The 7 best wine subscriptions for bottles delivered to your door

Love having wine delivered directly to your front door? You’re not alone, and that’s why wine subscriptions have become so popular. A simple and convenient way to try different wines without leaving the house, it’s also an excellent way to hone your taste buds while you sip. “Chosen wisely, wine clubs can expand your taste and lead you on compelling adventures,” says Alice Feiring, a wine specialist and the author and creator of the natural wine newsletter The Feiring Line. “But they can also be a terrific disappointment and waste of money.”

We compared seven different wine subscriptions to give you a better idea of the differences between them — it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it. One caveat: Though Winc has been a hugely popular online pick, we decided not to include it after the company filed for bankruptcy right after the new year.

Ready to start sipping? Here’s everything you need to know about these popular wine subscriptions. (Of course, if you’re not a drinker, you can also look into other subscription services that may be more to your tastes, like coffee subscriptions and snack subscriptions.)

Best wine subscription: Firstleaf

From $90 at Firstleaf

If you’re looking for an affordable option, Firstleaf offers quality as well as bang for your buck. Your first shipment will cost $45 for six bottles, and after that, each six-bottle shipment will start at $90. But we also like Firstleaf for its excellent customization options and ability to learn what we like as we go, as well as the fact that there are no preset boxes or packs. To get started, you take an online quiz, with questions that run from the basics (red or white?) to the more generic (how adventurous are you?), and then the quiz drills down on your tastes with queries about your partiality to specific foods like mushrooms or buttered toast. The Firstleaf algorithm?then synthesizes your answers and finds bottles that reflect your efforts.

Once you receive your wines, you’ll be able to better hone your future shipments by going back to the Firstleaf site and rating each bottle. The AI refines your tastes as you go, which it says will only get better the more you use it — though we would have liked greater insight into how this works after we choose from the most basic thumbs-up or thumbs-down icons. One nice feature is the 100% satisfaction guarantee, which is Firstleaf’s promise to credit the price of a bottle if they choose a wine you don’t like.

Best wine subscription for sommelier picks: SommSelect

From $109 at SommSelect

It’s not that SommSelect doesn’t trust your wine knowledge; it just wants to give you the benefit of its stable of sommeliers’ expertise, headed up by editorial director David Lynch, former wine director and general manager at Babbo. We tried the least expensive and most popular membership, the Explore 4, which delivers four bottles per month for $109. Each bottle is chosen around a specific theme, like Wines of Croatia; Que Syrah, Syrah; A Sparkling Wine World Tour; and Rosé Revisited. Our first box was from the Finger Lakes and included two whites and two reds, though you could easily receive something as basic as a grape variety or a concept like “sparkling.” This lets you explore all kinds of different bottles you may not have chosen on your own.

Other monthly club options include the Somm 6 with six bottles ($204) and the Somm 6 Reds ($225). Want something a little more exciting? SommSelect’s Blind 6 Club ($220) comes with six beautiful bottles wrapped in black tissue paper to hide the labels and a “blinding” kit to help you taste them and take notes.

For anyone trying to keep prices down, it’s important to note that though the Explore 4 is still $109, you have to pay $25 for shipping, which the company claims includes added insurance. The other club options include free shipping. We also signed up for SommSelect’s Daily Discoveries, a newsletter that spotlights wines its sommeliers are especially excited about.

Best wine subscription from a California winery: Club Cutrer

From $135 at Club Cutrer

Sonoma Cutrer is a well-respected, organic vineyard located in the Russian River Valley. We especially liked knowing exactly where our bottles were coming from as well as the expectation of quality craftsmanship from the Sonoma-based estate. Club Cutrer offers two options that will arrive at your door every February, May and October: Chardonnay Lovers and Winemaker’s Selection, and you can choose from four (from $135), six (from $210) or 12 (from $300) bottles. We chose the four-bottle Winemaker’s Selection, and though the first shipment was not in time for the winery’s limited production Pinot Noir, we received one Founder’s Reserve Chardonnay and a Grand Cuvée sparkling in our box.

Not sure what to choose? A quiz focusing on preferred flavors, like zesty lemon and dark chocolate, will help you figure out the best membership level and varietals. In addition to your three deliveries per year, you’ll also get special membership pricing if you’d like to supplement your shipments with customized bottles from the website. And if you live close by or choose to visit the region, you can take advantage of free tasting events and an annual winery tour.

Best wine subscription for education: Wine Access

From $120 at Wine Access

If learning about wine is as important to you as drinking it, Wine Access is an excellent resource. The nine different clubs ship bottles four times per year, and you can choose from luxe picks like WA Connoisseurs (from $150 for two bottles) and WA Collectors (from $150 for one bottle), or you can stick with the more affordable Wine for Normal People (from $150 for six bottles). I tried the Wine Access Unfiltered ($120 for four bottles six times per year). This club includes access to the Unfiltered podcast, hosted by wine expert and social media personality Amanda McCrossin, as well as videos and printed stories that detail each bottle so you can sip along. I loved being able to supplement my learning with the podcast, which is both fun and informative.

