Club W Wine Subscription Review & 50% Off Coupon

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 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.

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

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 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.

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!

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. 

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:

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?