Rosenblum Red Rangers

Rosenblum has two tasting rooms - one in wine country and the other at the winery in Alameda CA, less than 2 miles as the crow flies from my front door. It was founded by a hobbiest, Veterinarian Kent Rosenblum and has evolved into a good sized operation with about 50 single vineyard wines. Rosenblums wines are what is refered to as "Fruit Bombs" by most aficianados. It's a style well adapted to Mataro, Petite Syrah and Zinfandel but IMHO less well adapted to the other Rhône, Burgundy, and Bordeaux varietals that the good Dr. makes.

Rosenblum's wine club is slightly different in their wine club memberships; most winery's offer a Whites only, a Reds only or a mixed club. Rosenblum offers 3 clubs as well; Premier, Red Rangers, Explorer's Club. The difference primarily lies in your commitment: Monthly, Bimonthly or Quarterly.

The club gives a less than stellar 10% discount and complimentary tastings.

They also promise admission to the annual club party and BBQ.

We joined this club for two reasons:

• They are close - Every time Rosenblum changes what they pour in the tasting room we can easily drop by and taste it for free. And when you like The Good Doctor's style of wines, that's a big deal.
• The party - The wine club BBQ is a much heralded Alameda event.

The Verdict:

We like their wine enough for reason #1 to be almost enough to keep us as members; and as they have not had the BBQ since we've become members; we'll see if reason #2 is enough to throw it over the top come June.

Trinitas Wine Society

The Trinitas Winery is unvisitable. But it has some of the best wines that I have ever tasted. I initially found them because I was looking for the holy grail of old-growth zins - I wanted to find the oldest zinfandel vineyard in the world and drink it down. What I found was Matt Cline and Erin Jacuzzi's hobby winery. Both the Clines and the Jacuzzi's have been in the California wine business since the days of redwood barrels. The Cline family has huge holdings and makes oceans of wine. Trinitas is what they do for fun, and the Zin I mentioned is from a little vineyard in Oakley that frikkin rocks.

The club gives the usual 20% discount and complimentary tastings at the Meritage resort in Napa.

Shipments are 2 wines each 3 times a year, targeted to cost $65.00 plus tax and shipping a shipment.

They also promise "Special release wines not offered to the public" and "Large format bottles" as well as "Invitation to winemaker dinners in Northern and Southern California and Invitation to our annual barrel tasting"

When I joined the Trinitas Wine Society, it was literally the only way to purchase their wine, and even now most of the wine offered to me as a member is not available from their website to non members. The absolute best Cabernet Sauvignon I ever had came from a Trinitas shipment. It was part of a 47 case production of ancient vine cab. I have also tasted several varietals and cuvées that I would not have tried from anyone else including an old vine Mataro and Black Malvoisie.

I have yet to be offered large format bottles or invitations to anything; but I have only been a member for 2 shipments - lets wait and see what happens at harvest time.

The Verdict:

I love their wine so much that you would have to pry my membership from my cold dead fingers. Since I like their wine this much, and it is not really available to non-members then the membership is completely worth having.

Steelehead Wine Club

The Steele Winery is located in downtown Kelseyville in the The Clear Lake AVA, but they both own vineyards in, and source grapes from, many different locals.
Jed Steele, for whom the winery is named is a wine industry veteran; having worked in the industry since the '60s and being the original winemaker for Kendall-Jackson.

We stopped in at the Steele winery one cold spring day during a camping trip that we were on, and had such a good time at the tasting room, that we bought a couple cases of wine. We joined the club for the discount.

The club gives the usual 20% discount and complimentary tastings. They go a little farther and extend the free tasting to your guests. Other than appearing in person at the winery, it also appears to be the only way to purchase special bottlings and library wines.

They also claim to give members "Invitations to special events for members-only at the winery" but in the last 16 months I have yet to receive a single one.

