Every month, you get:
Two incredible bottles (these are priced at about £15-20 retail): The Wine List values lesser known regions, grapes, and winemakers
Wine Roots: The Wine List's wine course programme: 12 lessons explaining key concepts from tasting through to winemaking
Interactive tasting cards designed to help you with finding wine aromas
Access to the Wine List community: loads of supermarket tasting notes, monthly tasting videos and (soon) a digital community of other wine drinkers.
All that costs just £39 per month which I think is very reasonable for such a comprehensive package.
I was sent a box to review (GIFTED) and before it even arrived I was impressed with the ordering and delivery communications. When the box arrived the packaging was excellent in terms of keeping glass bottles safe and sound, and it was very exciting getting wine delivered.
The real game changer and what sets this start-up apart from the bigger wine delivery services is the resources which give you lots of information ranging from details about the grape, region and growers to a very comprehensive interactive tasting card complete with aroma profile wheels.
There's also a collectable and very readable, unpretentious "wine roots" education leaflet, part of a 12 month course which will help build knowledge about all aspects of wine making.
My box contained information about how the winemaking vessel can impact the final style of wine. There were facts about the history of winemaking, some of the science behind it and details about how the region a wine is made in can mould the final product. It was fascinating!
I reckon between the deliveries and making use of the wine list community you'd definitely learn enough to make reading a wine list or scanning the supermarket shelves less of a stressful experience.
At the moment when I'm choosing new wines to drink at home I usually aim for something that's had a few pounds knocked off or maybe something I've drunk at a friend's and enjoyed.
How cool would it be to be able to recognise wines with similar characteristics to the ones you love, or to be able to understand some of the information on the bottles?
I'm actually not going to comment on the wines apart from to say they went down very well, especially with my eldest son and my husband who both definitely have a finer palate then me.
It was lots of fun using the tasting card and you'll be glad to hear there was no nonsense like identifying a wine as having "the scent of a bounding rabbit rolling in minted potatoes in a rainstorm.".
Using tips from the experts in the community who will even teach you how to correctly taste the wine you can really pick out smoke, apples or blackcurrants which helps you appreciate the complexity of the wine.
I was delighted to learn that new to the service is an email to be sent after delivery with the correct answers to the tasting notes. There's no spoilers - you have to click the wine name to reveal a marked up card. Such a great way to test your taste buds and to track your progress.
As a final plus point you even get tips on what foods to pair with each of your wines- the Massaya White (2018) in our box for instance did indeed work well with seafood pasta.
The Wine List might not give you expert sommelier status but will give you lots of enjoyment and a fair bit of knowledge. You could save a few deliveries up and hold a tasting sesh with pals or do what we did, crack them open the day they are delivered and enjoy great wine and entertainment to boot.
How to order? Easy peasy- head along to the website for more information.