Founder/Winemaker Morét Brealynn shares her highly rated inaugural bottling with our members.

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Treat someone to a fun and unique gift featuring award-winning, handcrafted wines from small, artisan wineries. We have a wine club gift for every taste and budget. Send as many gift months as you wish. Different wineries and wines are featured every month.

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What’s the difference?

Sometimes, there is no difference. These terms are often used interchangeably and can mean the same thing. But, colloquially, they also mean different things. A wine club is the term most often used by wineries. Whereas a wine subscription may not involve an actual winery at all, just wines made-to-order.

So where do we fall? The California Wine Club is a wine of the month club, which is like joining multiple winery clubs but with the convenience of a wine subscription.

Since we get this question often, we thought we’d break down the key differences here for you:

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Gerri-Lynn Becker, President, The California Wine Club, ready for a day of touring and tasting.

Walking through vineyards, touring caves, tasting great wines…what could be better? We love visiting the wineries we feature (and we are always on the look-out for great wineries we haven’t heard of).  Our winery trips often involve a full day of driving winery to winery, and we have some tips to share.

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The California Wine Club Asks Winemakers: When did you fall in love with wine?

“When I was eight, my best friend moved in next door. Her family was Italian and her dad was a home winemaker. That fall, crates of wine grapes were delivered to their carport. Mesmerized, I stood there inhaling the fragrance of those freshly harvested grapes. I fell in love with wine from that moment on.”–Gerri-Lynn Becker, President, The California Wine Club

We love talking with winemakers because their passion for wine is infectious.  But what inspired them to a lifetime of romancing the vine? 

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Musty, moldy, and acrid.

Three common aromas that indicate your wine has gone bad.   We’ve all been there. Pop goes the cork and immediately, you know.

For almost 30 years, we’ve been traveling the dusty back roads of wine country, discovering small family wineries handcrafting award-winning wines to share with our wine club members.  One of the things that the small wineries we feature in our wine club often tell us is how hard it can be to sell wine.

As conglomerates grow ever larger, the hustle for supermarket shelf space has grown more intense. Small wineries are saying that retailers are requiring them to slash their prices to the bone — to match the selling price of the big boys.

“Our amazing wines are competing with the mass production of conglomerates,” says Winemaker Megan McGrath Gates, of Santa Barbara’s Lucas & Lewellen Wines. “I hope everyone keeps in mind, Lucas & Lewellen is the couture leather bag, not the knock-off.”

Gerri-Lynn Becker, President, The California Wine Club, and Megan McGrath, Winemaker, Lucas & Lewellen Winery.

Plus, it takes a lot of time and effort to sell wine.  As David Rossi, Winemaker and Founder of Cloisonne Wines and Fulcrum Wines explains, it is a multi-step process.

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Do you love Chardonnay?  There is a good chance that you do.  Chardonnay is the most popular white wine in the U.S., and the most widely planted white varietal in the world.  This French native hails from the Burgundy region. A ‘white Burgundy’ is typically made with Chardonnay grapes, and Chablis is a lovely white made with Chardonnay grown in the village of Chablis.

But in some wine circles, “ABC” stands for “Anything But Chardonnay.” We asked Winemaker David Rossi, founder of Cloisonné Wines and Fulcrum Wines, for his take on folks who say they just don’t care for this ever-popular pour.

David Rossi and Gerri-Lynn Becker, President, The California Wine Club, tasting wine in barrel. Barrel samples show how a wine is developing.

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Part of the joy of being a member of our wine of the month club is knowing that you are supporting small, artisan wineries.  These wineries are often both small businesses and small farms, typically with a very small team putting in long hours to craft the best wines possible. They take personal pride in delivering their very best to our wine club members, and are grateful for your support.

Spring Mountain Vineyard, Napa Valley

Hesperian Wines in Napa Valley

Winemaker Philippe Langner, founder of Hesperian Wines in Napa Valley, suffered devastating losses in the October 2017 fires.

“My house, my office and all my vineyard equipment burned the first night of the October fire. I’m rebuilding but it’s added another load to my work as I do everything alone, with one vineyard worker.

In the fire I lost all my winemaking notes. It’s a real bummer as I lost all my winemaking history from when I started Hesperian in 2004.”

 

Founder/Winemaker Philippe Langner carefully crafts small batches of Napa Cabernet using
Bordeaux-style techniques.

Sadly, only 10% of his 2017 vintage had been harvested prior to the fire. His prior vintages, however, were safely warehoused away from the area. He expects to be back to full production in 2020.

Your membership in our club helps directly support small artisan winemakers, including Philippe, whose wines are handcrafted in such small quantities, they can’t get shelf space in stores.

We are proudly featuring Philippe’s 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon in our Aged Cabernet Series wine club level. Philippe specializes in age-worthy Napa Cabernets, crafted using Bordeaux-style techniques.

Uncork the rewards of finely aged Cabernet along with an up-close look at some of Napa’s most iconic wineries with  our Aged Cabernet Series wine of the month club. Each month features prestigious Napa Valley Cabernets aged 8-12 years in stringent temperature-controlled conditions and ready to drink now.

Here at The California Wine Club, we love discovering small, family wineries handcrafting distinctive wines.  With the International Series wine club level, our  wine club members enjoy small-batch wines from tiny artisan wineries around the world.  This month our wine club members will be enjoying handcrafted wines and olive oil, kissed by the Tuscan sun.

Our Founders Bruce and Pam Boring discovered this artisan winery while dining at the Baracchi’s Michelin-starred family restaurant in Italy. They met Riccardo and Silvia Baracchi, and soon, all four were in the nearby winery cellar tasting Riccardo’s amazing wines. A wonderful friendship ensued and we’ve been delighted to share their highly rated gems with our members ever since.

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