5 Reasons to Join the Wine Club

We've put together a list of the top five reasons to join a wine club, and what to look out for when it comes to signing up…

One of the best reasons to join a wine club is to become a part of a community. Just like a great tennis club or a golf club, the camaraderie that you get from being involved in a wine club is often just as important as the wine itself.

Look for a wine club that opens its doors and welcomes you to the table. This could be in the form of invitations to dinners, events, or exclusive tastings that only you and your fellow club members have been invited to attend.

Be treated like "one of the family" when you visit the home of your chosen wine club. And when we say "home", we mean a cellar door or winery, where the magic happens, rather than a basement warehouse. Meet the winemakers and the characters behind the wines, and taste something special that the everyday punter wouldn't normally have access to.

With increasingly busy schedules filled with work, family, sport and social commitments, automating certain aspects of your life can be surprisingly rewarding.

It's 2017 not the 1890s, so when you're looking for the perfect wine club make sure it's going to make your life simpler, not more complicated!

Look for a club that allows for simple and secure online payments and delivery right to your door. Access to online resources, information, discounts and events in your city are a plus too.

And when in doubt, leave it to the professionals. The best wine clubs provide you with wines that are hand-picked by the people who make them – and who better to advise you on your seasonal cellar choices than a winemaker?

Joining a wine club is an economical way of purchasing wine, but the best wine clubs don't off-load $5 cleanskins, or oversupplied wines that no one wants.

Look out for clubs that will help you try new, exciting wine varieties, while at the same time stock up on your all-time favourites at a much-loved price.

Don't forget – value isn't always in the savings. A good wine club will also offer a few exclusives to their club members: pre-release wines or exclusive access to rare and fine wine.

Not all wine lovers get a chance to look beyond the cellar door to see the grapes crushed at vintage, smell the ferments and taste the wines as they age in barrels, or walk through the vineyards with a local.

A real perk of joining a wine club is that it provides you with real life, behind-the-scenes experiences that you'll never forget, whether that be a tasting event, a tour of the winery during vintage, or opportunities to meet and get to know with the winemakers themselves.

Other perks to look out for include private tastings and invitations to exclusive events. These are the kinds of things that take a wine club from purely transactional, to an experience worth investing in.

With access comes education – which we think is the most intriguing reward for joining a wine club.

Wine clubs shouldn't just be about stocking your cellar – although that's a useful outcome – a good wine club should be all about discovering and unfolding the mystery of wine in a simple and captivating way.

Choose a wine club that provides you with an unpretentious introduction to regions, varieties and flavour profiles so you can benchmark your taste buds against what the winemaker intended. This way, you can start to look for these characteristics in other wines you come across, not just the wines in your club delivery.

Looking to take the ultimate journey of wine discovery? Join the Yalumba Wine Club today.