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Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon

Lindsey Morse
ByLindsey MorseFeb 5, 2015 | 14 comments

Note from Liz: I'm so happy to introduce our newest reviewer Lindsey to My Subscription Addiction! Lindsey is a professional baker and I'm thrilled to have her share her expertise in her reviews!

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Box

Club W is a monthly wine subscription that re-imagines the traditional wine club. Utilizing a “palate profile quiz” that you take when you join, Club W recommends bottles to suit your personal taste in wine. Each month, you make the decision whether to go along with their suggestions or choose your own bottles from their regularly changing assortment.  If you don’t login to make your monthly bottle selection, your recommended wines will be sent by default. You can skip a month at any time.

Their bottles are sourced directly from vineyards and winemakers, which helps Club W avoid middlemen and secure better wines for less money. By shipping directly to the consumer (skipping the retailer), they are able to avoid volume quotas and offer more unique wines from smaller lots.

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Inside Box

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon WInes 1

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Wines 2

The Subscription Box: Club W

The Cost: 3 bottles per month start at $39 + $6 flat rate shipping. (Shipping is free on orders of 6 or more bottles.)

The Products: 3, 6, or more bottles of small-lot wines sourced directly from vineyards and winemakers

Ships to: All US states EXCEPT: AK, AL, AR, DE, HI, KY, MS, OK, PA, RI, DS, and UT

Check out the Food Subscription Box Directory for more food boxes!

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Cards 1

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Cards 2

Club W includes a tasting card for each of the wines in your shipment. Each card includes a description of the wine, tasting notes, and information about the flavor profile.

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Recipe Cards

Printed on the back of each tasting card is a suggested recipe pairing. It’s fun to see that some of the recipes are from Blue Apron!

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Bottles 1

2012 Cowtown Cabernet Sauvignon (Paso Robles, CA)- $13

2014 Zwicker Edelzwicker (Monterey, CA)- $13

2013 Pacificana Cabernet Sauvignon (Paso Robles, CA)- $13

These 3 bottles were recommended for me by Club W, based on my “palate profile.” My tastes are fairly varied: I like everything from deep & earthy reds to light & lively whites. I usually prefer bold wines to those with more subtle flavors, which I indicated in my quiz, but I’m willing to try just about anything. I was very excited to see how the wines they selected for me would suit my palate! But, before I get started on the tasting, I want to point out that these are definitely small batch wines. Between placing my order online and receiving the wines a few days later, several of the bottles I received had already sold out on the Club W website, and I couldn’t find them available for purchase anywhere else online. While this is a problem if I love a wine and want to order more, it definitely makes me feel like I’m receiving an exclusive product I couldn’t get elsewhere.

Now, let’s get to the wine. For the tasting, I enlisted the help of my husband and brother, to help ensure that I could provide a well rounded review and not just a report of wines I personally liked or disliked. Overall, we were all very impressed with the wines Club W sent. I found that we kept saying, “For a $13 wine, this is REALLY good!”

Of the three wines Club W selected for me, we all preferred the Cowtown. It was earthy, smoky, complex, and well rounded. Even though we all have fairly different taste in wine, after we’d finished trying everything we each immediately reached for the Cowtown for a follow up glass. It was definitely the day’s crowd pleaser! I think this is an excellent wine for a great price.

The Pacificana was a near second. It was easy to drink on its own, but I think it would also pair very well with food.  The suggested recipe pairing is: Coffee Rubbed Ribeye with Pepper & Maple Bourbon Cream Sauce. I think this sounds like a match made in heaven!

The Zwicker Edelzwicker was okay. It’s an off-dry, Alsatian style blend of 60% Riesling and 40% Gewurztraminer. I found the sweet & sour flavor unusual (and perhaps a little flat). While I didn’t necessarily dislike it, it’s not something I would buy again. 

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Bottles 2

2014 Jonathan Simkhai x Club W Sauvignon Blanc (Santa Ynez Valley, CA)- $17

2013 La Obscura Pinot Noir (Casablanca Valley, Chile)- $13

2013 La Bodega Cabernet Sauvignon (Mendoza, Argentina)- $13

I selected these 3 bottles myself. While I like most wines, I’m not a fan of buttery Chardonnay or sweet wines like Riesling, so I’ve avoided those.

The 2014 Sauvignon Blanc is the product of collaboration between Club W and fashion designer Jonathan Simkhai. The winemakers have aimed to create a style of wine that is “a little sexy, a little sporty” to match the designer’s signature style. Simkhai, in turn, designed the label.  Here’s a closeup:

Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon Simkhai

For each wine featured on their site, Club W produces a short tasting video. I really enjoyed this feature and found the videos interesting and informative. In the video for this Sauvignon Blanc, the sommelier talked about how the goal for this wine was to create something that makes you want to “get up and go!” I thought this was a delicious, easy drinking wine that certainly meets that goal. It was bright, citrusy, and refreshing. This is a wine I would want to sip on while doing my makeup, before heading out to meet up with friends.

