How often are the WL private label wines included in the shipments? If it’s frequent, then that’s how they deliver the value right there. I bristle when I constantly get bothered while browsing at Total Wine to try their, “private label” stuff. It’s almost as if the sales people get rewarded for moving the stuff somehow. I’d imagine the margin on private label stuff is sever times that of non-private labels.
with regards to the private label, so far, just once … ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
This wine membership has yet to disappoint. Gary’s only included one cab that was funded via wine library and it was more of an add-on wine in that specific shipment. This does NOT appear to be any sort of bait and switch in any way shape or form.
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Interesting. I shop at Wine Library quite frequently. Not sure I’m the wine club type but the store is legit. Really good on France and Italy.
I usually consider wines that Gary recommends as ones that I wouldn’t buy.
Ok I’ll bite. So why is that? Kinda pointless comment without any context (and honestly comes across as being a pretty pretentious one)
JaD.
Sorry for my abruptness. Over the years that I spent at the WL, I very often (but to be fair not always) disagreed with his wine reviews. And I got the sense that his recommendations were partially motivated by the inventory.
You got it wrong. It’s JaGD.
We did some business with him and he moved inventory. He didn’t have to flog the wines he had a lot of - he could move wines he said were shitty. He called one of ours a bad wine and moved several pallets of it because his followers wanted to know what a bad wine was. The one thing I can say about him is that he’s not a typical BS artist trying to move whatever he happens to have.
He’s pretty genuine.
I would never join a club like his or anyone else’s because I don’t need someone to “teach” me about wine, or to expose me to wine I wouldn’t have tried because I only know Pinot Noir, Cab, and Chardonnay from California and I get my wine from mailing lists.
But Gary’s tasted a lot of wine over the years and he has a decent palate and for people who don’t know all that much about wine, I’d recommend him over some folks with agendas and axes to grind, like some of the lauded critics for various publications and wanna-be taste influencers. The guy just likes wine.
No business relationship at all here - just my 2 cents.
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are you still using your old WL credentials to get into trade tastings?
well said. he’s 100% genuine.
What would be the perfect wine club for this crowd? I’m asking because I wonder if that’s even possible… What would attract this audience to a wine club, subscription, or membership model?
If I’m going to be attracted to a wine club it needs to be transparent, I need to trust the palate of the person making the selections, and it needs to have wines that I can’t get access to.
There are a bunch of wine clubs that fit this description. What makes the wine sourcer (or sorcerer) “trustworthy?” Does that mean they have a similar palate to yours? Or does that mean they’re a somm or similar that will delivery only acceptable quality?
Looks like the club is now $69/month. I’d quit quite awhile back, but they made an offer to former subscribers to get back in at the original $55 cost, so figured I’d give it another shot for fun for a few months.
Wine Text is their choice for their sales now.
yup, hitting the Millenial market hard, as texting is their preferred method of communication
Also cellar text, for higher end stuff. I stopped buying wines blind.
Agreed. I signed up a few days ago, but other than a 2014 Ideology Reserve cab today for $75 (I did not buy), they’ve all been lower priced, daily drinker kinda stuff that I havent been familiar with (nor need)