I'm going to let you all in on a little insider secret that many of you may have figured out; beware of the wine that's being promoted.
Usually not from individual wineries. If you love their wine, do join their wine club. If you can afford to commit to such and thing, you're going to start to see some really great deals as a wine club member, I predict. It's already a tight market, but it's become a market strong-hold for many wineries. So they're doing even more spectacular things to keep their club members happy. Or if they're discounting a wine, you can ususally taste it at the winery to see if you like it and ask them flat out why it's half off. Usually they're trying to get rid of inventory for new inventory and the like.
So ignore actual wineries on this entry. I'm talking about stores, magazines, and I think even some restaurants have started wine clubs.
My mother has been a member of the
Sunset Wine Club for about four years now. In the beginning she was happy to receive more CA wine than WA or OR (although the wine club supports all west coast wines), because, living in WA it's too easy to find the good WA wines. Something different, she thought.
But, every time I came to visit she'd warn me if I went to open a bottle of unknown California wine stating "Oh, that's from the Sunset wine club, it might not be any good".
And, usually, it wasn't.
We like good wine, but we've also made our own wine, been friends with people that make their own wine on their way to starting their own winery, tasted wines from aspiring winemakers from community college or extension programs...in other words we're very objective about the wine we taste. We'll drink pretty bad wine because we'll think about things we may appreciate about it. The aroma may be fantastic, the body is unbalanced...or it tastes surprisingly good given that it smells like nail polish remover.
That said, there have been many bottles of wine from the Sunset Wine Club that we absolutely cannot drink. Horrible stuff. As in not just objectively bad wine, but flawed wine that's bad wine. Wine that will not age, will eventually taste worst than it does now; may taste like dirt in a bottle. As in actual dirt, not nuances of dirt.
Before I go any further let me put forth this disclaimer. My mother has subscribed to Sunset since I can remember. Some of the best meals we've had have come from sunset recipes. Our favorite gardening book is the Sunset Gardening Companion. We like this magazine.
But their wine club sucks.
Whether or not you've had a similar experience with joining some wine club from some 'neutral' base (ie, not a winery), I'm sure you have HAD a similar experience in choosing wine yourself. Walking through the grocery store and seeing a huge display of some wine, maybe with a catchy label--but if not a catchy label a great merchandising scheme so that you notice it. Maybe it's on sale. Maybe it's just a good deal, period. Maybe all the store employees RAVE about it.
So you buy it. Take it home. And it tastes like shit. You think? Well...maybe it's okay. It seemed to be highly recommended.
Having been one of those people that attemtped to design said merchandising schemes to get you, the consumer, to purchase a bottle of wine, I can tell you that a lot of the times, the more clever and impressive the merchandising scheme the worst the wine.
The harder we had to make it appealing to sale it, um, you can guess it; the worst the wine.
I had some great customers who would grab a bottle of wine from such a display and say "Okay, any good?" knowning full well that 70% of the time I'd shake my head no. Usually, for us, those big displays were wines we were forced to sell. Wines that were bought on a corporate level, at a highly discounted price for great profit margins on our end. The reason they were sold at cut-throat prices to us? Usually that the wine wasn't any good to begin with so the distributors are looking to unload the wine.
We weren't the only ones to take them up on it. We'd see similar deals around town. Or sometimes, I'd fly from Austin to Washington State and see THE SAME deals in a completely different part of the country, in a completely different wine shop.
And, having seen some of the wine that filters through the two monthly bottles from Sunset, I know they take part in that game as well.
So just beware. Ask about wines that are promoted. But that said, yes, 20% of the time the wine was good--sometimes great. For whatever reason it wasn't selling for the distributor (sometimes a really poor name or label would kill wine sales--or it was a new wine that needed to be pushed hard to gain recognition, but it was a good new wine). And I'd say about 20% of the wine that my mother and father have had from Sunset has been decent to pretty good.
It's not all bad. But it's about smart shopping. And as money gets tighter, it's nice to know some of these tips. I made my mother discountinue her wine club membership with Sunset, telling her "It's not going to get any better, eh?"
Comments (3)
Very helpful. Thanks. What about wine gift baskets? I was thinking about purchasing one that offered these two wines: BV Century Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, BV Century Cellars Merlot. Have you heard of them?
@siennachartreuse - yes. BV used to make really good wine. Not that they don't still make good wine. But it's simple, easy drinking wine, not meant to age. Good for under $10. So these wines are valued at $7 or so.
You can take it for what it is. Gift baskets are always over-priced as well, but the point to gift baskets is to not have to put it together yourself, and that they do a really great job with the whole packaging presentation, right?
Therefore, they're not BAD wines, but if your friend(s) that you're sending this to LOVES wine, you may consider something else. But if they just simply enjoy wine, and wouldn't really care one way or another--it's quite alright.
Again, very helpful. Thanks.