Hey everyone,
I was wondering if anyone was aware of a wine club similar to 67 Pall Mall that is available/able to ship to the U.S.? Specifically looking for one where you can purchase samples/tastings to go along with the courses. Unfortunately, they can’t ship to the states yet…
I don’t know if this is equivalent but Vinous Media recently ran a program called “Vinous Learn” where they shipped out boxes of wines and ran educational zoom tastings. I don’t think they put it up on their website but it was sent out to everyone on their mailing list, including non-subscribers.
There are some wineries who are doing something like this. Obviously it is just with their wines. The ones that immediately come to mind are Dirty & Rowdy, and Rasa. But I am sure there are others. The Dirty & Rowdy one I did was excellent. I have not done Rasa so cannot comment on how good it is, but I assume it would be. You often get both the winemaker and someone with knowledge of the vineyard where the grapes are grown/sourced.
the 67 Pall Mall setup is amazing. I wish there was something like this in the US. I know some people have been making their own tastings by breaking up a bottle into mini-bottles. If anyone is in San Francisco or Bay Area, I would be interested in joining a group to split up bottles. We could come up with some guidelines. Obviously, the course material is a different subject.
Our wine group here in Seattle has started to approach a local wine shop and have them curate a few bottles for us. We give them a general idea of our tastes (which are pretty broad and eclectic), give a total dollar cap, and ask them to pick 3 wines that they would recommend. A variation is we ask them to give us a list of six they would recommend, then we pick three. We then distribute them and then meet every two weeks via Zoom to taste and discuss. So far it is working well – not as good as in person, but still fun and educational.
That Vinous Learn looked really good and also really pricey. Something I would have loved to have been able to do. Might have to request it for 60th Bday.
Wow. I had heard of 67PM but never looked into their programming. That is pretty amazing. I don’t know of any opportunity in the US like that where you can sample wines for $100 when it would cost you $1000 to buy the bottles. Sure would save me a lot of time, money, and rapidly accelerate me learning what I like and where I want to allocate my wine budget. I wonder how the laws in the U.K. differ from the US in terms of running a setup like this and shipping small sample bottles of alcohol across state lines.
These tastings have been excellent (though for those in the US also highly recommend the tastings with producers you know and love while cracking open a bottle of their wine from the cellar). Feel like I’ve gotten a great crash course in Bordeaux via a few super second verticals (Montrose, Pichon Baron) and vintage horizontals (2000 and 2010).
My sense is that 67 Pall Mall is a somewhat unique product of the club and wine culture in London. New York does have a club culture, but a smaller subset of people participate in it. Perhaps as more “modern” clubs (e.g. SoHo House or The Battery) proliferate across the US, a wine centric club will become more likely.
As it turns out, we have had a few groups purchase the Vinous kits. If divided over a group of people, the eight classes + wine are an incredible deal, IMO 
Very impressive set-up 67 Pall Mall has. There was an online article on the club and owner Grant Ashton in the past few days.
From an outside perspective it looks like they were remarkably nimble when Covid hit. The multiple tastings they have lined up each day offers a who’s who for almost any taste in wine. I hear they are expanding to Singapore.
Have enjoyed Jasper’s excellent tutored Burgundy events over the past month or two.
London wine lovers have a gem.
I confirm it is remarkable - nowadays, with the online membership, you can participate in their thematic tasting, and samples get shipped even across borders (eg from London to Luxembourg) in a couple of days - no issues so far with heat damage.
Thanks for all the suggestions - I will definitely check out the Vinous Learn as an option.
And yeah the Pall Mall set up is just crazy and a really amazing idea. Glad to hear it is as god as it seems.
As you said @Andrew M - great way to be able to accelerate learning, which is exactly what i was hoping to gain from it. The trouble with learning wine, for me at least, is trying to build up the context. It gets really cost prohibitive to try and really explore certain regions by buying full bottles with only two people. Northern Rhone has been killing us.
Bumping this thread…the 67 Pall Mall virtual events continue to look amazing
https://www.67pallmall.com/virtual-events/
Anyone aware of a club doing a similar sort of program in the USA? Pall Mall still isn’t shipping to the U.S.
I did the vinous learn program for Napa Cabernet blends, and it was incredible for what it was; quite a bit different than the Pall Mall approach. Looking for something to help us get through the winter!
Been doing this almost every week since the April among a group all along the west coast. Tapered off a bit in the last month, but with new restrictions, probably ramp up again. Doing a fall sake tasting next week.
https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2963460#p2963460
La Paulee Selections is doing some stuff but not at the level of what 67 Pall Mall is doing.
WS New York is doing something like what 67 Pall Mall is doing for members in NY.
Wine Spectator NY??
It is part-owned by Marvin Shanken
edit: adding website if anyone is interested https://wsnewyork.com/