Other features that make Wine Access worthwhile are the ability to change delivery dates and add wines to the wine club order for 10% off,?with no additional shipping charges. You also have access to the website’s My Cellar feature, which allows you to rate your bottles, repurchase anything you liked, get notified of new wines from a favorite producer?and even shop similar wines to what you’ve chosen as favorites from your tastings.

Best wine subscription for Champagne: Henri’s Reserve

From $150 at Henri’s Reserve

For anyone who loves French sparklers, Henri’s Reserve is an exciting way to beef up your knowledge of Champagne past the usual suspects (we’re looking at you Veuve Clicquot and Mo?t). These bottles come with the 100% guarantee of France’s most trusted terroir and, more succinctly, lesser-known private estates that you won’t find in the fridge of your local wine store. There are three tiers to this Champagne club, which delivers two bottles per month and lets you choose to pay annually monthly ($1,800), bimonthly ($900) or quarterly ($600). Or if you want to take it as it comes, you can simply pay $150 per shipment.

Thankfully, shipping is included in all deliveries, which makes it easier to choose the pay-as-you-go option. But the real reason we love Henri’s Reserve Champagne Club is the quality of the Champagne, with bottles chosen by Robert Houde, the former head sommelier at Charlie Trotter and Ruth Frantz president of Henri’s Reserve, and which can be found on the menus of some of the world’s most coveted restaurants, like French Laundry, Per Se and Eleven Madison Park.

Best wine subscription from female winemakers: Woman-Owned Wineries

From $107 at Woman-Owned Wineries

According to a study from Santa Clara University, only 14% of California wineries have a woman as their lead winemaker. This is why we love the wine club from Woman-Owned Wineries, which curates a quality choice of bottles from a different female vintner each month. With several different subscriptions to choose from, you can pick frequency and even grape, including three bottles with Classic Club ($107/month), six bottles with Double Your Pleasure ($199/month), three bottles of red bimonthly with Red Wine Lovers ($218/month) or three bottles four times a year with Seasonal Club ($107/shipment). Our first shipment included three gorgeous bottles from Sonoma-based Camp Rose Cellars, and we can’t wait for our next delivery.

You will pay a flat fee of $25 for each shipment, but you can also add bottles at 10% off if you find a few more on the site you’d like to try. There is also a nonalcoholic Less is More Club ($97/shipment) for anyone who wants to sip sober, with no shipping fees. We also appreciate the accompanying materials that give a full backstory on each woman in charge. You can peruse the website’s online directory of approximately 600 female vintners for more information.

Best wine subscription to connect with winemakers: Naked Wines

From $40 at Naked Wines

Naked Wines wants to put you right in the action by crowdfunding, letting you connect with winemakers directly and offering a cheaper, more personalized selection. With a cabal of wine experts choosing quality, independent vintners, your Angel subscription of $40/month gives you access to exclusive wines around the world for less. For your first order, Naked Wines is offering six bottles for $40 with this voucher, which is $100 off.

Your monthly $40 Angel investment goes toward whatever bottles you choose, and each bottle is sold as close to wholesale pricing as you’ll find. And if you like what you’re drinking, you can reach out and thank the winemaker personally, allowing Naked Wines to use technology to help build a closer global community. It also gives consumers a way to become more involved, knowing they are funding winemakers directly.

How to choose a wine subscription

With so many subscriptions available, how do you choose the right one for you?

Because each service is so varied in terms of features like price, delivery frequency, regions and type of vino, you have a lot to think about before you decide. “I believe strongly that a wine subscription should mirror the client’s preference when it comes to budget and taste. In other words, a good wine subscription should act like a sommelier does, with the client’s best interest as the priority,” says Edouard Bourgeois, wine director at Pressoir Wine, a NYC-based community for wine lovers.

Leah Adint, head winemaker at Erath Winery, suggests considering specific things that may speak to you when it comes to wine you want to taste. “Do you want wines from a single producer or multiple producers? Things like the heritage of the winery, sustainability, single vineyards or blends can help guide you through the wide range of online wine clubs,” she says.

Once you have a better idea of what interests you, it’s also important to make sure you’re getting quality wines — which means asking questions like how they choose the wine selection and who makes the selections — and trusting your instincts. “Trust comes into play here,” says Michele Pravda, owner of Smith & Vine, a local wine store in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. “You need to trust your club/subscription source. Are they tasting the wines? Do they have a wide range of producers and distributors to choose from to keep the subscription varied and interesting for the duration?”

And if you’re asking all these questions but getting no answers, you may want to take a hard pass. “Look for a real live person and a name or a store behind the club. You want someone who has something to lose if the drinker is disappointed,” adds Feiring.

A few other things to keep in mind are shipping and cancellation policies. You may be offered a great deal, but shipping to your specific state could make things a lot more expensive. “Make sure you know the final cost of each shipment before you sign up,” adds Adint. “Also make sure you can cancel if you change your mind. No one likes being stuck in a subscription that charges you or makes it difficult to cancel.”