With something as complicated as wine it’s all too easy to stick to the same trusty supermarket buys when you find something you like. You know there’s so much more out there but that Oyster Bay comes through for you time and time again so before you know it, you’re stuck in a wine rut. Having the time to research and discover new wines is a time consuming and expensive habit so that’s where a wine subscription service can help out, delivering new and interesting bottles direct to your door every month. These are our picks of the bunch.
Good Pair Days
If all you want from a wine subscription service is to be sent bottles perfectly paired to your tastes, look no further than Good Pair Days. You fill out a palate quiz that’s designed to work out your individual taste profile – it’s got interesting and fun questions so you’ll actually enjoy doing it – and then you get recommended three different wines to make up your first box. Each month you can rate your bottles so your personalised recommendations get better every time, and you can also pick your own bottles to add (or even buy individually if there’s something that catches your eye). As well as helping you discover a whole new world of wine, Good Pair Days sends you tasting notes and food pairing recs for each bottle so you can learn a little about what your drinking along the way,
Club Del Vino
Forget Club Med, it’s all about Club Del Vino, the new wine subscription service from wine bar and restaurant Peckham Cellars. Curated by co-founder and sommelier Ben McVeigh, who has focused on small-scale, organic and biodynamic wines, the subscription includes a monthly delivery of four (£80) or six (£120) bottles of red, white or mixed wines, with the first case always featuring some firm faves from the restaurant. There’s no minimum membership length so you can keep it running for as long as you want the wine to keep coming, and Club Del Vino members also get 10% off Peckham Cellars online and in the wine bar.
Drop
Founded by Ian Campbell and Will Palmer (who also set up wine bar 10 Cases Bistrot a Vin and fish restaurant Parsons), Drop is an online wine cellar that delivers vino on demand. All you have to do is download the app, browse the wines on offer (all of which have been tasted and vetted), place an order and wait for it to be delivered – just like ordering your fave takeaway. A two-hour window for delivery is free but if you need your wine ASAP, they have faster options that you can pay for, so you really don’t have to wait long when the wine thirst strikes.
Juiced Wines
Juiced Wines is a digital shop that’s about natty wine without the nonsense, just a selection of unique, artisanal and small-release bottles. You can shop by colour but if you want the good stuff without any effort on your part, their Nat Pack monthly subscriptions have you covered. There are three options – 2Pac-K (two bottles for £50), the Adventurer Edition (three bottles for £80) and the Sub-Baller Edition (four for £120) – and each box contains the only best and hottest new wines, the good shit as they say.
Crispin Wine Club
Spitalfields restaurant Crispin has launched a natural wine club with sommelier Stefano Cazzato handpicking wines from small and indie producers so you get a mix of easy drinkers and funky bottles. The subscription is super flexible – you can select a preference for wine colour and type, you can choose three of five bottle packs, and you can choose how often you want them delivered. And if you join right now you’ll get 20% off voucher to use in the restaurant. CHEERS.
Shop Cuvèe
Top Cuvèe in Finsbury Park, one of our fave neighbourhood spots, absolutely bossed lockdown by launching their own store Shop Cuvèe whilst the restaurant was shut. And when the demand for bottles didn’t slow down co-founders Brodie Meah and Max Venning turned Shop Cuvèe into its own bricks-and-mortar site, just 100 yards up on Blackstock Road. As well as being stocked with hundreds of bottles of natural wine, Shop Cuvèe also runs a subscription service so you can get the best natty wines delivered with no fuss and no effort. There are two options – three bottles for £55 a month or six for £110 – and all the wines are curated by the Shop Cuvèe team, so whatever new and exciting bottles they’re drinking, you’ll be drinking too.
Oranj
Oranj is a brand new delivery platform specialising in natural wines and sommelier-curated cases for home delivery. You can get single bottles or mixed cases, which are curated by different industry insider every month and also include a specially commissioned print and a guest mix for you to whack on whilst you’re drinking. And you can get that on the regs when you join clubORANJ. The membership includes that month’s case (either two for £60 or five bottles for £120) and poster; access to tastings, events and art shows; and first dibs on new drops of vino and merch.
Wanderlust Wine
This club is the subscription service of wine seller Wanderlust Wines and in going with them you also get discounts across their entire range as an extra perk. They have more membership options about their best wines so if you have a more specific idea about the amount and quality of the wine you’d like to receive then they certainly offer the greatest flexibility. It starts with a Silver membership at £25 per month, which features ‘everyday drinkers’ and goes all the way up to Platinum at £100 per month, 10 bottles very two months of prestigious and rarer wines for the real wine nerds. The wines are curated by hand each time so you’ll always get something tailored to your tastes and preferences.