Shipments are 3 wines each 4 times a year, priced a reasonable $45.00 a shipment. This is a deal price wise ($15 a bottle including shipping cost!). The winery produces over 40 different wines under 4 different labels; Stymie, Steele, Shooting Star, and Writer's Block.
I have never received a Stymie in my shipments, but that can be explained by the pricing limit that they set for themselves.
We joined this club for the discount, and have since appreciated the access to the library wines (in particular the Pacini Zins) and the exposure to a couple of varietals and regions that we would not ordinarily purchase. Blaufrankisch and Barbera are two varietals that Steele introduced us to. Washington State is is a region I would not have tried without being a "Steelehead".

The Verdict:

A good beginner's wine club. We remain members for the economical pricing.

Wine Clubs From A Consumer's Point Of View

Yesterday I talked about what a winery gets out of having a wine club. Today I'm going to talk about the other half of that question: What a consumer gets out of a wine club. Next time, I'll start on some of the wine clubs I have belonged to and thier benefits and drawbacks.

From the consumer's perspective, a wine club gains them several things -

• Cheaper Wine - All wine clubs grant discounts over the SRP of their wines. The de-facto standard for winery sponsored wine clubs is 20%. This is usually on all wine, not just the regular shipment, and is also usually in addition to volume discounts. Upon occasion, I have joined wine clubs strictly for this discount.
• Better Wine - Most wine clubs at smaller winerys will have wines that are only available to wine club members. These are usually very small batches that were the pet project of the wine maker, or from vineyards that produced a limited amount of fruit. I have also joined wine clubs strictly for access to these wines.
• Futures Access - Winery's sell futures. Some only sell futures to wine club members. What a wine future is, is you get to buy today a wine that is not yet released. Usually at a discount above and beyond your club discount. Why would you want to do this? Well, some wines sell out before they are released; so the only way you can get them is to buy a future. Another reason is cost; most wines will sell at a multiple of the future price upon release. If you can pay $25 today for a $75.00 wine next year, it can really save you some cash.
• Saved Effort - Not everyone lives conveniently close to a winery that they can easily drop by and taste the new wines as they are released. A wine club guarantees that you will receive the new wines for your tasting pleasure without having to visit the winery.
• Access To Old Wine - Winery's typically hold back a portion of each release in the "library" these wines are usually offered first to wine club members when they have peaked.
• Exposure To Different Wines - Since you do not choose the wines that get shipped to you, you will get exposed to wines or styles (or even winery's in some cases) that you have not tried before
• Special Events - Some winery's have barrel tastings, food pairing seminars, customer appreciation events, etc. that are only available to wine club members.

Wine Clubs From A Winery's Point Of View

Over the next few days I am going to talk about wine clubs. What are their benefits and what are their drawbacks. What I look for in the ones I join.

From the winery's perspective, a wine club gains them several things -

• Bigger profit margins - The biggest per bottle profit on a sale for a winery is the bottle that you buy directly from them. The reason for this is that they have to steeply discount the wine that is sold to their distributors.
• Guaranteed sale - A wine club membership is a commitment by the consumer to purchase n number of bottles on a regular basis
• Test market - The winery chooses which wine to send you. They can choose to send you a wine that you might not ordinarily try on your own, thereby exposing you to a new product in an attempt to build demand for that product
• Disposal of library wines - Wine improves over time before finally spoiling. This leaves winery's in a quandary - should I hold the wine until it's peak when it will command a greater price? And therefore risk not being able to sell it before it starts to sour? The answer is to sell most of your wine upon release, but hold some back. Now, how do you rid yourself of too much wine that you have held back? Your members!
• The ability to discount their wine - Winery's would love to sell more wine directly to consumers (go back to item #1 - bigger profit). One way to encourage consumers to buy directly from the winery is to sell the wine at a discount relative to retail price. Any discount they give you is paltry to what their distributors are getting, yet may be significant enough to you to encourage you to buy more wine than you would otherwise.
  Under normal circumstances it is a bad idea for a winery (or any manufacturer for that matter) to sell their products at a price lower than their retailers can afford to sell it at, because if they do, then they are put in the position of competing with their partners and thusly alienating them.
  As a matter of fact, many distribution contracts disallow you to sell your products to consumers at a discount. This market protection scheme is not unreasonable to expect. The creation of a class of consumer called a member allows a winery to sell their products at a discount without breaching their distribution contracts.