The Most Worthwhile Wine Clubs for Every Kind of Drinker, According to Sommeliers

Match your taste buds (and budget) with the perfect expert-recommended club.

wine subscriptions
Photo: Emma K. Morris; Maitane Romagosa/Thrillist
Photo: Emma K. Morris; Maitane Romagosa/Thrillist

If you’ve ever stepped foot into a wine shop and found the infinite rows of bottles to be even mildly intimidating, there’s an easier way to explore (and learn about) wine at your own pace: a wine subscription service. Why? You can select different wines from the comfort of your home -- and allow experts to curate your shipment -- without having to stand in an aisle agonizing over how to pronounce that fancy bottle of sauvignon blanc to impress your friends. 

But just as there are countless varieties of sauvignon blanc to pick from, there are nearly as many wine subscription clubs. To help you find the one that’s best for you, we tapped a handful of notable sommeliers from around the country, including Cote’s Victoria James and Frasca Food and Wine’s Carlin Karr, to compare some of their favorites, and why they’re worth your while.

Kogod Wine Merchant
Courtesy of Kogod Wine Merchant

If you’re looking for a club that caters to individual taste

Kogod Wine Club
Price:
Starts at $79/month
The Kogod Wine Club prioritizes having its members be personally involved with the selection of wines they receive each month. To provide a more custom approach, owner and sommelier Max Kogod personally picks the wines that end up in each member's monthly delivery. With over 2,000 wines to pick from, Kogod’s fine-tuned selection process starts with reviewing membership intake forms, which allow potential club members to list wine preferences, dislikes, and other pertinent taste profile information.

After reading and considering the infor, Kogod reaches out to each member with follow-up questions to truly understand their wine tastes and make proper selections. Members can choose from four club options: two wines per month for $79, four wines per month for $159, six wines per month for $239, or choose a custom number of bottles, as long as they meet the $79 monthly minimum. Plus, new members also get 15% their first order.

Kogod’s commitment to customization is one of the big reasons sommelier Carlin Karr -- wine director at Boulder, Colorado’s Frasca Food and Wine and one of Wine Enthusiast’s 2019 40 Under 40 Tastemakers -- recommends it.

“Max does an incredible job, has great taste, and caters to your individual tastes,” Karr said. "No BS, all high quality, and always ahead of the curve.”

Sign up for the club here.

SommSelect
SommSelect's Blind Six Club | Courtesy of Emma K. Morris

If you want a selection of wines curated by top sommeliers

SommSelect
Price: Starts at $99/month
Touted as a way to “[bring] the sommelier experience home,” SommSelect’s monthly wine clubs start at $99 a month and cap at $199 a month. Members can choose from three different tiers: Drink Like A Somm, Somm Six, and the Blind Six. 

SommSelect is also one of Karr’s picks, thanks to its structured pricing tiers and the fact that it’s “on the cutting edge of the trends.” 

As consumers are growing more interested in learning the stories behind the wines they’re drinking SommSelect’s Drink Like A Somm club focuses on wine education. Each month, this “beginner-friendly” club ships four bottles that are curated around a theme, whether that be grape variety, classic wine region, or the seasonality. 

Members of the Somm Six club, meanwhile, receive six bottles a month (a mix of reds, whites, and bubbles). The Blind Six takes “blind tasting” literally by sending members six numbered bottles of wine wrapped in black tissue paper and instructions on how to conduct the wine tasting. Tasting notebooks and descriptions provided by Ian Cauble, master sommelier and co-founder of SommSelect are meant to guide members through the tasting process. 

Sign up for the club here.

Good Juice Club
Courtesy of Good Juice Club

For big fans of natural wine

Good Juice Club
Price: $158/month including shipping
As natural wine grows increasingly popular, and drinkers become even more interested in “minimal intervention” production methods, people are looking for a trusted source to find and try new options. That’s where Good Juice Club comes in. 

GJC  sends members six bottles of natural wine each month -- three reds and three whites from vineyards all over the world. Each are organically farmed from certified growers to ensure every bottle is made responsibly and chemical-free. 

