Wine Club Insider back, yet again!

I hope you all had a great weekend… I was out camping, but somehow :managed” to stow a bottle of Rombauer Zin and a bottle of Katherin Hills Cab in the pack for the trip… oh, the sacrifices I make for the team!

There’s something about drinking a nice wine along the bank of the river by a campfire that just increases the enjoyment, somehow.

I was doing a little wine buying from one of my favorite establishments, Dean and Deluca – www.deandeluca.com – and while chatting with their wine consultant, she mentioned that I should check out their new wine clubs… intrigued, I hopped on line, and lo and behold, not only do they have wine clubs, they have FIVE wine clubs. Now, so what, you’re probably thinking, but in the spirit of all things D & D, they haven’t gone the “normal” route…

The main thing that makes them different is that four of the clubs each have their own full-time wine steward (one of them does two), and they custom design the programs to your needs. Okay, but that’s not THAT cool, you say…

Ahhh, it gets better! Yes, they have the “regular” “Great Introductions” club at $60/month, and an “Artisan” club at $100 for those little known gems, oh, and the “Great Comparisons” club that looks at regional wines from around the world at $150… wait, you say… STILL not that impressed? Seen it before, you say?

Possibly, though not done this well, I would suggest, but from here they go into pretty uncharted territory.

Their 4th club is called the “Cult” club, and with the resources that only a shop like D&D could manage, they offer, for $1000/quarter, at least three of the world’s rarest wines, and I’m talking BIG names… they asked me not to mention them by name, as the makeup changes, but trust me, these are Big Names!

The 5th club is the “Cellar Rarities,” which takes it a step further… for the 50 lucky members, and only $300/month, they offer you the rarest of the rare, and again, though I’m only speaking, um, hypothetically, think Maya, Harlan, etc…

One of the advantages D&D has is their buying power and their reputation, and now, they have provided a chance for some of us to share it with them through their great wine clubs. Check them out!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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Wine Club Insider back with you…

I seem to be about 12 hours later than usual today, and I apologize… we have a large event coming up and I was in (unscheduled) meetings all morning, but here we are, so let’s call it Australia time, and we’ll be all square!

Earlier this week, I was thinking of the various wine clubs I either belong to or have belonged to, and began pondering what kinds of people join wine clubs, so I did some asking around, and the results may surprise you.

My first thought was that your regular wine schnobs like me would be the main culprits, and, to be sure, we make up a fair share of the members, but there’s an entire other segment of “wineclubers…”

Wine has kind of evolved into the drink of the hoi poloi, but if you do some research into the history of wine, you find that it was the drink of the people… the real people. It was the beverage that was drank at every meal, that was the water of life at weddings, at communions, at lunch with your falafel… this new “ooohh, wine is fancy” thing is, to a degree, understandable, but also has taken one of God’s greatest gifts out of the reach out of many, whether in price, or just in aura.

Some of our best friends are what you might call “redneck,” having come to the light from our a beer drinking background. “Pete” didn’t now squat about wine, but could speak eloquently about any of fifty kinds of beer. Now, they belong to three wine clubs (including one we gifted to them) and “Pete” enjoys a great red, and a nice glass (or bottle!) of port as much as anyone I know.

Another set of friends, “Keith” and “Sarah,” came from even further from Napa, so to speak, and after a couple of dinner parties, they enjoy a nice Gewurtz, and a spicy Pinot with diner now.

There are truck drivers I know that are on Pepperbridge’s list, a gas station owner who gets his allotment of Harlan, a meat salesman who is a ten year member of Leonetti, and a flower shop owner who is a long time customer of Araujo…

Yup. Turns out your job doesn’t have anything to do with whether you love wine. Turns out that drinking it out back by a fire pit is sometimes just as good as sitting in a chateau, and, if your real friends are with you, it can be even better.

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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