ProductReportCard Editors' In-Depth Review
Pros And Cons
Pros
- Affordable, flexible membership with excellent discounts for reordering your favorite bottles
- Great, limited-supply wines at exceptional values
- Gold Medal clearly explains their wine selection criteria and displays all previous selections on their website dating back to 1992
- Encourages/incentivizes customers to submit ratings on featured wines by giving away one half-case of wine to a lucky reviewer each month. Cumulative ratings are posted in the following month's newsletter.
- Referral bonus of two bottles of wine if you refer a friend for membership
- Easy online system for reordering
Cons
- Strictly offers California wines
- If you request red-only or white-only shipments, you won't receive different varietals
- Since supplies are limited, you have to be quick if you want to reorder favorite bottles
Key Features
Products
The Gold Series features award-winning and highly rated red and white wines that have been produced in limited quantities at smaller, family-owned and operated wineries. Some of the wines are listed as "Special Selections" and available to Gold Series members before they have been officially released.
Membership Options
There are no signup fees, no monthly dues, and no minimum obligation to be a member. You will choose between 2- or 4-bottle shipments, a standard mix or red-only/white-only, if you want to pre-pay or pay in installments, and whether you want to receive deliveries on a monthly, bimonthly or quarterly basis. Other membership points to consider for the best deal:
- If you purchase a 6-month membership, you will receive a 5% discount, and, if you purchase 12- or 24-month membership, you will receive a 10% discount.
- If you decide to upgrade to 4-bottle shipments, you will also receive 2 complimentary bottles of wine and an ongoing 10% discount on your monthly shipments. 4-bottle members also earn a higher reorder discount in the Wine Store.
Recently Featured
You can review all previous wine selections on Gold Medal Wine Club's website, but here are some recent examples:
- A 2009 GSM Red Rhone Blend from Ledgewood Creek Winery in Suisun Valley, which earned a gold medal at the US National Wine Competition, another gold medal at the NextGen Wine Competition, and a third gold medal at the San Francisco International Wine Competition.
- A 2005 "Mare Nectaris" Reserve from Midnight Cellars in California's Central Coast, which earned 93 points from the Beverage Tasting Institute and a Gold Medal in the World Wine Championships.
- A 2010 Three Coins Chardonnay from Lawer Family Wines in Napa Valley, which earned 89 points from the Beverage Tasting Institute and a Silver Medal in the World Wine Championships.
Newsletter
In each shipment, Gold Medal Wine Club will include their monthly newsletter, The Wine Press. The Wine Press is 8 pages long and covers the winery's history, tasting notes on the featured wines, an interview with the winemaker, background on the region and news from wine country. It also includes suggestions for food pairings and offers fun new recipes to try out while you are enjoying your wine.
Extras
The PLUS! Program allows current members to add an extra bottle of high quality wine to each shipment for a great price. Only 250 cases or less of these wines were produced, so it is a great opportunity to sample a unique wine you'd never find anywhere else. If you pre-pay, it costs an extra $19.50/month, otherwise monthly costs will range from $18-$22.
Gift Information
Gold Medal Wine Club offers free gift cards to notify gift recipients. Gold Medal also sells many gift baskets and wine accessories that you can add to your order if you want.
Shipping Schedule
The first shipment will arrive within 7 - 10 days of placing your order, and then subsequent shipments will arrive sometime after the 15th of the month depending where you live.
Satisfaction Guarantee
Gold Medal Wine Club is confident you will be happy with your membership and welcomes feedback on all the featured wines you received. Since there is no minimum membership requirement, you can easily cancel your membership at any time, for any reason.
Reputation
Gold Medal Wine Club's Gold Series is an excellent, affordable wine club that has received great reviews from customers online. As a member, you will only receive high quality, award-winning wines that you never would have otherwise had the opportunity to try since they are produced in such small quantities from boutique wineries. Although I'm not currently a member of the Gold Series Club, my husband and I have been treating ourselves to the Platinum Series Club for almost a year now, and we have always been more than impressed with the Gold Medal Wine Club's selections and overall service. If you tend to drink a bottle or more in a given week, I would suggest ordering a 4-bottle membership for the best overall value. In addition to receiving the 10% discount on monthly shipments, 4-bottle members also get better discounts when reordering their favorite wines in the Gold Medal Wine Store.
If you want to try more than California wines, this probably isn't the club for you; otherwise, I can't think of any reason why anyone wouldn't love being a member. Besides getting an awesome variety of great wine delivered to your doorstep every month, I think most people will love that membership is flexible and customizable. If you have any special requests (quantity, varietals, etc.), you can just call Gold Medal Wine Club and they are happy to adjust the membership to suit your needs/preferences. Another thing I really appreciate about Gold Medal Wine Club in general is that they offer tons of great benefits for their members beyond what you get in each shipment. You'll have access to online tasting videos, deep discounts on quality wine from other clubs, referral bonuses, quarterly contests for vacation getaways, wine tasting discounts at a number of their featured wineries, discounted rates for trips to Napa Valley, etc. Membership to Gold Medal Wine Club's Gold Series truly is the perfect gift to give yourself or any wine enthusiast in your life.
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