“For natural wine heads, I love what Good Juice Club is doing,” Karr said. “Fun and funky but not f’d up.”

It’s also worth noting  that with every order you place, Good Juice plants a sapling in fire ravaged areas of Northern California. Delicious wine and lessening your carbon footprint? Sounds like a sweet deal. 

Sign up for the club here.

Psychic Wines
Courtesy of Psychic Wines

For wine drinkers looking for food pairing inspiration

Visions (Psychic Wines)
Price:
$50/month for Visions 1 and $120/month for Visions 2
Based in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood,Psychic Wines is an airy natural wine shop run by Quinn Kimsey-White and Zach Jarrett, and operates its own wine club called Visions with two tiered subscription options. 

Visions 1 includes two everyday drinking wines (styles vary from month to month), and is touted as a great option for those who want to become more familiar with the shop’s natural wine selection. Visions 2 takes it up a notch by adding two more “serious” bottles to the wines included in Visions 1 (“serious” meaning the wines vary in their aging potential, general characteristics, or by their availability). 

Daryl Nuhn, managing partner at Peoples Wine Store + Bar considers Psychic Wines’ Visions club to stand out amongst others thanks to its inclusion of unique bonus materials.

“Psychic provides a beautiful zine with recipes and interviews, each of the staff contributes to writing about one of the wines,” Nuhn. said. “It’s very thoughtful.” 

Visions members also receive a small booklet in each shipment filled with visuals, more in-depth information on the included wines, and recipes written by notable food industry folks around Los Angeles. And no matter which club tier you join, you get 10% off all in-store purchases.  

Sign up by downloading the form here and emailing it to visions@psychicwinesla.com

Thirst Wine Merchants
Courtesy of Thirst Wine Merchants

For wine lovers looking for exclusive perks

Thirst Wine Merchants
Price: $98/month
Brooklyn-based Thirst Wine Merchants stocks a variety of natural ciders, meads, and wines (all of which are available to ship via its online store), and its perk-packed wine club also comes highly recommended from Nuhn. 

“[The] selection is chosen by staff and the theme will vary month to month, but you can expect a group of bottles that highlight the producers they admire and the wines they are currently loving,” Nuhn said.

Members are shipped four bottles every month, personalized to their palate (once you enroll, the staff gets to know your wine preferences, flavors you like and dislike, and will occasionally send wines that break the limits of your comfort zone).  
Now about those perks…

Members get 10% off all wines available in-store and online, first dibs on allocated and limited release wines, invites to special events, and access to a concierge service that provides you with a wine consultant to help you choose wines for special events. 

Sign up for the club here. Use the code "THIRSTFORTHRILL" to get $30 off your first month. 

The Grand Tour
The Grand Tour by Verve Wine | Courtesy of Verve Wine

If you’re intent on exploring wines from different regions

The Grand Tour by Verve Wine
Price:
$95
For Victoria James, beverage director and partner at New York City’s Cote, supporting local wine shops and purchasing monthly packs from them is critically important (particularly now). However, she named The Grand Tour wine club by Verve Wine as one of her top recommendations, as it offers a more thorough education for consumers than many of the more mainstream clubs out there.

Wines in The Grand Tour are hand picked from a featured region every month by master sommelier Dustin WIlson and his team at Verve Wine in New York. According to The Grand Tour’s website, Wilson and his team do a series of focused wine tastings from all over the featured region and make four selections based on which wines best represent it. Club members always receive in-depth insight into the origins of each wine, as well as tasting notes and pairing suggestions. 

Sign up for the club here.

Viticole Wine Club
Brian McClintic, master sommelier and founder of Viticole Wine Club | Courtesy of Viticole Wine Club

For cider enthusiasts looking to mix things up

Viticole Wine Club
Price:
Starts at $59/month
Viticole Wine Club -- which also comes recommended from James -- operates on a seasonal schedule, with its tier one club sending one shipment during the spring and another in the fall, each packed with 12 bottles -- a mix of both wine and cider 

Tier two is similar to tier one, except the individual wines and ciders in this shipment vary in value between $40-60 per bottle, compared to the bottles in tier one which sit between $25-35 each. 

