The Elusive Premium Wine Club

Premium Wine Club...
or Premium Wine?

While wine denominations are regulated, wine clubs are not. Virtually anybody can start a wine club operation and call it premium, even if they are selling table wine from the shop around the corner.

The real question is: what makes a wine club a premium one? Naturally, it has to be the quality of the wine. We might assume that a premium wine club is one that offers only premium wines. Notwithstanding, I have found a couple of solid 20 dollars/month "premium" wine clubs. I am not an expert, but I don't think they are selling premium wines.

The Exclusive World of Classic Wines

As far as denominations go, fine wine is a term broadly used to describe wines that cost more than the average ordinary table wine. Then there is "premium wine" and even "super-premium" wine, which can cost thousands of dollars per bottle. But, in reality, it is very hard to establish the boundaries between these categories.

A premium wine club will typically offer to send you two bottles per month. The serious ones, which actually care about the quality of the wine, will hardly charge you under 80 or 100 dollars a month. Of course, the fact that they charge a lot of money doesn't make their wines premium.

If you really want to know whether a wine club is actually offering premium wine, the best way is to resort to one of the leading wine magazines, such as Wine Spectator, The Wine Advocate or the Wine Enthusiast. It is a common practice for their experts to rate wines from 50 to 100 points and from "not recommended or undrinkable" to "classic".

Some premium wine clubs offer "only plus 90-point wines." If your goal in joining a wine club is to start your own wine collection, then maybe it is a good idea to join one of these.

To substantiate wine ratings, you can check them at the magazines' websites. Unfortunately, the top publications' online wine ratings (the Wine Spectator boasts over 200,000!) are generally only open to subscribers. In any case, if you want to get serious about wine, maybe a subscription to one of them is a good idea.

Wines for the Future

As a prospective collector, you need to be aware of each wine's drinking window. Joining a wine club that offers premium wine to build your wine cellar can turn out to be a good investment, as the market value of classic wine that age well tends to go up. What you shouldn't do is save the good stuff forever, without considering its life expectancy. Don't do like I did after one of my trips to Tuscany; I was so proud of my delicious syrah that I unfortunately saved it for too long, and it went to waste.

Finding a real "premium wine" club that offers a couple of bottles of truly classic wine every month can boost your wine culture, enrich your cellar, and even maybe turn in a couple of profits from time to time. The search is not easy, but it certainly has its rewards.