The Wall Street Journal Wine Club

In a stroke of amazing coincidence (or a mere affirmation that we're really the same person) my co-conspirator and I gave each other cases of wine from the Wall Street Journal wine club¹. We're now in the process of determining whether this little experiment is worth continuing. There are a couple of factors which seem to be arguing in its favor at present:

1. It's brain-dead convenient. Go to the website, select your case-o-wine, supply a CC, and some time later said wine shows up at your door (adult signature required).
2. We're getting exposed to the products of small wineries which we probably wouldn't find in our typical wine-purchasing venues, much less be inclined to try.

The main question is whether we're getting good bang for our buck. The "Holiday Reds" case, for example, is $179.99 ($198.98 after tax/S&H) which works out to $15/bottle ($16.67 final cost). That looks to be about the middle of the range; the wine club site currently has cases for as little as $99.99 (a half-and-half of Il Papavero Rosso & Bianco) and as much as $284.99 (the "Holidy Luxuries" mixed case of high-end stuff). Anyhow, $17/bottle is a little above what we're used to paying for our "everyday wine", but well below what we're willing to pay for "good wine". So what do you get from the wine club for $17? We've tried a couple of the bottles we've received and so far so good:

• 2008 Vina Baccana Pinot Grigio: As I've probably mentioned before I'm more of a red wine drinker; I certainly don't drink enough pinot grigio to distinguish a good one from a great one. That said I did find this to be a quite pleasant wine that I would gladly drink again.
• 2007 Un Vent de Folie Côtes du Roussillon Villages: This is a very full-bodied wine, a little rough around the edges, but tasty none the less. I suspect that it would benefit greatly from aging for a couple more years. At 16% alcohol by volume it definitely has noticeable kick; they ought to adopt the tagline "A Respectable Way To Get Smashed".

Both of the above were interesting and, taken in conjunction with items 1 and 2 above, make me think that the WSJ wine club is worth pursuing for at least a little while.

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1 I was actually going to get her a case from the New York Times Wine Club but strangely enough they don't ship to WA even though the WSJ does.