The Pinot Noir and the La Bodega Cabernet were perfectly drinkable (I didn’t receive a bad wine in the whole shipment), but I wasn’t wowed by either of them. Both had bold flavors, which I like, but were a little lacking in balance and complexity. To be fair, they’re pretty much what I would expect for $13. I wouldn’t buy either bottle again, but I’ll drink these. 

Verdict: I really enjoyed this shipment of wine! I think that Club W succeeds in their goal of providing quality wine for a reasonable price. I like that they work directly with farmers and vineyards, and I thought it was really fun to try exclusive wines I couldn’t get anywhere else. Their “palate profile quiz” was pretty successful at selecting wines to suit my taste, and I really like how each wine comes with a recommended recipe pairing. I also really enjoyed their tasting notes (via printed card and online video) and enjoyed the opportunity to learn about the wine I was drinking. I can definitely recommend this subscription for wine lovers interested in trying something new!

Have you tried Club W? What did you think of your wine shipment?

Lindsey Morse
Lindsey Morse

Lindsey is a professional baker, cold brew coffee addict, and rosé aficionado who loves writing about food and wine. When she’s not sharing her love of subscription boxes with the world, you’ll find her in the podcasting studio, perfecting her cake decorating techniques, or cursing her way through the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. 


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14 comments

Amy Keenan

Thank you for the awesome review Lindsey. I have been receiving the Club W wines for over a year and never noticed the tasting notes or food pairing suggestions. I am always so excited to get my wine, I have never looked through the box! I learned something new today and was able to find this month’s recipes!

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Lauren

Wanted to try this out, but I can’t have alcohol shipped to my work and I don’t see myself taking a day off from work to sign for this at home… bummer

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Renate

Hi Lauren, You can redirect the shipment to a FedEx location close to you. They call or send you a text as soon as it is delivered. That is my way to be sure that somebody can sign when I’m not home.

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Laurie

Excellent, thorough review, Lindsey – welcome! I look forward to more reviews from you!

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Rae

Wonderfully detailed review, welcome

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Chantel

Welcome Lindsey, great review. I am bummed I live in Utah and can’t try out this subscription! Sad Day 🙁 I will look forward to reading your reviews though! Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you.

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Whitney // Beauty With Whitney

It’s so interesting to see a review on this subscription. I don’t drink a lot of wine, so it’s not for me, but I always see their advertisements all over Facebook.

Welcome to reviewing! Will you be reviewing any other subscriptions?

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Lindsey

Thanks, Whitney! I will be reviewing more boxes. Stay tuned! 🙂

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Allie

What a great review! I love that you not only showed us what they sent you but also went through the trouble to taste and give your opinion but also your husband’s and brother’s opinions about each of the wines you received. It’s really helpful for me to read opinions on the quality, taste, etc. of the items in sub boxes. I’m now seriously considering giving this one a try!

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Melissa B

Hi Lindsey, I’m intrigued by this subscription but I wonder if the selections chosen for you were better suited to your tastes than what you could choose for yourself say from a supermarket. For example I prefer wines toward the semi-sweet but there is no indication on the website to say whether the wines selected for me are dry, semi-sweet etc. And if doing a tasting party does it say what order to drink them in? Even at only $13 a bottle I’m still skeptical about buying three bottles I don’t like.

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Lindsey

Hi Melissa, B! I think that while their quiz worked well for me, it might not for everyone. You’re right that they don’t have a question about preference for sweet/dry/semi-sweet etc. The Zwicker I received was off-dry, just a hint of sweetness, and the only other sweetish wine I could find on their website is a semi-sweet Riesling. I set up a tasting order for the wines I received based on info from the cards included in the shipment- they didn’t recommend a tasting order. It’s a great idea, though! As for your other question: I think I could pick out wines I liked equally well from the grocery store, but I like that Club W offers something I can’t get anywhere else. FYI- I just reached out to their customer support and was told that if you don’t like one of the recommended wines you receive you can keep it and they’ll send you a bottle of something else. Hope that helps!

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Sneaky Burrito

Welcome!

I think Riesling is about the only type of wine I really *like* to drink, haha, so this sub is probably not for me (even though I do live in a state where they deliver).

chris

Welcome, Lindsey! Thank you for your detailed review. 🙂

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Lindsey

Thanks, Chris! I’m excited to be on board!

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