Wine.com – A Crash Course in Wine for the Novice

Posted by: Kristen // February 15 2010

I’m what you would call a casual wine lover. My buying strategy relies heavily on both friend recommendations and label design. Okay, mostly label design. I’ve bought the cutest or most striking bottle on the shelf more often than not. When it comes to actual taste, I know what I like, but I haven’t spent time learning much of the jargon that true oenophiles use to talk about wines. For Christmas I received a great gift from my sister, a three-month membership in Wine.com’s Discovery Tour. In the process I was introduced to the website and its wide selection of wines.

The Discovery Tour is a fantastic gift for the wine novice, especially if the wine novice is you. Each month you will receive two bottles of wine; your choice of red, white, or a one of each in every shipment. The box includes tasting labels, tags, and a fact sheet for each wine, detailing facts about the region, the winery and the specific wine. The tasting chart will educate you on what to expect, as well as articulate that taste properly in the future. The month’s selections come via UPS, in a box labeled with a hilarious “Do not deliver to an intoxicated person” warning (since, you know, UPS is the wine connoisseur’s preferred method for completing a late night wine run).

This wine club provides value for the cost. They offer 3, 6 and 12-month memberships, and the ongoing membership ($29.99/month plus shipping) is a good buy for someone who is trying to learn more about wine and could use some guidance from experts. There’s a promo code to receive a 15% discount on any club selections you would like to reorder.

The pricing on wine.com is fairly low, but on some bottles I know that I can get a better deal. The main difference? Wines selected by their experts (instead of my “choose the pretty label” method), and the information provided on the wine, both on the site’s virtual cellar and in the printed information that comes packed with my order. There are other fantastic wine resources online, but Wine.com cuts out my research time by presenting it to me as part of their service. Plus, once I outgrow this club, there are other three other wine clubs on the site to choose from.

What about the wines? So far, so great! This month I received a shipment of Malbec wines from Argentina. Before I opened up the box, I had never heard of a Malbec, and now I’m adding it to my arsenal of go-to wines for get-togethers. For a wine novice looking to expand their selection criteria beyond the pretty label, Wine.com’s Discovery Tour is definitely a Sly buy.

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