djay wrote:
>> I have never belonged to a wine club, and I never will. I have no
>> interest in such clubs. I want to pick what I drink myself, and I'm
>> not interested in what a club chooses for me.
>
> In actual fact, people who are motivated to be part of this group and
> discuss wine are likely to be exactly like you, motivated enough to
> want control, ie NOT the market that wine clubs are of value too.
>
> Having done some more research, it does turn out that my idea is not
> unique and has been implemented by both www.bottlenotes.com and
> www.wineq.com. Ie a customised wineclub where your ratings lead to
> customised cases to suit your tastes.
>
> Do you think these overcome the problems highlighted with bias and
> reputation that wine clubs seem to suffer from?
>
> Obviously if you know your wine and want to pick it your self then
> these are still not for you, or would they still be interest to you
> guys?
>

I'm jumping in a little late here, but I have in the past belonged to
several different wine clubs. They are an excellent way to learn about
wine provided that you have joined a club that features quality wines.
However, I no longer belong to any clubs. Here are the reasons:

1. Selection: often I can find more interesting wines on my own than the
club can.

2. Pricing: most clubs feature wines that are pricier than those I want
to "experiment" with

3. Individuality: My tastes are unique to me; the foods that I want to
accompany with wine are likewise unique to me. How can a club that sends
the same wines to everyone tailor their selection to my tastes?

The only club that would interest me today would be one that found wines
that I couldn't easily get on my own, sold them to me at discount and
selected wines suited to my tastes. Even then, I'd have to have some
control on frequency and amounts, since my wine budget isn't constant
and some times I might not want to buy any more wines.

When I read that last paragraph, I say to myself "that sounds like what
a good wine shop does" and that is the truth. If I were to do something
like this, I'd probably go for one of the "sampler cases" from Chambers
St. Wines in NYC (http://www.chambersstwines.com), a shop that I know
and trust.

I agree with you that having a dynamic selection that is tailored to an
individual's tastes sounds like a nice twist, but my experiences with
Amazon.com's attempts at finding items of interest to me has left me a
bit skeptical about the reliability of the algorithms.

Mark Lipton
--
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