Three Reasons Not to Join a Wine Club

Membership in a wine club is a simple method to get wine, and the availability is much bigger than it used to be. But it also takes the fun out of choosing wines for yourself, and can limit the varieties of wine you get to try. Wine Clubs come in a variety of forms: direct shipment from a favorite winery, shipment from a wine distributor, or pick up from a local wine store, and all have limiting factors.

Detractor #1: Joining a wine club means you drink the same thing, or just average wines.

When joining a wine club, you are signing up to get a wine that a lot of other people will be getting as well. So this means that the wines are, in part, chosen to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Odds are that you won't be offered a particularly daring new wine, or one that is a fantastic value for its price. As for winery wine clubs, members will drink those offerings and not try new wines. Additionally, the quality of a particular varietal may vary from year to year at wineries but as a member you will be getting it regardless.

Detractor #2: Joining a wine club means you probably won't be drinking from a small winery.

By its very nature, a wine club is for broad distribution, and even wine clubs based out of local wine stores are limited to what the distributor can provide. The selection will likely be a favorite of the store manager or owner, but most likely from a large(r) producer because the store cannot get enough cases to have for a wine club selection.

Detractor #3: Joining a wine club takes the fun of discovery out of buying wine.

Not entirely, of course, because you do get the experience of opening the box when it arrives at your door. But one of the best parts of finding a new wine is picking it out, whether through serendipity or personal recommendation. Even those who "judge a book by its cover" and not necessarily the quality of the wine often enjoy the process of picking something out themselves. Wine club membership eliminates this possibility.

Beyond these issues, some individuals do not even have the option of joining a wine club from outside of their state because of shipping laws. According to the Wine Institute, currently the following states prohibit the shipment of alcohol: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah.