Overview
The Wine Collective specialises in wines from small-medium sized wine producers from Australia and around the world.
It is a former subsidiary of The Wine Society, Australia’s oldest wine club, which was founded in 1946. This has merged with Cracka Wines and Wine Growers Direct, pioneers in the online wine space, to create The Wine Collective.
With 9,000+ wines on their books, they have one of the biggest ranges in the country and leverage their relationships with wine producers to deliver great value to their customers.
They offer 10 different wine club plans, each offering something a little different to their members.
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Subscription Club Details
The Wine Collective wine plans range in price from $130 to $680 per case of 12 bottles.
While the delivery frequency of each plan does vary, an important thing to note about The Wine Collective is that members have no choice about the frequency they receive their wine, once they have chosen their preferred plan.
For the Easy Drinking Selection and Society Premium Dozen, wines are delivered every month. However, all others deliver every three months, with the delivery month varying based on the specific wine plan. One exception is the Decanter Collection which is delivered every 6 months.
Another thing to note about this wine club is that the wines typically aren’t all ready to drink on delivery and will often have a typical drinking window of 1-5 years.
This is great if you’re happy to cellar a few and enjoy letting your wines mature. But if this doesn’t sound appealing, check out the Daily Delights, which are “crowd pleasing wines to enjoy in the next 12 months”.
Most of The Wine Collective wine plans are available as a red, white or mixed dozen, with a couple of exceptions. For example, the Decanter Collection is available only as a mixed dozen while the Cellaring Six features red wines only.
| Wine Club | The Wine Collective |
| Name | Varied |
| Type of Wine | Reds and/or Whites |
| Why try them? | 9,000+ wines |
| Country of origin | Worldwide |
| Price (per box of 12) | $130 – $680 |
| User reviews | n/a |
| Satisfaction guarantee | Yes |
| No repeats | No |
| Request wine changes | No |
| Delivery frequency | Every 3 months |
| Lock-in contract? | No |
| Membership Fee | None |
| Cancellation Fee | None |
| Shipping Fee | None |
| Ability to pause/skip | Yes |
| Customer support | Live chat, email, phone |
| Tasting notes included? | Yes (for most plans) |
| Organic options? | No |
| Low/no alcohol options? | No |
| Other notes | 9 different subscription plans |
What We Like
Range of plans
With 10 different plans to choose from, there’s something to suit a wide range of preferences and budgets.
Visibility of past wines
This is uncommon amongst wine clubs so we appreciate the value this provides to potential new members.
Simply click on the wine plan of your choice and then click the link to “View Tasting Notes”. From here, you will be able to view the contents of each wine delivery for that plan as far back as 2018.
The biggest benefits of being able to see previous wines are:
- You can get a good idea whether future wines will be to your liking
- It provides you with the ability to evaluate the value of the subscription
Tasting Notes
Tasting notes are included with most of The Wine Collective wine plans. Some plans include notes tailored to the type of plan. For example, Sommelier’s Selection features food and wine matches by sommeliers, and the Cellaring Six includes cellaring advice and notes from the winemaker themselves.
Guarantee of Quality
As with most Wine Clubs, The Wine Collective provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Simply let them know and they will arrange collection and refund a credit to the total value of your wine purchase. We like that they arrange the collection of the bottles as opposed to requiring you to arrange return shipping.
Rewards Program
The Wine Collective rewards program is free to join and available to all customers. Every time you spend, you will earn points that can be redeemed with your next purchase.
Depending on your annual spend, you’ll also get access to enhanced member benefits such as exclusive offers and a 20% birthday discount.
What We Don’t Like
No delivery flexibility
Once you’ve found a plan that has wines you like the sound of, you don’t really have much choice around how often those wines are delivered. Most plans deliver every 3 months, but those specific months are determined by the plan.
In saying that, they do offer the ability to postpone a wine plan delivery, in case your need to skip a month for whatever reason, such as being on holiday.
No online sign-up
New wine club members need to call or email, which seems a bit old fashioned. For a wine club proclaiming to have an “industry leading digital platform”, we would expect to be able to sign up online.
No ability to change
While members do have visibility of what wines will be included before the delivery (tasting notes are uploaded online), members do not have the ability to request changes to the wines.
We appreciate that this almost certainly means they can deliver better value in each case, but this may not be the best option for fussy drinkers.
No customisability
Similar to the point above, members don’t have the ability to customise their wine plan. This can be handy if there’s a particular style that you don’t like. For example, Vinomofo offer options like “Whites, but hold the savvy b”.
In the wine plan FAQ section, The Wine Collective describes their Build Your Own wine plan, which appears to address this problem of customisation. They state “this personalised wine plan allows you to select cases from as many wine plans as you desire, so you only get what you want, when you want it”.
However, we can’t see anywhere to create one of these plans. If this changes, we’ll update this section.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews for The Wine Collective are generally very positive. Customers appreciate the value and the quality of the wines.
Likely the most acclaimed aspect of customers experience with The Wine Collective is the service customers receive from wine advisors. While seems less applicable for the wine club plans, it may be helpful in deciding which plan suits you best.
While customers generally speak highly of the customer service, this is also the source of most complaints. Problems usually revolve around delays relating to customer emails.
Reviews on their own website are also overwhelmingly positive but we tend to take these with a grain of salt.
On their website, they state that their customers remain signed up for an average of 19 years. If accurate, this is pretty impressive and something potential customers could take a lot of confidence in.