The 5 Wine Subscription Services Worthy of Your Long-Term Commitment

A compulsory part of fancying oneself as a wine connoisseur—an oenophile, if you will—is having a deep appreciation of the discovery of new regions and textures, aromas, tannins, and top notes. What isn’t necessary: the stale stereotype that you need to know everything about wine to participate.

Whether you’re a certified sommelier or exclusively capable of distinguishing between a red wine and a white, a wine subscription service is an excellent option for anyone interested in expanding their palate and embracing the educational, surprise-and-delight nature of wine. There’s also the glory of doing so from the comfort of your own kitchen—and always having your mini fridge well-stocked when friends or family stop by.

• The best wine subscription service overall: Helen’s Wines
• For folks who love flexibility (and bang for their buck): Naked Wines
• For the curious, quality-conscious wine consumer: Plonk
• Best for an easy, fuss-free wine club experience: Winc
• A wine club that promises to educate and expand your palate: MYSA

A wine club “is the curation of selections offered to you,” says Scott Carney, master sommelier and dean of wine studies at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). “I presume a happy member of such a club will appreciate the ‘story-telling’ about the wines offered and the incremental bump in quality that the selections offer through their curation,” he adds. According to Carney, the best wine clubs offer consumers options that fit within their flavor and/or varietal preferences, yet expand upon prior experience.

Are any wine subscriptions worth it? You bet. But not all are worthy of your long-term commitment. Ahead, the five best wine club options for every shade of oenophile.

To find the best wine subscription services, we ordered eight popular options and had them delivered to our door. We evaluated each one based not only on the quality, condition, and variety of wines in the box, but also on factors like flexibility (including pricing tiers, commitment levels, and personalization options), shipping or membership fees, and how each shipment is curated.

As Carney reminds us, expert curation by a certified professional is what separates a truly worthwhile wine club from one that falls flat.

Helen’s Wines Subscription

$55

Table22

Helen’s Wines is helmed by Helen Johannesen, a Los Angeles-based sommelier with a deep passion for natural, organic, and small-production bottles. She handpicks the contents of each box to ensure that the customer receives the highest level of curation in every shipment. In addition to sourcing solely sustainably-farmed wines, Helen’s Wines celebrates small-scale wineries that use as little intervention as possible—Johannesen describes her focus as being on “labels that bottle the mantra, ‘nothing added, nothing taken away.’”

What we love: Helen’s Wines aims to showcase the dynamic, endlessly developing story inside the bottles you’re sent. Johannesen selects wines that connect the consumer to each bottle’s origin story: their growing region, the folks who farmed the grapes, and the environmental factors that shaped their texture, flavor, and aromas. “Creating more dialogue and transparency, and connecting people with well-made wine that tastes amazing, has been my mission since day one,” says Johannesen.

While wine club members can’t select specific bottles, Helen’s offers a number of collections that vary by price point and how many bottles you’re buying. Choose from boxes of two, four, or six bottles; then select whether you want “small-scale, introductory wines” or pay a bit more for “rare finds” from “exceptional producers.” The highest tier option promises a case of “allocated gems from renowned producers and elevated terroir.” Needless to say, there’s trust involved, which is why we appreciate the level of care and attention that Johannesen puts into her curation process.

My shipment of Four Dope Wines from Helen’s had much to offer. First, I appreciated getting to try two whites (a vibrant, fresh, and fizzy 2021 Brigit Braunstein pinot blanc from Austria and a punchy 2022 Ashanta carignan from Mendocino County) as well as two reds (the 2023 Fongoli from Umbria, made from trebbiano spoletino and grechetto grapes was bursting with rich minerality and floral notes, and I couldn’t get enough of the velvety-soft 2022 Augalevada field blend from Galicia, Spain). Almost as delightful as the wines themselves, however, were the educational tidbits packed inside my box. Aside from teaching me how to serve, store, and pair each bottle with food, the included handouts shared the history and values of each winemaker and helped me grasp the “why” behind tastes and textures. (The carignan vines used in the bottle from Ashtana are 85 years old; their roots extend more than 40 feet into the earth. This is what gives the wine its otherworldly intensity. How’s that for a fun fact?) To expand your wine knowledge further, members can also gain access to exclusive virtual wine club events led by Johannesen herself.

What we’d leave: From where we stand, there’s very little to be critical of about Helen’s Wines. That said, if you’re a wine drinker who shutters at the thought of outsourcing the curation of your boxes or you dislike (or are disinterested in) natural, low-intervention wines, Helen’s isn’t for you.

