Where do you even start to find great wines?
Australia makes some of the best wines in the world with over 2,800 producers from over 100 wine regions, which leaves so much choice and so little time to get through them all.
One way to discover new wines is through wine clubs or wine subscriptions.
Wine clubs have grown to be a large part of the wine industry in Australia.
It seems that every other corporate brand has started its own wine club as a way to try to connect with their customers.
But what exactly is a wine club, and what are the differences between them?
The first thing that might come to mind when you think of a ‘wine club’ is a group of aficionados swirling their glasses while sipping slowly on a 1982 Château Lafite Rothschild.
Really the term ‘club’ is often only used as a nice way of saying ‘join our mailing list’. Nevertheless, there are many benefits when you do find a great wine club, and these are our top 5 different types of wine clubs and wine subscriptions.
The Wineries
It’s common for individual wineries to have their own wine club of some description.
Some of them are free memberships that offer discounts where you have to join their newsletter database, and others are structured paid wine subscriptions with regular deliveries.
If you stumble across a winery that you enjoy, then joining their wine club is a great way to receive the latest releases once or twice a year.
Often the boutique winery wine clubs will make up to 50% of their annual sales by subscribing members to yearly deliveries of 12 bottles or more.
Quarterly Wine Clubs
There are a number of private companies or co-op/member owned associations that curate wine subscriptions.
These wine clubs are typically more frequent selections with a range of wines from different wineries and different regions all packaged up into a quarterly wine subscription.
The great thing about these wine clubs is the wide-range of selection and the regular deliveries to keep your cellar stocked.
Bottle Shop Wine Clubs
These days local bottle shops or wine merchants need to do something different to stand out. Often they have their own wine clubs and special promotions as ways to engage locally with customers.
This engagement might be a wine subscription or other times it might just be a monthly recommendation of their favourite wines or even in-store tasting events.
They are a great way to support a local independent business, and it keeps you in the loop for when you need to grab that last minute vino.
Airline Wine Clubs
Have you ever tried a glass of wine while travelling at 30,000ft that turned out to be a decent drop?
Now, most major airlines offer these wines through their own wine club subscriptions, which is not a bad way to earn frequent flyer points while taking advantage of the special offers on some great wines.
However, do note that these are normally limited to the mass-produced and easily available wine labels.
Still, the extra points benefits and regular specials they offer might be a good fit for a frequent flyer looking to accumulate their points.
Monthly Wine Clubs
Finally, there are monthly wine clubs like Secret Bottle, which make the most out of all the options.
Secret Bottle works directly with a wide range of boutique producers to curate the best wines from wine regions across Australia and deliver them monthly.
The Secret Bottle wine subscription is a fantastic option because you don’t have to take our word for it.
We know that everyone likes different flavours and enjoy different styles of wine, which is why we created the Tasting Club.
The Secret Bottle Tasting Club gives you the option to taste all our favourite wines of the month.
This is a great way to discover wines, and only buy the ones you love. You also learn a lot along the way and expand your wine knowledge.
With a wide range of options for wine clubs and wine subscriptions, there’s sure to be something that fits everyone.
Nothing beats the experience of travelling across the country’s finest wine regions and discovering the secret cellar doors of small boutique wineries.
Unfortunately, we don’t always have the time to do this often, so keeping the wine discovery journey alive with a good wine club might be the answer to fulfil those journeys of searching for that perfect wine.
