Wine Clubs...........any CCs in one ?

[Dave7]

I received an offer (genuine) for a box of wine from the Sunday Times wine club. Basically it's 6 bottles for £30.00 plus £8.00 carriage.
We do drink enough wine to justify a regular supply but am worried about being "tide" into a contract along with the mither of letting them know each time we decide not to take the offer..............plus.........
1) are the wines always decent value ?
2) Is it easy to cancel the agreement.
3) We would normally drink an easy going Shiraz type @ £5.00 from Lidl.
So............
Should I go with the offer or is it more bother than it's worth ?

 

[AndyRM]

The first rule of Wine Club is...

 

[PK99]

Most of the wine clubs are Re-badged Laithwaites & their markup is high by industry standards but not outrageously so. One of the difficulties with them is that most (all last time I checked) of their wines are only available through them (identical to others through other channels but badged for them) so price comparisons are not possible.

That being said, the introductory offers to the various clubs is normally very good value.
eg go direct to laithwaites web site: for £50 off, free delivery, two free glasses. introductory cases at £4.39 a bottle,

http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/

I used to use Naked wines, currently offering £60 off. Good wines, headline price very high, but as an Angel paying in £20/month you get reduced prices, the reduced prices are the "correct" market price, IMHO.
https://www.nakedwines.com/bbcwinepage2012

Easy to cancel the agreements with all of the ones I've tried - the best way to do it is to do the rounds of the various clubs - Laithwaite, times, telegraph, Naked, Virgin and take the introductory offer and cancel before the first monthly case.

 

[Markymark]

The first rule of Wine Club is...

You're too drunk to spell 'tied'?

 

[Red17]

I used to be a member of the Sunday Times Wine club for about a year - it was identical to Laithwaites - same prices and wines. I found it useful in deciding what I liked, which was Spanish reds which I would not have normally bought.

I thought it was always good value compared to my local supermarkets, and was easy to cancel (reason I cancelled was that I found having 12 bottles a time in the house meant I was drinking a lot more. I have no willpower so cancelled to remove the temptation.)

Still get plenty of marketing stuff through trying to tempt me back, but its easy to ignore it, and my local Co-op does a good range of Riojas these days at the same sort of price.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Rule of thumb when buying wine: spend well on the first bottle as it'll taste lovely, then cheap on the rest as for some strange reason they'll taste lovely too.

 

[Shadow]

Go for it...

IF the first box they offer you is something you like. It is very good value.

BUT what follows is very ordinary. All 'clubs' have good wines but the difficult part is wading thru dross to find subsequent good wines/good value. And once they have your contact details, you will be bombarded by their 'marketing'.
And to answer your queries: 1) No 2) read the small print.
Only you can answer the last query!

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I'm a Naked Wines Angel and a member of The Wine Society, either of which knock Messrs Laithwaites offerings into a cocked hat. I also buy direct from Pares Balta in Penedes because Team Collins have a long-standing love affair with cava.

My lovely daughter's Godfather is an MW and I usually buy a little from wherever he is working; this will soon end as he is emigrating to NZ. He's married to a Kiwi and they now own a vineyard.

I can recommend The Wine Society's "Wine without fuss" scheme to anyone. But even they clog the letter box rather more than I'd like. Some of their spirits are stunningly good vfm btw.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Rule of thumb when buying wine: spend well on the first bottle as it'll taste lovely, then cheap on the rest as for some strange reason they'll taste lovely too.

Doesn't work too well if there are more than six of you at the dinner table...

 

[Mrs M]

We were with Laithwaites a few years ago.
It was nice to be sent a mixed case and try different wines we hadn't had before.
There is a good wine merchants up here "Majestic".
I would give it a go.
We had no problems when we decided to cancel.

 

[Mrs M]

Rule of thumb when buying wine: spend well on the first bottle as it'll taste lovely, then cheap on the rest as for some strange reason they'll taste lovely too.

Christmas Day:- GH Mumm followed by "Chateau Sainsbury" .

 

[PK99]

I'm a Naked Wines Angel and a member of The Wine Society, either of which knock Messrs Laithwaites offerings into a cocked hat. I also buy direct from Pares Balta in Penedes because Team Collins have a long-standing love affair with cava.

My lovely daughter's Godfather is an MW and I usually buy a little from wherever he is working; this will soon end as he is emigrating to NZ. He's married to a Kiwi and they now own a vineyard.

I can recommend The Wine Society's "Wine without fuss" scheme to anyone. But even they clog the letter box rather more than I'd like. Some of their spirits are stunningly good vfm btw.

AND the wine society is one of the very few places you can buy mature wines @Retail

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Doesn't work too well if there are more than six of you at the dinner table...

Tight git! I work on a per person basis.

 

[Brains]

For those living in South East England, the solution is a day trip to Calais - a normal car will take 20 cases of wine (240 bottles) which is about the weight of 3 adults, and that should be enough to see you through the Winter.

For those else-ware the solution is a good wine merchant, or a local wine club,
A good wine merchant, even if they are an hour away, where you can go to tastings a couple of times a year is great, you get to try them all and only buy the ones you like.

A few years back I was given a freebie tasting of Champagne at a local wine merchant, I actually did try 40 different champagnes and other fizzy wines, and found the one I like (which at 'only' £25 a bottle is fairly cheap)

As the newspaper wine clubs are all run by the same company, you get a decent selection of wines for not an unreasonable cost, but for a little more enjoyable effort you could do a lot better for less

 

[PK99]

Doesn't work too well if there are more than six of you at the dinner table...

Extending that thought, I've long believed that most fine Port served at dinner parties is wasted:

Fizz to start.
G&T/Beer
White wine
Red wine - in quantity! Then another bottle.
Pudding wine.
Cheese & Port

= Port completely wasted, just serve a cheap Ruby n one will be able to tell the difference!