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The Celebrations Wine Club was formed 20 years ago by Anna Maria Knapp. For the past 2 decades she has been providing her clients with the finest Italian wines and Californian wines avaliable on the market. They search the regions for truly gifted wine makers. Searching out the small family-owned wineries that produce boutique wines and hand-crafted vintages that are nothing short of world class.

The Celebrations wine club does not deal in large scale wine operations. While acknowledging that they have their place as an everyday drinking wine due to their inexpensive nature, you will not receive this in a shipment from the Celebrations Wine Club. The wines shipped by Anna are selected for their flavor, aroma, authenticity, and “balance of components that melts into a gloriously integrated whole.”

This wine club comes highly recommended by many wine enthusiasts, as every shipment is carefully selected by the president, tasted and tested to ensure quality, and sent out with love to their members. It’s part of what has helped this wine club stick around for the past 20 years. The Italian Wine Club offered by Celebrations has many options to choose from. Any and every taste has been accounted for.

Celebrations Italian Wine Club Options

Italian Artisan Series- $34/month - One red & one white wine delivered monthly.

Italian Winemaker Reserve Red Wine Club- $62/month - Two Italian reserve red wines delivered monthly.

Italian Collector Series- $112/month - Two super-premium Italian red wines delivered monthly.

Italian Wine Club Combo- $87/month - One super-premium Collector red & one reserve Winemaker red delivered monthly.

All the wine clubs includes their famous newsletter. In the newsletter, you’ll read about the winemakers, the wines, the regions where the grapes are grown, and the foods that the red wines complement. Anna loves to write, and has published books and columns in news papers about the world of wine. You get to enjoy that passion in their newsletter.

Each club also offers a prepaid membership for 3, 6, or 12 months. This makes it perfect if you are looking to give a wine club gift membership. They also have a number of California wine club memberships available. We will look into that soon.

The 4 Seasons Wine Club is another of the biggest and most popular monthly wine clubs online. They are a quarterly wine club, shipping you a case of wine each quarter (plus one bonus shipment). One shipment for each of the seasons. Each seasonal shipment features a unique selection of wines chosen specifically to pair well with the foods of that season. A unique idea, and a good value if that is what you are looking for.

4 Seasons Wine Club- $100 a case, 4-5 bottles of wine to the case, a complimentary wine opener

Four Seasons Spring Wine Sampler

Winter becomes a speck in the rear view mirror, blossoms emerge and adorn the trees in pink and white, and the garden wakes from its slumber. This can only mean one thing - Springtime. And to celebrate the welcome arrival of the warmer months, your 4 Seasons Spring Sampler will arrive chock full of delectable wines like crisp clean Sauvignon Blanc’s, lush earthy Pinot Noir’s, or Unoaked Chardonnay’s.

Four Seasons Summer Wine Sampler

Hot days, long balmy nights, pool parties, fresh cut grass, baseball, barbecues and 4th of July - Summer abounds with warmth, smiles and a sense of wellbeing that often eludes other seasons. And to match those good feelings, your Summer Sampler will feature classic wines that will cool, refresh and delight - such as light but invigorating Pinot Gris’, refreshingly dry Riesling’s, or zippy-BBQ-friendly Zinfandel.

Four Seasons Fall Wine Sampler

Days shorten, the familiar sound of leaves crunching underfoot, nature hunkers down for the onset of winter and Thanksgiving brings us all together for family celebrations. Your Fall Sampler will be bursting at the seams with wines that match perfectly with hearty soups, turkey and the foods that are part and parcel of Autumn. Silky smooth Merlot’s, spicy Gewurztraminer, Zinfandel’s, or lively multi-textured Viognier’s.

Four Seasons Holiday Wine Sampler

Family, Friends, Fun, Food and Festivities abound – it’s the Holidays! To insure you have holiday fare-friendly wines on hand – your limited edition Holiday Sampler is comprised of wines that will accommodate all of your holiday needs – from cocktail parties, to dinners – from appetizers to desserts, to wonderful holiday and hostess gifts.

Four Seasons Winter Wine Sampler

Snow settling gently on the front lawn, the icy blast that greets you as you leave the house… football, the holidays and the alluring comfort of an open fire…all very familiar features of the cold season. But fear not - your Winter Sampler will instantly warm your heart with big bold Cabernet Sauvignon’s, fat oaky Chardonnay’s, or even full bodied Shiraz’ - all carefully selected to take the chill off and match perfectly with the hearty foods that are synonymous with Winter.

We have read some mixed reviews about the Four Seasons Wine Club. Most agree that it is a decent value, not the best, but not the worst, and the wines are of good quality.

