ViNotes: WSJ Wine Discovery Club deal
Posted by RenaissanceTrophyWife on December 22, 2008
Since we’re on the subject of wine for newbies, this is an incredible deal if you’re looking for a unique last-minute gift…
The WSJ Wine Discovery Club is offering an introductory 12-bottle case for $70 + $20 shipping/handling/tax. At $140 normally, this is a steal! Along with your 12 wines, they throw in a ton of accessories for free– a lever-action corkscrew in a wooden presentation box with foil cutter, pourer, stopper and drip stop, plus tasting notes and a binder.
I like that they also provide the options of getting a mixed case, all whites, or all reds. Honestly, at $7.50/bottle this case is likely going to be much higher quality than anything you could find yourself at the store– plus it saves you all that time! You can give the entire case to one person, give away individual bottles, or just go ahead and save it for yourself! Yum.
Every month you’ll get a case of 12 bottles for $140, but you can choose to skip months if you’re not enthused with their wine selection, or have too much wine on hand… you can also cancel at any time.
If you don’t drink enough wine to keep 12 bottles on hand (it’d probably take us over half a year to finish a case) then take a look at the WSJ wine shop. They’ve got great recommendations at price points from <$15 to >$50, and if there’s anything in particular that catches your eye, it’s easy to order it or look for it at your local wine shop.
Happy holidays!
Tom Aguirre said
Sounds good..but the wine is dreadful. No amount of slick marketing, fancy labels and flowery descriptions can mask the fact that this is “plonk” pure and simple. I pulled a bottle of “Chateau Labourdette Bordeaux 2005″ from my newly arrived case. I poured, I swirled, I tasted. Impressions, sour taste, very little fruit and no finish whatsoever. I let it breathe, I left it overnight. I gave it more leeway than a career criminal. It’s behavior was as nasty as the first taste. Not wanting to chance another disaster, I googled and found that the opinions of the other wines in this case range from awful to average. I’m not an expert. I keep around 200 bottles tucked below my house in a natural cellar. I am always on the lookout for a good buy. I often succeed. I am a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal. I never thought they would license their name to such a subprime enterprise as WSJ Wine. I called customer service. They are sending a return label so I can ship the 11 unopened bottles plus free corkscrew back. My loyalty to my local wine shop in Seattle has grown tenfold as a result of this experience. I shall not stray again.
RenaissanceTrophyWife said
Wow, thanks for the input! I’m also lucky to have an incredible local wine shop but thought this was a good option for people who aren’t able to pick up nice bottles easily. Guess I made an incorrect assumption that the WSJ would be a little more discerning about their co-branding enterprises. Just goes to show, sometimes a deal really is too good to be true.
Tom Aguirre said
It’s a tough time for newspapers generally. For generations, the WSJ was family owned by Dow-Jones. With publishing scion Rupert Murdoch as its new head, I’ve seen lots of changes in a short time (eg. a sports page which WSJ heretofore never had). The price of aggressiveness is sometimes quality and my experience with the WSJ wine club is telling me that profit trumps everything else. Will it succeed? Perhaps. My sketch of the target audience is the ultra-busy urbanite with Blackberry perpetually ringing with e-mails and calls who has no time to actually research purchases so instead orders online from ever-present Blackberry and crosses one more item from hisher to-do list. This type of person will not know if he’s getting good wine or not because he/she is constantly flitting from one short attention span task to another and wouldn’t know the difference any way.
Tom Aguirre said
Apologise for double post..kinda went over the top on editing..