Team C&J
Depending on the winery and the type of wine drinker you are, there can be a lot of benefits associated with joining a winery’s wine club. To help you decide whether joining a winery’s membership club is right for you, we’ve broken down some of the most popular benefits.
Wineries use wine club memberships, sometimes simply referred to as winery memberships, to sell wine directly to consumers. This DTC model helps the winery generate profits because they can sidestep wine retailers who take a cut from each bottle sold. The best winery wine clubs offer a convenient way for wine lovers to receive special perks like discounts on bottles, exclusive winery event invitations, and first dibs on new vintage releases before they are made available to the general public.
One of the biggest benefits of joining a wine club is a discount on bottles. If you’re already a fan of a winery’s work and regularly purchase new vintages when they are released, then a built-in discount on bottles is a huge incentive to join. Some wine clubs also offer discounted or free shipping if you purchase additional bottles throughout the year.
Calluna Vineyards, for example, offers a 30% discount to members on their Colonel’s Vineyards Cabernet.
A word of caution about the discount on bottles perk: the discounted price advertised on the website isn’t always your best bet. Big box retailers like Costco and Total Wine sometimes have better deals than the winery itself – even with the membership discount.
Some wineries, particularly cult wineries that release a limited number of bottles per vintage promote their memberships with the promise of guaranteed allocations. If you’ve ever gotten an email notification saying ‘your allocation’ is now live, only to log in and find your favorite bottles are already sold out, then you know the value of this perk.
Guaranteed allocations are also helpful when a winery starts working with a new grape variety and demand from loyal customers outpaces the limited supply.
Library wines, large format bottles of your favorite wines, are sometimes released exclusively to wine club members as a way to reward membership. Love Cambria’s Chardonnays and want access to double magnums of this Central Coast Chardonnay? You receive priority access when you join Cambria’s wine club membership.
These days, making a reservation at a winery can be extremely difficult. During the pandemic, wineries transitioned to a reservation-only model to control the number of people on-site, and they haven’t looked back. Thankfully, one of the benefits of joining a club includes priority reservation access and sometimes an expedited way to contact the winery to make a tasting or tour reservation.
Hand-in-hand with this perk are complimentary tastings. With many tasting rooms in Napa Valley now charging close to $100 per person, complimentary tastings are getting more appealing for wine club members who would rather spend their wine dollars on bottles to take home rather than an in-person tasting.
If you’ve ever visited a popular California wine-tasting room in peak tourist season, then you understand how frustrating it can be to do battle with summer crowds. Take a look at our experience at Chateau Montelena as a cautionary tale.
One of the more enticing benefits of the Cakebread Cellars Wine Club is that members enjoy exclusive use of the wine club lounge. For tasting rooms that frequently draw large crowds, particularly in busy summer months, the ability to sip and savor in a private, serene space is a huge member benefit.
Experience-driven benefits like early access to winemaker dinners, end-of-the-year harvest parties, and in-person events with the winery’s founders are perks that take you beyond the actual wine itself.
Access to special events is great if you’re local or live within a few hours’ drive of the winery, but might not be worth it if you live out of state.
If you’re a casual drinker and you haven’t quite figured out what style of wine you like, then becoming a member of a winery might not be worth the investment just yet. Because wineries typically focus on one style of wine, putting your focus on only California Cabernets from Rutherford, for example, may dissuade you from discovering something new, like Cabernet from the Sonoma Coast or, perhaps, trying something from the Old World.
The other big question to ask yourself is: do you want to receive 18 to 36 bottles of wine from one winery a year? If you’re new to wine, that’s a lot of bottles. You may find yourself struggling to store two to three cases of wine. Of course, you can always invest in a wine fridge. See our thoughts on how to select a wine cooler or fridge for more on that topic.
Lastly, before becoming a member of a winery, consider the cost. Depending on the wine club, member shipments can cost around $200 on the low end per shipment and in the thousands of dollars on the higher end. If you receive three to four shipments a year, the cost can add up quickly.
All things wine, and food you could ever need or want — straight to your email!