California Reds Wine Club Review

This wine club has been founded in Napa Valley and in business since 2001. They have developed high quality friendships with the local wineries and wine makers in Napa Valley California which translates into deals and great finds for their customers. California Reds Wine Club focus their attention on the finest, hand crafted red wines in the Valley, many of which are overlooked by other wine clubs. If you are looking to give a wine club gift memership, then this would be a great one to consider.

Each of their wine of the month club selections has been carefully chosen by their team of wine making experts who visit hundreds of wineries and sample countless wines each year. It’s all part of the painstaking process they undertake to bring their members incredible new wines month-after-month.

California Reds offers three different wine clubs to a their subscribers:

• World Wide Reds- $38.95 Per Month - their International wine of the month club is for the adventurer in all of you! Each month they’ll deliver two different bottles of hand-crafted, specialty wines from boutique wineries around the world. This club is a great choice when you want to experience wines from exotic locales across the globe.
• Dynamic Duo- $44.95 Per Month - their most popular club features a monthly delivery of two different bottles of California red wines from interesting, up-and-coming wineries - many of which have yet to be discovered by the national wine experts. If you like the idea of being the first to sample a new winery, this club is a great choice.
• Ultimate Reds- $94.95 Per Month - the California Red premium wine of the month club features three bottles every month of highly-rated, hard-to-find wines from boutique, family-owned wineries across the Napa Valley. This Ultimate Reds Wine Club is a wine gift guaranteed to satisfy even the most discriminating wine connoisseurs

The price and value offered by California Reds Wine Club is very high. We recommend them if you are looking to join a high quality California wine club. They also offer gift memberships, so you can give your loved one the joy of fine California wine’s right to their doorstep.

This is an excellent UK based wine club. A newcomer to the wine of the month club scene, but it has already built up quite a name for itself. The name of the club refers the three most important aspects of wine making- the earth, the vine, and the sun shine. Only with adversity from the ground does the grape reach its full potential on the vine, while becoming nothing more than contained sunshine.

The Stone Vine and Sun wine club has received rave reviews from major wine authorities, as they focus their wine club on regional wines from around the world. We think the club has a big focus on French wines, thus we are calling it a French wine club. But more acuratley it is an internaitonal wine club delivering region specific wines from around the world.

They do not offer a monthly wine delivery service like other wine clubs. Rather they focus on selling wine by the case. Each case contains 12 different wines from a specific region of interest.

Price per Case: Around £87.50 (it varies with the kind of wine, and the offer you buy with)

We recommend this wine club very much if you are looking to get some amazing wines that you can store in your wine cellar. There is no minmum order, and no monthly recurring fees, so you have absolute freedom to explore these amazing region specific wines at your own pace.

How Wine Experts Rate & Review Wine Clubs

Wine clubs are quickly becoming one of the most popular enrollment and gift activities associated with the food and beverage industry. A wine club is not a “set in stone” arrangement and they are available in an enormous number of styles and options. There are clubs dedicated to California wines and there are those that focus entirely on Champagnes or Sparkling wines. The choices are almost limitless, but it is a good idea to investigate some of the wine club reviews before making a choice.

Even though most wine clubs use a panel of experts to make their monthly or seasonal selections there may still be some issues with the club’s choices, so it’s important to do your own research or read reviews. Wine club reviews analyze the following areas:

Quality of Wine

This is, of course, a major factor in the success of any wine club. If the members receive unpopular or “clearance” items they will probably not enjoy their membership as much as those who receive specially selected vintages. Unfortunately there are some clubs that do utilize discounted bottles and vintages as a portion of each month’s shipment. This is usually quickly and easily identified by the critic who will comment on every single selection.

Additionally, any critic is going to have some good knowledge and background about the type of wines the club has promised and will be able to let potential members know if the vintages selected match the criteria of the club, or its standards. For example, if a club promises the best California “boutique” wines, a knowledgeable expert will be able to point out any discrepancies in the selections.

All of these factors can affect the overall quality of the wines delivered to the members. Generally, the wine club reviews will itemize the traditional characteristics of wine on a bottle by bottle or vineyard by vineyard basis. Most reviews rely on the classic “gold star” system to identify how well the club performed.

Wine Education

One reason that many people decide to enroll in a wine club is for the newsletters and printed information that accompanies their monthly or seasonal shipments. Generally they will discuss the grapes, region and particular vineyard where the wine was produced. This is not all “fluff”, but is intended to educate the member about the wine industry and its practices.

All of this is important because it can really help to train their palette and enable them to recognize things like bouquet, flavors and aromas. For instance, you might purchase a bottle of wine that was aged in oak. It could have a very distinctive flavor, but as a novice you would not be able to say, “oh, it is the oaky overtones that I am detecting”. A good wine club will provide such training, and a good wine club review will praise the club for delivering these materials.