Betty Gold Kider

Naked Wines Subscription

$40

Naked Wines

Naked Wines is a great wine subscription service for price-conscious wine shoppers who like to have a lot of say over what they’re sipping. A membership gives you access to a vast array of high-quality wines at lower prices than you’d find at a boutique wine shop and does so while supporting independent winemakers directly. Connecting customers directly to wineries means Naked Wines cuts out the middlemen (distributors, retailers, brokerage costs, advertising), allowing the brand to offer bottles at prices up to 60% off retail. Also offered: a wine advisor team that can select vintages for customers 1:1 based on preference.

What we love: Naked Wines’ unique subscription structure gives consumers more power over their dollar than many of the services we tested. You deposit $40 a month into your “Angels” account to spend on wines up to 60% off retail. There's no automatic wine shipment; you choose what to buy and only pay extra if your order exceeds your balance. If you don’t use the deposit one month, it rolls over to the next.

We’re big fans of the fact that monthly fees go directly to winemakers—supporting the folks who craft the wines themselves means more brand focus is spent on quality, less on suppliers and sales. The result comes in the form of bang for your buck: While the exact “what” and “when” of your spending is entirely up to you, all bottles offered come from small-scale wineries that are exclusive to Naked Wines. And the options are nice—a highlight from our test was AVA Collection’s 2021 Coombsville Cabernet Sauvignon (marked down from its $149 retail price to $70 for Naked Wines) and the 2024 Patrice Grasset Chenin Blanc (which sells at retail for $31; Naked offers it for $16). In terms of styles of wine, the flexibility of Naked Wines is appreciated—rather than having to choose between white or red, I relished being able to order a box that included both plus sparkling wines and rosés. More to love: You can learn all about the varietal, vintage, region, and tasting notes (heck, you can even e-meet the winemaker) via the Naked Wine marketplace.

Angels can pause or cancel their membership at any time, and if you don’t like one of the vintages that you select for yourself, the “hassle-free” guarantee policy promises your credit goes back into your account. Luckily, the community-driven feedback built into Naked Wines’ service means you can read hundreds of customer reviews of bottles before you buy, so you’ll (ideally) nail your selection of wines on the first go-around. The shipping fee for your first order is free, and the same goes for all orders that exceed $200.

What we’d leave: While certainly not a deal-breaker, Naked Wines’ select-selection structure means less of the characteristic surprise-and-delight factor that wine boxes curated specially for the customer by an in-house sommelier. That said, if you’d like to receive a standard recurring shipment of top-notch wines without needing to supply any input, you can sign up for Naked Wines’ quarterly Fine Wine Club. But generally speaking, this service is for customers that value flexibility over surprise.

Along similar lines, if you’re a wine drinker who loves to dabble in more niche categories of wine such as organic, natural, biodynamic, or skin-contact (orange) wines, your options will be limited. (Currently, there are only four organic wines and not a single orange or Pét-Nat available in the Naked Wines marketplace.) The selection of wines also leans heavily on US-based vineyards, particularly Napa Valley and Sonoma.

Plonk Subscription

$135

Plonk Wine Club

If you’ve sampled your fair share of full-bodied Bordeaux and crisp sauvignon blancs and feel ready to let your taste buds taste new terroirs, a Plonk membership is a smart starting place. This service focuses exclusively on natural wines that are grown using organic, biodynamic vineyard practices. (Meaning no pesticides, herbicides, or commercial additives such as colorants, acidifiers, artificial sugars, alcohol enhancements, or industrial chemicals get used in the bottles they source.) Every vintage is hand-selected by the brand’s founder and sole curator, Etty Klein, who holds certifications from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and the American Sommelier Association.

What we love: In addition to solely supplying natural wines grown using sustainable farming methods, Plonk includes both old and new world wines in each shipment—think classic regions including Italy, France, Spain, Germany, and California as well as lesser-known wine regions such as Croatia, Austria, Uruguay, and Slovenia. And even within the most popular regions, you won’t find any vintages you’ve tried at a large commercial wine retailer.

“The idea is to expand our customers' wine horizons, encourage them to take a leap of faith, and thus expose them to new favorites,” says Klein. “Customers who began thinking that they only want to drink Cabernet Sauvignon or Sancerre are ordering bottles of Austrian Blaufrankisch, Hungarian Furmint, and German Muller Thurgau in droves.” And after tasting what Plonk had to offer, I can absolutely attest to such an experience. My box included a 2023 Greek Kir-Yianni peach-and-pear-scented assyrtiko, Castello Romitorio’s 2023 Brio Toscana (a rustic red that spins sangiovese into silk), a 2021 Pence California red blend filled with sour cherry flavor, and my absolute favorite: Union Sacré’s 2023 unfiltered orange, made from a blend of Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Sylvaner grown on the central coast of California. In complete transparency, I thought I hated orange wine until I tried this one. Finally understanding the flavor potential of skin-contact was a treat, as was finding four totally unique wines I’d never known or heard of prior. Bottom line? Rest assured that your Plonk-ified palate is going to experience something new.

