Wine of The Month Club: Wine Subscription Service Review

If you didn't already know, subscription services are one of our guilty pleasures. We've love receiving packages in the mail, and what could be better than receiving a package of wine?! Last year we reviewed the WINC wine subscription HERE. Now we want to share with you the Wine Of The Month Club!

So why join Wine Of The Month Club? Well, being the original wine shipping subscription service (started in 1972), they have had time to perfect. Why do we love WOTMC so much? They offer 10 different club levels to choose from, ranging from the classic membership to the more specific rosé only club.  You can be as picky or nonchalant as you wish with shipments. We subscribe to the "Classic" Cellar Series club which ships six bottles (4 red, 2 white) to our door every other month. We love this club because we try amazing value wines from around the world. All wines have a 100% guarantee so if you don't like the wine, you don't pay for it. Also, if you like something, they have fantastic reorder prices! Take a look at one of our most recent shipments!

xxx Ivy & Eve

Rockus Bockus Proprietary Red Wine / 2013 / Sonoma, CA

This mega red-blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Zinfandel has a deep crimson color with blackberry and spice notes acommpanied by intense fruit flavors and a hint of bright strawberry at the finish. We would pair this bold red with and equally big flavored dish and red meats. 

Pietra Santa Sangiovese / 2013 / Monterey, CA

This dark ruby colored classic Italian varietal has a slightly "hot" alcoholic smell with subtle scents of damp soil and dark fruit - bursting flavors on the tongue of black cherries and licorice. Nice long finish. We would serve this up with steak or game!

 Pietra Santa Merlot / 2013 / Monterey, CA

This lush merlot was our favorite out of the shipment. With an intoxicating aroma of dark fruits, spice, and leather. On the palate we tasted dark fruit and berries, vanilla, and a hint of tobacco. This wine had a nice smooth finish with silky tannins. We would happily sip on this alone or pair it with a great cheese board. 

 Pietra Santa Zinfandel / 2012 / Monterey, CA

While completely drinkable this was our least favorite of the shipment. This Zin had a dark rusty red color, smelled a bit like straw and had dry, dusty tannins. We would recommend decanting it (which we did after our first taste) giving it a chance to open up a bit.

Back Story Sauvignon Blanc / 2015 / CA

This Sauv Blanc had a very pale yellow color with a citrusy nose and a hint of green bell peppers. Pleasingly, it tasted much less acidic than what the scent hinted. We would recommend drinking this wine with a nice light veggie dish or fish. 

Kunza Sauvignon Blanc / 2015 / Maule Valley, Chile

This wine had a bright yellow color and aromas of grapefruit and pineapple. The taste was tropical with a nice mineral finish - very crisp and refreshing. We would suggest pairing this wine with fish or a fresh salad!

Winc: Wine Subscription Service Review & Free Bottle Code!

We love to get mail. Who doesn't? We also love wine. Also, who doesn't? We recently wondered why we had not tried out one of the many wine subscription services, we really had no good explanation. We are members of many Carmel Valley wine clubs and get most of our wine locally but we rarely try wines that aren't local let alone produced outside of California. We decided that trying out a wine subscription would be a great way to try something new, and have the excitement of waiting for the mail to arrive as well!

First up on our quest to find the best wine subscription service is Winc (formerly known as Club W). 

Winc is a L.A. based start-up winery who's mission is to provide the world with stellar wines at reasonable prices. Working directly with vineyards and winemakers, and distributing directly to the consumer (us), they keep prices down so we get these wines at a great price!

To get started, you sign up and take a quick quiz to identify your palate profile. Then they suggest several wines for you based on your profile and you can either keep the selections or pick from the ever changing range of wines on offer.  

We ended up selecting our own wines, some of them were matched to us from our profile, and some were not. We were SO excited to get the package...we actually ran right out to the delivery man when he came. The package includes the wines and cards with a description and a recipe to pair with each bottle. You can also get these recipes on the Winc website. 

First up: 

2015 Copycat Barbera

Paso Robles, CA

We adore this label! A cat in a triceratops costume, what could be cuter?! We thought the wine was very light for the color of wine and had no lingering finish. It tasted of red cherry and raspberry with a touch of herbs. Overall we would drink it again but we wouldn't go out of our way to purchase it. 

2015 Cocomero Rosé of Barbera

California

The label is fun and definitely eye catching. It grabs our attention but it also makes us a bit weary since fun girly labels tend to be on the sweet side. In this case it was not sweet. This was definitely a darker rosé in color. The flavor matched the color, it was a very flavorful rosé. It really tasted like drinking a bowl of fruit salad (a lot of things going on). Overall we thought it wasn't that great of a rosé. We like our rosés on the lighter side with less complexity. 

2015 Wildest Dreams White Blend

Central Coast, CA

We really love the labeling on this wine. Ivy also like the name because it reminds her of Taylor Swifts song "Wildest Dreams". The label is definitely "trendy' and has a really cute heart stamped on the top and bottom of the cork. The wine itself was our favorite of the four. We liked its crisp acidity, and that it was pretty dry. Their were flavors of peach and honeysuckle with a little bit of lemon. We could see ourselves drinking this with our nectarine and burrata salad or even a thin crust veggie pizza. It's a great all around white wine. 

2015 PYT Malvasia Bianca Pétillant Naturel (called Pét-Nat for short) 

Paso Robles, CA

This wine style has recently become popular in the wine industry although its one of the oldest ways to make sparkling wine. The reason its becoming more readily available is for two reasons, the first being sparkling wine is becoming really popular to all wine consumers, second being this is the simplest and most cost effective way to make a sparkling wine (more on this at a later time). 

Being sparkling wine lovers we decided we should give it a try and see what the rage is all about. The label itself is pretty and would stand out well on a shelf. When we opened it, as warned on Winc, the bottle fizzed out the top of the bottle all over our hands and counter. We quickly poured it into our glasses. The color of the wine was straw yellow and hazy because there's no filtering involved. The taste was a little tart with a lot of melon, honey, and lychee flavors. While this isn't our typical favorite sparkling wine we thought it was fun and festive to drink.  We are looking forward to trying a few more Pét-Nats in the near future. 

Overall we thought this wine shipment was good, we will likely try it again once more to see if we find wines that better fit our personal preferences. We would recommend this wine subscription to new wine drinkers or people looking to try something different. We wish they would give a bit more background on where they source their grapes from. One of the wines just said it was sourced from California. Bonus: Winc definitely wins for having the cutest wine branding. 

If you are interested in trying Winc out for yourself use our code to get a free bottle of wine with your shipment (worth $13!). 

Use the code: https://www.clubw.com/iqabcrvz0wi

xxx Ivy & Eve