{"id":2582,"date":"2024-02-28T20:47:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2024-02-28T20:47:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T20:47:39","slug":"managing-wine-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2582","title":{"rendered":"Managing Wine Clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the course of years, we have been members of at least 20 wine clubs (not all at the same time).\u00a0 These clubs are effectively an agreement for the members to buy a case of wine each year from each sponsoring winery.\u00a0 In return for that commitment, you get a discount, normally 20%, and free tastings when you are at the winery.\u00a0 In addition, in many clubs there are events that members may attend, almost all of which entail plentiful servings of their wines.\u00a0 If you like the wines a particular winery makes, joining the club makes good sense.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/wine_truck.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-2583 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/wine_truck-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"541\" height=\"541\" srcset=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/wine_truck-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/wine_truck-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/wine_truck-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/powertasting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/wine_truck.jpg 1019w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 541px) 100vw, 541px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Loading the truck.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of August Hill Winery.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>However, when you join you quickly learn that there are matters that require management on your part, eating up time and detracting from the pleasure of having fine wines delivered to your home.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>You like some of the wines, but not all.<\/strong> Some clubs allow you a degree of specificity, such as only red wines or only certain varietals.\u00a0 But many have a policy of sending you what they want to send (that you must pay for).\u00a0 If customization is permitted, that means that when you receive the notification of an upcoming shipment, you need to make decisions about which ones you want and don\u2019t want, replacing them with other wines and communicating these choices to the club\u2019s designated contact (often nowadays the \u201cambassador\u201d.\u00a0 Thus are wine snobs made).<\/li>\n<li><strong>You won\u2019t be home for a delivery. <\/strong>If you know at the time of ordering that you will be traveling, you can notify the club contact.\u00a0 Most are accommodating to your schedule.\u00a0 When you get a notice that a shipment is on the way, you usually get the tracking number from the shipping company so you can track your order.\u00a0 But then you (or someone) must arrange to be at home to receive the wines, which usually means the whole day.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You want to <em>speak<\/em> with someone at the club<\/strong>. Some wine clubs, alas not the majority, are eager to engage in person with their members.\u00a0 They\u2019re available by phone, they reply to emails and know more about wine than order numbers and ship dates.\u00a0 In all too many instances, so we\u2019ve found, the contacts disappear between shipments.\u00a0 It\u2019s just frustrating and this type of difficulty has sometimes been the reason we\u2019ve quit certain clubs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>You\u2019ve become tired of their wines<\/strong>. With a few exceptions, we resign from our clubs after two or three years.\u00a0 No matter how much you liked the wines at the beginning of your membership, you may not like what they send you at the rate of a case a year.\u00a0 Especially if you\u2019ve been buying age-worthy wines, they begin to accumulate in your cellar.\u00a0 The expense of club membership may deter you from drinking other wines you know and like.\u00a0 Yes, you can quit, but that means remembering to put it in writing and checking that your resignation didn\u2019t get lost somewhere in the winery\u2019s back office.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All this may make it sound like wine clubs aren\u2019t worth the effort.\u00a0 With membership in five or six at a time, we are definitely advocates of joining clubs at wineries you love.\u00a0 Just remember that there\u2019s work on your end, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the course of years, we have been members of at least 20 wine clubs (not all at the same time).\u00a0 These clubs are effectively an agreement for the members to buy a case of wine each year from each sponsoring winery.\u00a0 In return for that commitment, you get a discount, normally 20%, and free &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=2582\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Managing Wine Clubs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2584,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}