Plonk has three club options—red, white, or a mix of the two—and subscriptions can recur every month, bimonthly, or quarterly. Those who prefer custom cases can mix and match wines a la carte online, which means you can re-buy bottles you loved from a prior shipment. Shipping is free on all orders, there’s no membership fee, and a $10 discount is offered to all first-time customers.

What we’d leave: If you’re one to order the same styles of wine on repeat (no shade), Plonk’s off-the-beaten-path selection of different wines will probably taste very new. You can either embrace the element of education (and the rare grapes and unusual aromas that come with it), or opt for a wine club that’s more suited to whatever your palate’s used to sipping.

Betty Gold Kider

Winc Wine Club Subscription

$60

Winc

Winc is among the most popular wine clubs on the market, and it’s easy to see why: The website is easy to navigate, shipments are tailored to your personal preferences (by way of a palate quiz taken upon joining and the ratings you give each shipment), and the wine portfolio is diverse and rotates regularly. What’s more, most Winc wines net out to $20 or less, which is competitive given the quality of the smaller-scale wineries you’ll have to choose from.

What we love: Winc is made for wine drinkers who love a personalized experience and decent bottle markdowns without strings attached. Joining the club is free—once you’re in, you’ll take a quiz so the service can discern your wine preferences and provide recommendations available in Winc’s wide portfolio. Plus, self-selected bottles are always available, and if you uncork a bottle you really relish, you’re able to order the same vintage a la carte.

A Winc membership buys you a minimum of three bottles shipped to your doorstep monthly, plus you’ll get an additional 20% off each bottle you buy. There’s no minimum time requirement to join, there is free shipping for orders over $50, and you can pause or cancel your subscription any time. But you probably won’t want to—Winc’s tailored-to-you subscription model gives you a lot of say over what you want to sip without the overwhelm or intimidation factor.

We tasted a solid array of Winc’s offerings for our test, and were pleased with each of the varieties the service had to offer. In addition to a bright and fruity Cocomero French rosé and a spicy, herbaceous L’Atelier du Sud grenache blend from the south of France, it was fun (and rather unexpected) to find a bottle of French So This Happened 2021 skin-contact white (aka orange) wine. Sure, half of our six-bottle shipment came from France, but we were definitely not mad about it—you can’t deny that there’s quite the range among these three wines alone.

What we’d leave: While a wide array of options are one way to guarantee reliability, Winc’s quiz-based (i.e. algorithm-based) subscription model makes it hard to feel truly connected to the bottles you’re sampling. Winc forgoes the sommelier-based, education-forward curation and leans harder into letting customers self-select. Depending on your level of wine knowledge, this may work—but generally speaking, a professional sommelier’s palate is going to be more reliable than a quiz embedded with an algorithm. The other downside we noticed is that you won’t find any New York merlot or Austrian riesling—Winc sources almost entirely from California, France, Italy, Argentina, and Spain.

Betty Gold Kider

Mysa Natural Wine Club Subscription

$85

Mysa Natural Wine

MYSA exclusively ships low-intervention natural wines directly to your doorstep—this means bottles are made with “spontaneous fermentation using native yeast, sustainable agricultural practices, minimal sulfur, and no additional additives,” says MYSA co-founder, Niclas Jannson. Boxes are hand-curated by Jannson’s wife, co-founder Holly Berrigan, a WSET Level III certified sommelier.

What we love: MYSA’s wines were among the most eye-opening we tested: No sip was necessarily familiar, yet every bottle was delicious down to the last drop. For instance, take the Lectores Vini Pomagrano Blanco, a blend of Xarel-lo and Macabeo grapes grown in Catalunya, Spain: A single swirl of the deeply aromatic, straw-and-cream-colored liquid gold and you’ll want to learn everything about the lesser-known grapes and where they came from. The question “Where has this been all my life?” actually came out of my mouth.

Luckily, MYSA is focused as strongly on storytelling as it is on sourcing. This was one of the only wine clubs we tested that included handouts providing origin stories, tasting notes, and food pairing recommendations. MYSA also builds a dedicated landing page for each monthly wine box complete with each bottle’s background, what to expect when trying, and a tasting video starring Berrigan that you can cue up as you uncork. Another perk: MYSA includes a copy of The SWURL Guide to Commonly Used Wine Terms with all fifth subscription orders to keep customer curiosity flowing.

