Wine Clubs

I was asked today about the options for "wine of the month" type clubs by an American who has moved to London. After giving it some thought, I realised that the predominant wine clubs in the UK are of the wine-by-the-case variety, and are usually offered by an already established retailed such as Sainsbury's Nectar Wine Club, Waitrose Wine Direct , or Majestic Wine Warehouse.

The model for these retailers are typically to send you a case of mixed wine once each quarter. The emphasis is on seasonally-relevant wines (i.e. rose in summer, heavier reds in winter), good value (£4-6 per bottle), and usually from larger, yet often unknown, producers.

I have always preferred ordering my own mixed cases from Waitrose or Virgin Wines, and I particularly like the Virgin Wine method of offering a Wine Bank, where £20 is debited from your checking account each month and then whenever you choose to purchase wine, you use your pre-paid credit. They were also very flexible with me when I went travelling 8 months ago, freezing my direct debit, but maintaining my credit for whenever I returned to the UK.

I am wondering what other UK wine club options there are. I will research this further and post about my findings, but in the meantime, if anyone knows of a higher-end, smaller-quantity wine club, please let me know by posting a comment!