Brian McClintic, master sommelier and founder of Viticole, decided to include ciders in the wine club for its biodiversity, reduced carbon footprint, value, enhancement of the food chain, and agroforestry. And because it’s just downright tasty. The sustainability aspect of the club is also one of the reasons James recommends it

“A lot of these subscription services will not really source high quality wines that are sustainable,” James said. “Organic should be a bare minimum, it shouldn’t be a branding point.”

Viticole uses regenerative organic farming, meaning all of the fermentations occur naturally with wild yeasts. Also, all of its wine and cider are bottled unfiltered, which results in a taste much more similar to how these beverages tasted before the industrial age. 

Sign up for the club here.   

Other great wine clubs worth checking out

Winc
Courtesy of Winc

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly option that has something for everyone

Winc
Price:
Starts at $39/month, plus shipping
Based on a simple questionnaire you fill out upon sign-up, Winc sends personalized wine recommendations each month, while allowing you to tweak your preferences for subsequent shipments at any time. Memberships start at $39 a month for 3 bottles (with an additional $9 for shipping), but if you order four or more bottles, shipping is included.
 
According to its website, Winc’s winemaking team handcrafts all of its wine and partners with innovative winemakers to produce quality wine from over 90 regions around the world. It's also committed to increasing its amount of organic and natural wine options. To further boost its sustainability, its boxes and pulp trays are completely compostable, so you won’t have to fret about unnecessary waste. 

Sign up for the club here.

Vinley Market
Vinley Market

For drinkers who prefer sparkling wine and rosé 

Vinley Market
Price:
Starts at $59/month
Whether you have a strong opinion about rosé or it’s your go-to beverage whenever you're out (no judgement here), Vinley Market sources “high artisanal quality wines” from regions all over the world that their sommeliers are most excited about. 

The Bubbles & Rosé box, like the name suggests, includes two bottles picked by Vinley’s sommeliers, which could contain Cava, Champagne, Cremant d'Alsace, or Prosecco. The box also comes with a card that delves into the history of each featured winery and winemaker.

If your taste buds are feeling a bit more adventurous, opt for the Adventurer’s Wine Box, which comes with either two or three sommelier-selected bottles based on your budget from different regions around the world. 

Sign up for the club here.

Vinebox
Courtesy of Vinebox

If you want to recreate the wine tasting experience at home (and try before you buy)

Vinebox
Price: $79 every 3 months
If you’re the type of drinker who enjoys trying multiple wines before commiting to a full bottle, Vinebox is right up your alley. Its Quarterly Wine Club ships 9 different wines -- by the glass -- every 3 months, rather than full bottles. Each box is packed with Vinebox-exclusive wines (meticulously preserved to prevent oxygen exposure in easy-to-open 10-centilitre glasses), as well as comprehensive information on each.

As a member of Vinebox’s wine club, you’ll also receive $15 in credits to purchase full-sized bottles of the ones you like the most. 

Sign up for the club here.

Cellars Wine Club
Courtesy of Cellars Wine Club

If you’re looking to try out a different kind of wine club every month

Cellars Wine Club
Price:
Starts at $29/shipment
If you can’t settle on one type of wine club, Cellars might be your answer. The company offers twelve different kinds of clubs at various price points -- whether you’re interested in premium imported options, great natural wines, sweet wines, a selection curated by a boutique wine shop, or more. Plus, you can switch up which club you’re in whenever you want (and cancel at any time).

The options within each club are also super customizable, as you can select how many shipments you want, how often you want them, when you want your subscription to start, and your wine preferences. To better guide your decision-making, each club page on the website provides a ton of information on where the wines are sourced and what particular kinds of wines you can expect in the mix.

Sign up for the club here.

Kristen Adaway is an editorial assistant at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter