottles for $95, curated by another master sommelier. A lot of these wine clubs seemed to have a strong educational component, with educational information about the wine region, varietal, etc. This story-telling component seemed to be consistent to our class discussions about millennials wanting experiences more than physical products.
Pairing wine clubs: Another interesting wine club experience were ones that included pairings. Wine Down Box, for instance, contains both wine, cheese, and charcuterie pairings for a monthly subscription free. Again, like the curated wine clubs, this type of pairing subscription seemed consistent with building out a more holistic wine-drinking experience.
I probably won’t subscribe to any wine clubs soon, but I have to admit that I am enticed by these pairing box experiences.
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