What wine club?

Looking for a quarterly delivery of decent quality and mixed red / white wines. All of my current wine stock is far too good to drink as everyday wine. So I need a ready supply of quaffing vino.

Any recommendations?

Never convinced by the monthly mail-outs by Laithwaites/Virgin/Naked wines, so suggest the Wine Society‘s scheme. Otherwise, dependent on budget, a good merchant should offer a subscription/regular delivery scheme.

Local off licenses? God forbid, supermarkets?

The wine society are pretty good at all price points.

Just to make you cry a little I’ve been buying wines direct from growers, excellent red / white Burgandy’s for £4.50 a bottle, Premier Cru’s for £8. You have to ignore the transport costs as it’s a holiday to drive down there 😉 , easy for me as I’m in Paris a lot at the moment. We also found an excellent Loire white (Touraine) for £2.70 from Metro the French version of cash and carry.

Wine Society wins hands down IMO.

Really good, varied selection from £6 to quite expensive. The list changes regularly and you can browse online or the wee book they send out (which is great for reading on the loo 🙂 ).

Some of the best bottles they do are in the cheaper price categories, their buyers clearly know where the bulk of their members are looking. I’ve also found them very helpful for advice.

Delivery is free if you buy 12 bottles or a few quid if you buy under 12. No commitment, just buy bottles you like, whenever you want.

Naked Wines are excellent you set an amount to pay in each month and when you’re ready to order you place your order, if you want your money back just email them and they’ll reimburse it the same day. The wines they supply are excellent to notch stuff.

+1 (or a mixed dozen) for Naked Wines, was with them for 3 years had some amazing wines at great prices. The cashback deal has changed a little now but when I left the UK I emptied my account into some great stuff that sent me on my way.

I’ve been using Avery’s for years and very happy with them. If you want stuff in the £4-£6 region go Laithwaites but for £6-£7 and up go Averys.

You don’t have to accept their monthly or quarterly packages. They have mailings each month with lots of offers including mixed cases

I like Majestic. They have quite a few stores round us but they’ll deliver free as long as you buy 6 bottles. Decent selection.

I prefer to make choices myself and a bit suspicious of pre-determined mixed cases. The Wine Society have excellent ranges of “everyday” wines that would fit the bill (and fine wines). Aming the big chains, I agree with Majestic as well (they corner the market in Marquis de Riscal Rioja). Otherwise find a local wine shop that knows what they are doing.

I prefer to make choices myself and a bit suspicious of pre-determined mixed cases.

I share the same concern with the likes of Lathwaites/Naked Wines etc.

They are commercial organisations, with their primary objective being to maximise profits. The Wine Society is not for profit – any money it makes goes straight back into reducing prices or improving the Society. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Also, I remember reading an article some time ago about the buyers of various wine clubs and the quality/CV of the Wine Society guys was in a different league.

I like Majestic.

They just seem to buy it cheap, pile it high – no different to Tesco etc. I bought a good selection there a while back and there wasn’t a single stand out wine in the bunch.

I now get all my wine from a local independent http://www.nywines.co.uk/

Excellent service, knowledge, wines, plus supporting a local business.

I share the same concern with the likes of Lathwaites/Naked Wines etc.

You can select your own with Naked wine.

They are commercial organisations, with their primary objective being to maximise profits. The Wine Society is not for profit – any money it makes goes straight back into reducing prices or improving the Society. Seems like a no brainer to me.

Well yes Naked WIne are a business so of course they want to make a profit but they also inject money into the producers to help them.

Well yes Naked WIne are a business so of course they want to make a profit but they also inject money into the producers to help them.

My point is though, Naked Wines have to make a profit.

So if Naked Wines and the Wine Society buyers approached the same vineyard, who told them that 10,000 bottles of their tasty red will cost £8 per bottle, Naked Wines will have to flog it to you for more than the Wine Society will.

Likewise, there is no incentive for the Wine Society to pick cheap bottles which will sell for higher prices (i.e. crap vintage but from a nice region and with a pretty label), whereas this is surely one of the things which makes Naked Wines etc profitable?

The Real Wine Company[/url]

Mark, the bloke who runs it, is really passionate about his wine. Lovely bloke.

Disclosure: My wife worked for a company that did some marketing for him in a former job. We still buy from him because the wine is rather good. The Louis Fabre Sauvignon Blanc is outstanding for the price.

Ah right so what you saying is the Wine Society is cheaper. That seems a good reason to use them.

Likewise, there is no incentive for the Wine Society to pick cheap bottles which will sell for higher prices (i.e. crap vintage but from a nice region and with a pretty label), whereas this is surely one of the things which makes Naked Wines etc profitable?

It’s not how they work though, I’ve only ever had bad wine from them and they refunded the money on the bottles I bought. A year into being with them there was some complaints about another wine producer who’s wine I thought was just average. They refunded everyone who had bought from that producer and dropped the producer, didn’t seem bothered about not making a profit on crap wine there.

Ah right so what you saying is the Wine Society is cheaper. That seems a good reason to use them.

Pretty much (although I also find that the Society has, on the whole, a better selection of wines that I like). My experience of being a member of Laithwaites (for about 2 years) followed by Naked Wine (for 12 months) and now Wine Society, is that the Wine Society seems to deliver far more bang for your buck (which is obviously easier when you don’t have shareholders to pay). Some of the cheaper selections are seriously impressive.

This is worth a quick look, Society comes out streets ahead, Which satisfaction scores

Well yes Naked WIne are a business so of course they want to make a profit but they also inject money into the producers to help them.

Naked wines works direct with producers to get them an international market. Having been round a lot of vinyards here in Oz there are loads of amazing places here that can’t get into a big international distribution due to quantity required. Naked lets them do it direct to them.
If your in Oz on holiday you can post cases of wine around the $50 mark to the UK with the wine tax that you get back on export covering the postage. I was buying wine at prices that I could buy at cellar door in Oz.

Naked wines works direct with producers to get them an international market.

Yup one of the reasons I like them and why they do wine at a reasonable price.

This is worth a quick look, Society comes out streets ahead,

Is it really £75-149 a month or is that Which doing a poor survey again?

Is it really £75-149 a month or is that Which doing a poor survey again?

I think they had to do a like for like comparison, so used one of the Society’s wine plans, despite the fact that it’s primarily based on self selection.

Naked wines works direct with producers to get them an international market.

Pretty sure that’s how all the main players work, which is why you get good wines for a reasonable price. None of the clubs will have any real negotiating power with a well established vineyard. Not that it’s a bad thing obviously, it’s just that they seem to be putting a bit of a spin on it 🙂

I did have trouble cancelling Naked Wines, there was no option for It was brilliant and there were no problems but I’m leaving the country. I sent them a mail about that and they sent me a nice one back (not from a machine either) and you can/could get this
http://www.nakedwines.com/wines/balthazar-of-the-barossa-shiraz-2006.htm

http://www.nakedwines.com/wines/ladies-who-shoot-their-lunch-shiraz-2007.htm

I went in to see the Ladies who shoot cellar door and it was great, they were impressed that we had been a fan of the early wines in the UK and happy with the way it worked for them.

I think they had to do a like for like comparison, so used one of the Society’s wine plans, despite the fact that it’s primarily based on self selection.

Yup so Which doing another bad survey. The Wine Society does sound pretty good though.