Additionally, a wine club review should scrutinize the club’s educational materials for food pairing information. Wine is not always intended to be sipped without the benefit of food and many people are unaware of the best food and wine pairings. A wine club review should indicate if this information is included along with every shipment.

Value

Any wine club review should let the consumer or potential customer know if the wines and educational materials come at a reasonable value. For example, if a club makes a habit of delivering substandard vintages, the wine club review should be able to identify this fact and alert a consumer to the lesser value of such a membership.

Additionally, it requires the comprehensive knowledge of an expert to know if a certain type of wine club is actually providing a valuable service to clients. For instance, a club dedicated to enhancing the value of a cellar will offer premium cellaring vintages at a good cost. A wine club review will point out if this is true or if it fails to meet such clear cut terms.

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Article originally by:
David Lett is a wine lover who has subscribed to wine clubs for over 15 years. It all started years ago during Thanksgiving when his friend gave him a six-month wine club subscription. His love affair with “wine at his door” had begun. Discover David’s Wine Club Insider Blog and Wine Club Reviews at:
http://www.WineClubGuide.com

Coastal Vineyards Wine Club

Coastal Vineyards is a wine club that has focuses on California wineries in the Paso Robles and
Santa Barbara Regions. They focus their efforts on finding you wines that have yet to be discovered. They believe that you should drink a wine not for the artistic label or fancy name or even worse the Wine Spectator rating, you should drink the wine because it was custom crafted by specialty winemakers who are still faithful to the art of making wine with passion that can be tasted in each and every bottle opened, poured and enjoyed.

That is why their tag line has become so popular, when they say, “you’ll be saying I knew them when…” meaning Coastal Vineyards only feature wines that have yet to be discovered but they certainly will be.

Coastal Vineyards features only premier, top quality vintages, custom crafted by specialty winemakers who are still ever faithful to the art of making wine with the dedicated passion and devoted love for the time treasured process that can be tasted in each and every savory bottle opened, poured and enjoyed.

CVWC is proud to deliver only the very finest quality, “small production,” premium, boutique-style wines to your doorstep, for your personal palatable pleasure, as well as that of your treasured friends, family and associates.

There are absolutely no “Membership Fees”, no cancellation costs, shipping is always included in the price, and we offer you a complete 100% guarantee your absolute satisfaction!

There are more wine clubs available with Coastal Vineyards than we have seen any place else. 12 wine clubs in total are offered from a Merlot club to a Chardonnay club to a South African wine club and Premium wine club, you will find a club to fit any taste.

Signature Wines is a wine company that specializes in personalized wine accessories. They create custom wine labels, wine gift sets, champagne bottles, and anything with the word wine in it. They allow you to literally Create Your Own Bottle Of Wine. Recently they have started their own wine club, shipping out 2 bottles of wine a month to their subscribers for a great price.

The price is only $29.95 a month, and for a limited time they are giving three bottles of wine for the price of two to new members for the first month. They even give you the opportunity to start your own wine club for your friends and coworkers, this is truly a unique feature. We might be trying this in the near future.

They give you the option of selecting your preferences for types of wine: reds, whites, or mixture. If your tastes run in a certain direction, then this will make you happy.

Here’s what you get every month with the Signature Wine Club:

• Two bottles of wine specially selected by the Signature Wine Club team of wine experts delivered to your door.
• Delicious recipes perfectly paired with the wines.
• Tasting notes explaining the origins and characteristics of each wine.
• Background information on the winery and the fascinating characters behind the wines.
• The ability to reorder your favorite wines at a member’s only discount. (20%-70% off)
• Your satisfaction guaranteed!
• Only $29.95 per month.

They are also affiliated with the Sunset Magazine Wine Club.

Before long, if you have been taking an interest in wine, you’ll find that you start to notice that some wines are listed as blended wines, while others are listed as varietal wines. If you are curious about what goes into a fine glass of wine, or if you are simply interested in knowing a little bit more about the vintage that you are drinking, you’ll find that learning about blended wines can help you fully appreciate the experience a little more.

Blended wines are composed of a variety of grape types, while varietal wine is created from a single type. Both types of wine have been in existence for centuries, and given the fact that better methods of transport and storage have been invented, the variety of blended wines have exploded in recent years.

