I joined a wine club yesterday. There’s this wine shop that I go to whenever I want to purchase a bottle of wine. I love the selection and the people who work there are very knowledgeable. I go in there, tell them what I want for dinner, and they show me some of the wines they think would be great. They’ll even give me a sample occasionally.

For me, joining that wine club made sense. I can go to one wine tasting a month and sample various wines throughout the month. Plus, I get 10% off each bottle of wine I purchase. There’s another wine club in town but it seems to target tourists, not people like me who want to find something to sip with dinner.

So, Should You Join a Wine Club?

But the question is, should you join one? There are different kinds of clubs. Some you can join online and they’ll send you bottles of wine each month or a few times a year. For me, the local wine clubs are more fun because they host wine sampling events and give discounts on the odd bottle of wine that you purchase. If you drink wine all the time and tend to purchase it from the same wine shop, it couldn’t hurt to consider joining their club.

Finding a Club to Join

After you’ve decided to join a club, your next step is to find one. Look around locally to see if there are any options. If you live in an area that doesn’t have a lot of local offerings, consider searching online. A quick google search revealed these companies:

• The Wine Club - based out of CA, thewineclub.com offers discounts and local events
• Cellars Wine Club - this company offers a wine of the month club. Find them at cellarswineclub.com
• Wine.com - this site is a portal of sorts. Shop for wine, join a wine club - no matter what you want, they’ll point you in the right direction

You Don’t Need to Be Obsessed With Wine to Enjoy a Wine Club

I love wine, but I don’t pretend to know how to describe it. I can’t tell you the history of each vinyard. I barely even know the difference between the grapes. But I do know which wines I like. I write them down in a notebook. I even make a feeble effort to describe what it tasted like.

One of my scribbled descriptions was, “Tastes yummy, a little like bubble gum.” Have you ever read a wine label with that description? Probably not,  but I don’t care. Just develope a knowledge for what you like and why you like it. There really are no right or wrong answers.

And since I buy around one bottle of wine a week, a club simply made sense. I don’t care if my fellow members know more about wine than me. It isn’t about them, anyway!