I just signed up for Virgin Wines, was offered $99 for 12 bottles of Red plus 2 X Wine Glasses plus 2 X Wine Bottles.
Am just wondering if anyone else uses Virgin Wines subscription and what is your experience? Is it worth it?
Below is the offer I took (for Red Wines):
https://www.virginwines.com.au/jsp/offer/recr/au/vir/offer_t…
Any thoughts
The sign up offer is good value but ongoing its very average. You could do better yourself. I guess the advantage is that you get a variety of new wines to try.
I was a wine club member a few years ago but the relentless upselling phone calls drove me to cancelation.
I have had Qantas and Cellarmasters in the past.
Quality was adequate, but you can get better prices.
The issue is the wine clubs supply generic brand wines, or non-mainstream wines from conventional producers.
A bit like ALDI brands, they look like real thing, and are often ok.
I have a friend who worked for Cellarmasters, and his report was the wines they buy in are very, very cheap. They will also buy 100% of the production to get that price and prevent comparison with normal liquor stores.
You can get the same mixed quality of wines without a subscription from Winemarket.
You can get reliable, mainstream wines for similar prices at Dan’s.
And you can sometimes find bargains on OzB.
The subscription sellers deliver mediocre wines for mediocre prices. YOu won’t get many duds, they do want to deliver consistency. But you are unlikely to uncover any gems either. But they are very easy.
I wanted to give it a try as review on products review websites were good.. Plus 14 bottles for 100 bucks, I was thinking it wont be too bad..
I dont think I will get through 14 bottles in 12 weeks, so will cancel as soon as I have tried few..
The sign-up offers are good value, but the wine is unlikely to be great. We have had a few mixed cases from various wine stores and all have been average and not worth the RRP/ongoing cost. Looks like you're in Melbourne, not sure if it's an option for you, but there are multiple wine regions within a couple of hours drive. We generally take a day/weekend trip to one of them a few times a year and work our way round cellar doors to taste wines. Costs a bit more but at least I know we are going to like every wine we buy.
I tried doing that last year, even drove to Barossa Valley SA thinking I will load up on good wine for decent price right from cellar door.. Was very surprised how expensive wines were there.. ended up coming back empty handed.. Was hoping for bottles to be around 20 bucks.. most places cheapest ones were starting at 50 dollars plus.. So gave up on wineries all together..
I like Jacob's Creek Double Barrel which normally retails for around $16 when on special.. If Virgin wines are close to that, I will be happy..
ALDI wines, have tried but never liked them.. so fingers crossed
Did you visit Jacob's Creek when you were in the Barossa? How much were they charging?
There is a difference between a huge-production winery, with a cellar door, and a more boutique winery cellar door which has to cover its production costs with a lower volume of bottles for sale.
I didnt visit any main stream ones as I wanted to go with the smaller ones.. I also visited Barossa 2011 and remember it being not that expensive…
Never been to Barossa Valley, but we generally pay $20-30 a bottle from wineries around Melbourne, they have more expensive stuff, and often have cheaper wines as well. I rarely find it worth spending more than $30 on a bottle.
I did the sign up promo on the same terms as you
Most of the wines were a miss. We returned 5 of them hassle free and got a partial refund.
Then proceeded to cancel any subscriptions etc. Ongoing prices are not particularly good (~16aud a bottle)
Personally think you're better off just buying a range from your bottleshop, especially as you can get ones you're more likely to enjoy
Good pair days was good, good bottles for $15 each, at Christmas I got two free $35 sparklings as well via referrals
I have used several subscription in the past but there was always 2-3 bottles that weren't to my taste.
Also, I still have nightmares about my mistake when, on the Len Evans Wine Club order form, I put 6 in the cases column rather than the bottles column. We were drinking that Spanish stuff all year.
I currently use Naked Wines. $40/month and I choose what I want, when I want and you never see the wines anywhere else. Promo Codes are available.
I've ordered from Virgin, Qantas, and a few other wine 'clubs' over the years. This offer is an example of a reasonable one, but in general I found all of the wines to be pretty boring.
I can easily drop by my local bottle shop and just pick up their mainstream specials if I want that.
That seems like a decent offer, i'd probably skip the ongoing offer as i wouldn't drink that much plus i prefer selecting my own wines based on reviews/specials from Ozbargain and some 12 packs i feel are just clearing the dregs.
Probs could even post it as a deal, doesn't seem like you're locked in and can cancel anytime