When you go shopping for wines, you should be aware of what can be considered a varietal as opposed to being a blended wine. For example, as you examine a label, you’ll discover that a wine classified as a varietal may contain 15% of different varieties of grapes. But, if a wine is listed as blended, the predominant varietal will be listed first. This may help you choose a new blended wine that you are not familiar with, for example, if Cabernet is a favorite of yours be on the alert for a Cabernet Merlot. You may discover that your favorite wines are actually blends of more than one variety. Bordeaux is one fine example of blended wine.

Whether a wine is varietal or blended is insignificant as long as it is pleasing to your palate. Blending wines does not produce a sub-par product, many of the most outstanding vintages in wine history have, in fact, been blends. Some of the most popular red wines are blends. If you would like to learn more about some grapes, you can use blended wines to test them without having to make a complete commitment.

Some people are experts on wine and some know nothing about how to pick a good wine. Talk to people around you and have them give you some advice on wine blends and how to pick a good one. Another great way to try various blends is to join a wine club. There are many types of online monthly wine clubs to choose from that offer very fine wines including some exceptional blended wines delivered right to your home.

Winery Tours

One of the best parts of joining a wine club is that they go to all the wineries for you to find the best wines. However, taking a winery tour is one of those rare joys for a true wine enthusiast. Come on, you know you wish you could have your own vineyard.

If visiting a vineyard and going on a winery tour is something that sounds like fun to you, there are a few steps that you will need to take before you go. First, you should be aware that there are thousands of different wineries in different wine regions around the world, and many of them are open to visitors. Of all the different wine regions that you can choose from for your winery tour here are a few that are sure to interest you.

Find Out What Your Wine Options Are

The first step, if you want to go on a winery tour, is for you to find out what your options are. Sure, the Napa Valley California wine country offers many winery tours that are very popular because it is such a well known region, but there are many other California winery tours that you may also be interested in. Within a short drive of Napa Valley you’ll also find Sonoma, Russian River and Petaluma. All of these areas have vineyards that are open to the public and many have winery tours on offer. The Benziger Family Winery at Glen Ellen, not far from the Sonoma Valley, offers an outstanding tour of their biodynamic vineyard and winery. Be sure to check out the California Wine Club for some amazing Cali wines!

It is also worthwhile seeing if there are any wineries in your local area, or, if you are traveling, you can check to see which wineries are located in that specific area. When traveling in Europe it should be noted that many Italian and French vineyards and wineries are not generally open to the public but if you call in advance they may be very happy to welcome you.

The most important thing is that you find a winery that allows visitors and that offers the types of wines that you enjoy or that you are interested in learning more about.

Do Your Winery Research

Next you will need to do your research on any winery tour that you may be considering. You will, for instance, need to find out which days of the week and at what times the winery tours are offered, so you can choose the one that is convenient for you. It is quite frustrating to travel to a winery only to find it is closed that day for tours.

For many winery tours you can just find out what time they are conducted and then show up, but for other winery tours you will have to call in advance and book a spot on the vineyard tour. It is always worthwhile calling in advance to make sure that you can get on to the tour without having to wait too long.

Going on a winery tour is something that most people will enjoy. Even if you are not an enthusiastic wine lover, you may still enjoy learning about wine growing, the long history of wine, and about the different types of wine available and what makes each style unique and sets one apart from another.

Britain now imports more wine than any other country on the planet. As a nation we imported a grand total of 1.6 billion bottles in 2007, equating to 35 standard bottles for every adult in the country which is absolutely staggering figure. The average British adult now drinks 12% more wine than they did just five years ago and forecasts predict our consumption will continue to grow far beyond that figure. Global wine consumption is on the rise in past years and also forecast to grow considerably. The US are predicted to eventually become the world’s biggest consumer by 2012. The UK is 13th in the world, in terms of consumption per adult and despite Britain being a massive importer, the amount we drink is dwarfed by other neighbouring European countries including France.

Red wine and white wine are on the increase as well as champagne and cognacs. The British public consumed seven hundred and twenty million bottles of red wine and 764 million bottles of white wine in 2008 and that figure is expected to grow for 2009. However red wine is rapidly falling in popularity, as white wine and rose wine take larger shares of the increasing wine industry.

Wine merchants have been incredibly busy for another year in 2008. Additionally, reports have indicated that many wine accessories such as tableware and dinnerware have been selling extremely fast as a natural accompaniment to wine. The thirst for wine is set to deepen in emerging economies such as China and Russia, whose consumption levels are soon expected to overtake that of Spain which is another nation historically associated with wine. It predicted that the financial and economic crisis affecting many wine consumer countries worldwide would only have ‘limited’ consequences for the growth of the wine sector. The report forecast growth for the coming four years roughly in line with pre-crisis trends. Either way it is a very terrifying thought.

A great wine club located in Great Britain is the Sunday Times Wine Club.

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