Members can choose from a box of three, six, or 12 mixed (meaning white, red, rose, sparkling wine, and so on) bottles. MYSA also offers a red-only and orange-only box of four wines. Members can add any bottle from the online shop to an upcoming club order and get 10% off with no additional shipping costs.

What we’d leave: Clearly, MYSA is for more adventurous wine drinkers who are willing to forego having a hand in the curation process—all good—however, we do wish customers had more options for customizing their subscription boxes. Even the most dedicated, knowledgeable natural wine connoisseurs can prefer whites over reds or carry other personal preferences, and this is one wine club that’s not exactly well-suited to the traditional palate as-is. But there’s hope: MYSA notes that custom box options are on the way this summer.

Betty Gold Kider

What factors should I consider when choosing the best wine subscription service?

There are a great deal of reasons to sign up for a wine subscription service. For one, wine clubs eliminate the (unnecessary, albeit omnipresent for some) intimidation factor of choosing a bottle of wine. No stress: The curation has been done for you. But how can you trust that the box of wine bottles that show up on your doorstep will even be palatable?

Other wine clubs we tested and liked

Wine Insiders Subscription

$89

Wine Insiders

Wine Insiders is one of the longest-standing subscription services—it started shipping curated boxes of wine to doorsteps in 1982. A team of in-house certified wine experts is in charge of stocking Wine Insiders’ marketplace, which is home to hundreds of bottles, including 40 varietals sourced from over 15 wine regions. And many of the offerings are sold at a decently marked-down price, as Wine Insiders partners directly with wineries to eliminate markups for marketing, advertising, and store operations.

New members receive 15 bottles of wine for $89 (that nets out to under $6 a pop) on their first shipment, which includes three “bonus” bottles of higher-end red wines. Following, you can expect a case of a dozen bottles that have been curated by the sommelier team every 12 weeks for $155. While you can’t select specific vintages, you can choose between all reds, all whites, or a mix. While we enjoyed Wine Insiders’ wide selection of wines, markdowns, and money-back guarantee, this service ultimately didn’t make the best-of list because of the lack of flexibility—a dozen bottles of wine is too many to not have a say in what you’re sipping; the likelihood of not liking at least one varietal is high. And what’s worse than wasted wine?

Betty Gold Kider

Juliet Wine Subscription

$105 $84 (20% off)

Juliet Wine

Boxed wine is back and better than ever before, thanks to the sustainability-centric wine subscription service Juliet. The Certified California Sustainable Santa Barbara-based wine company uses proprietary eco-friendly packaging, which reduces the carbon footprint by over 50% when compared to its equivalent in glass bottles. Juliet’s outer package is made from paperboard, which reduces energy and weight during transport and is easily recycled. What’s more, the brand’s low-intervention, additive-free wines stay fresh up to four weeks after opening (which is, generally speaking, about four times the lifespan of a glass bottle).

True to boxed wine form, Juliet’s varietals—Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Rosé, Orange, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Sauvignon—come in the form of 1.5-liter magnums, which contain the same amount as two bottles of wine or roughly ten glasses. Wine subscriptions can be shipped every month or quarterly; each box contains two varietals, and members get to choose which of the six they’d like to receive. And before you judge a box by its cover, know that Juliet’s wines are indeed tasty—think beautifully-structured Santa Ynez Sauvignon Blanc that’s rich in grapefruit notes and delicate, fresh strawberry-scented rosé you’ll want to sip poolside all summer.

We recommend Juliet to all sustainability-minded folks who want to stock up for an event or holiday, but due to the limited number of wine options available, we don’t think it’s ideal for wine drinkers that want to invest in a wine subscription service long-term—especially if your palate delights in variety, education, and expansion.

Betty Gold Kider

Vinebox Subscription

$79

Vinebox

Rather than receiving full bottles, Vinebox subscribers receive six by-the-glass (3.3-ounce) portions of wines to sample. Whether you hate to waste wine (especially when sipping solo), can’t stand the multi-glass hangover, or prefer to sample a few varietals per drinking occasion, Vinebox’s single-serve pours provide your palate with variety without any pressure to finish a bottle. Monthly boxes include six sommelier-curated wines from regions around the globe, with a focus on wines from Italy, France, Spain, and California.

Vinebox is a unique and highly experiential subscription service, but ultimately, it probably won’t fit the bill if you’re a wine drinker in search of a wine club that’s going to expand your palate or introduce you to new regions. The value is also not great—despite the pretty packaging, each sample of wine is teensy (think half a glass), so it’s challenging to split one portion between two people and still feel like you had a full tasting experience. No judgement, but we’re partial to wine clubs that aren’t geared towards drinking alone.

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