I have had a fair amount of wine shipped to me over the years, but my experience has been limited to either wineries wanting me to review their wine or wineries that have clubs that I belong to. I have never before ordered wine for delivery through an online retailer. So when I saw a Groupon offer for Wine Insiders, I just had to bite. What follows is a chronological account of my experience. Neither Groupon nor Wine Insiders have any idea that I review wine, nor that I am writing about my experience.
March 2, 2011
Groupon offers a deal for Wine Insiders. A $75 Groupon for $25. I check out Wine Insiders website, and they seem decent, so I make the purchase.
April 24, 2011
I finally decide to use the Groupon. I didn't use the Groupon right away because I didn't want their fulfillment to be skewed by the Groupon offer. After poking around, I decide to order their Best of Everything Reds pack. This selection includes 2 bottles each of: 2009 River's End Merlot, 2009 Burke Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, 2005 Fair Oaks Reserve Zinfandel, 2007 Geja's Big Bold Red, 2007 Black Fox Cabernet Sauvignon and 2007 Monarch Glen Merlot.
My order costs $137.88 for the wine, plus $9.93 for tax and $0.01 for shipping. The total comes to $147.82. I apply the Groupon, which makes my balance $72.82. I paid $25.00 for the Groupon, so my total outlay is $97.82. This works out to an average of $8.15 per bottle.
Shortly after submitting my order, I receive an email confirmation that says that I should receive my wine within 2-4 weeks. That seems a bit long.
April 26, 2011
My credit card is charged for the balance of the shipment ($72.82).
April 27, 2011
I receive email confirmation that my wine has been shipped. Based on the email, I was expecting it to take another week or so before they shipped. Nice!
April 28, 2011
Today I decided to see if anybody had shared their experience with Wine Insiders...maybe I should have Googled Wine Insiders before buying the Groupon deal. They have lots of unhappy customers, and a few satisfid ones. So far, my experience has been far better than those I've read about. My order shipped 3 days after ordering, and I am tracking it on UPS's website. It is scheduled for delivery on Friday, 6 days after ordering it.
At this point I'm more concerned with the quality of the wine than anything. The handful of reviews I've read haven't been overwhelmingly great.
April 29, 2011
The wine was delivered right on schedule. In unpacking, I found the wine to be exactly what I had ordered. So far, so good. I have no complaints with them.
Since receiving the wine, I've opened a couple of bottles. I'll be reviewing some before too long. My general impression so far is that the wine that I've tried has been lower-end. The wines have all had a kind of swampy aroma and flavor to them. They're not bad, but for the money I think I could have done far better going to Trader Joe's, Costco or a grocery store.
All in all, my experience was better than that of many of the people I read about. But I seriously doubt I will be buying from them again. The quality of the wine doesn't justify the price they're charging.
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7 comments:
I was minutes from ordering that very package with my groupon before reading this. If you could, what would you order instead?
Having not had any of their other wines, that's really difficult to answer. Maybe something that includes some whites?
How did you actually use your Groupon? I enter my groupon # into the redeem code box and it would not recognize it. Any help would be appreciated.
I just entered the code in the Redeem Gift Certificate box. It worked for me with no problems.
i couldn't use my groupon code either so i called them and did it via phone. they were pretty nice about it. should arrive in 2-3 weeks.
We have used 4 Seasons wine club for several years - and have been phenomenally pleased with them. On the rare (twice in four years) times a wine was not to our taste (no problem, we just didn't like it), they replaced it without question. Customer service, wine quality, and price cannot be beaten. If you love wine, give them a try.
I also got this using a Groupon. Like some other people I had trouble redeeming my Groupon code. Got a little nervous when I tried to call Wine Insiders directly and had trouble initially getting through. Was finally able to contact them (the next day), and they processed my order no problem.
While the website and Groupon noted that it could take up to 4 weeks for delivery, I received mine in less than a week (4 days). I ordered the California mixed sample and haven't had a chance to try all of them (3 reds, 3 whites), but overall satisfied with the one I've uncorked. It's not a great wine, but what do you expect? I paid around $7 a bottle with the Groupon. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give it a 3. If I get another Groupon, I would definitely order again. Cheers!
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