The Wine Fairy

I recently tried a new “flavor” of the Wall Street Journal Wine Club–the Wine World Tour. In this blog post, I share a peek inside the box, as well as my honest review.

The WSJ Wine club sends me reams of direct mail offers. You know, the ones that look like this:

They usually go straight into the recycling bin with the credit card applications and those infernal 500-page ULINE catalogs.

In a town with so many great independent wine shops and liquor superstores, why would I resort to a mail order club? The wines are often nothing too special. And if I really wanted to stock my cabinets with high-volume, early-drinking, generic bottles…well, Costco’s right down the street.

A tempting offer

But this time, fishing the glossy offer envelope out of my mailbox, I started to have second thoughts. Maybe I would like a mixed Italian case for a dirt-cheap price? I’ve bought wine from WSJ before, and I actually didn’t end up regretting it.

Here’s the quick and dirty details about the WSJ Wine Club. (As usual, this is not an affiliate post and I don’t get any cash or perks for writing about them. I paid for the membership with my own money and don’t have a referral account with WSJ.)

You respond to a direct mail or online offer. You give them your credit card info and mark the “sell soul” checkbox (just kidding). You tell them whether you like reds, whites, or both. Then they send you 12 bottles of assorted random wines and a Free! Limited Time! Gift! (The free gift is usually a 13th, extra-special bottle of some kind plus some glassware.)

WSJ’s World of Wine (also called Wine World Tour) offer is quite similar. The main difference is it’s built around popular wine regions of the world. You don’t choose red or white–instead, you get a case of different styles all from one country or region.

The first shipment is wines of Italy. Next up, if you choose to continue the subscription, you’ll receive wines from France, then Spain and Portugal, then Australia and New Zealand. This spin-off of the wine club seems targeted at people who have subscribed to the “classic” club before. However, as of this writing, it’s available to everyone on a special section of their website.

The exact cost of WSJ intro offers varies, but it usually comes out to a little under $100 for your first wine club shipment. For extra mileage, you can sometimes stack it with credit-card rewards or shopping portal cashback offers.

Then, if you don’t cancel, they keep sending you wine. Every three months, you’ll get another mixed case. Each shipment after the introductory offer costs $179.99, plus $19.99 shipping & tax.

The subsequent shipments are (obviously) less of a good deal. Unless, perhaps, you drink a ton of wine, you aren’t too picky about styles, and you like the convenience of having bottles show up on your doorstep.

That introductory offer can be enticing, though! Or “come back” offer, as the case was this time. As I mentioned, I had a WSJ membership before, but that was way back in September 2023. I guess I’ve spurned them long enough that WSJ is back to offering me the sweetheart deals.

My offer was for 12 Italian bottles–plus a bottle of Prosecco and a pair of flute glasses–for $69.99 + $19.99 shipping and tax. I was already walking toward the recycling bin…and then I reconsidered.

In the past few months, I’ve started formal wine studies and (oh yeah) a wine blog. It’s an expensive hobby. I’m tasting and reviewing a lot of wines and it’s putting a massive hole in my grocery budget. The WSJ case comes with 12 vastly different wines I can try and evaluate. The internet may not be interested in reviews of mediocre wine club wines–but then again, they might, and it’s good practice for me.

And then, the there’s tariff panic. I love Italian wines for casual weeknight dinners and BYOBs. They’re generally a great value for money and they’re so easy to pair with food. My wife enjoys Italian wines too, so we rarely have trouble finishing a bottle.

At the moment the WSJ flyer arrived, the wine world was absorbed in stressful will-he-or-won’t-he tariff speculation. The thought of my $12 generic Chianti or Montepulciano soaring up to 30 or 40 bucks brought tears to my eyes.

Those proposed 200% tariffs didn’t happen, of course. But a 20% tarriff isn’t great news either, and there’s still time for Orange Man to completely scramble the international wine trade. Maybe, my thinking went, it’d be smart to stock up on table wine while there’s still time.

So, I handed over my payment info, and less than a week later it was wine delivery day!

The Wine Haul

I got an email notifying me that FedEx had picked up the package. A few hours later, I got a second notification that the package was out for delivery that very same day.

Somewhat confusingly, the shipper was listed as a small winery in Denison, Texas. Due to Texas’s screwy liquor laws, wine club shipments have to be mediated by an in-state retail partner.

I was hanging around the house waiting for the shipment, but the FedEx guy rang the doorbell, dropped the 41-pound crate outside my door, and booked it. Delivery drivers here don’t ask for ID for alcohol anymore, ever. If you can afford a place in Dallas these days, you’re old enough to drink for sure (or else you live with your parents).

Everything was in sound condition when I opened the box. Inside, I found a welcome letter from WSJ. There was also a “Passport to Discovering Italy” brochure with info on regional climates, major styles/varieties, and two wine-friendly recipes. There was, oddly, some partner advertising for a men’s underwear brand. On one side of the crate stood the promised bonus bottle of Lustrato Prosecco, and two rather posh Champagne flutes from Dartington Crystal.

At the heart of the box, nestled in eggshell-crate paperboard, were the goodies: Twelve varied, inexpensive selections of Italian wine. Eight reds and four whites, all 750 ml bottles from recent vintages.

I should mention here how this style of wine club works form the supply side. Wine clubs like WSJ buy inexpensive wine in enormous quantities, and contract with the seller to package it under private labels. They are often cross-regional blends or surplus juice dressed up to look fancier than it really is.

The result is that the actual winemaker and the wine’s comparable retail price are often obscured. These wines tend to be difficult or impossible to find at normal retail stores. You can only re-order them from WSJ, or a similar club. (WSJ Wine is owned by Direct Wines, Inc., which also runs wine clubs for Laithwaites, American Express, NPR, and several others.)

Wine club buyers choose wines for their tastiness and value for money–which is exactly what I do when I shop for a bottle! But then again, top-quality grapes aren’t often available in the huge volumes that wine clubs require.

Cynics say that the wine clubs take advantage of the drinking public’s ignorance about wine, throwing around unregulated terms like “award-winning,” “rare,” “98 points,” and so on. My advice is to ignore all the marketing and treat these like table wines–which is basically what they are.

WSJ’s wine selections can vary according to availability, but here’s what’s in my April 2025 Italy box. I’ve included WSJ’s “suggested pricing.” However, remember that their numbers are rather arbitrary because these wines are mostly not sold outside of wine clubs.

The wines (wines with links have reviews posted here):

La Chiamata Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (2022) – $15.99

Corsiero Nero “Purosangue” Nero di Troia, Puglia (2020) – $14.99

Pillastro Primitivo, Puglia (2022) – $15.99

Palumbo Falanghina, Puglia (2023) – $15.99

Il Picchio Verdicchio di Matelica, Marche (2023) – $22.99

Collezione di Paolo Chianti (2023) – $18.99

Bartolomeo Lorenzi Valpolicella Ripasso (2021) – $29.99

Saracosa Toscana (2022) – $19.99

Capisco Pinot Grigio (2023) – $14.99

Visionario Bianco Trevenezie (2023) – $22.99

Tenuta Fenice Nero d’Avola, Sicilia (2023) – $19.99

w/o Frappato, Sicilia (2023) – $19.99

There’s a couple of bottles in the mix that I’m really excited to try! The Falanghina (somewhat obscure grape) and Valpolicella Ripasso (a fave style). And I’ll pretty much always drink a Tuscan blend with home-cooked steak or pasta, even (or especially) if it’s cheap.

Two of the brands–the Pillastro Primitivo and the Saracosa Toscana–were familiar to me. I’m pretty sure I had them before (from previous vintages, in a WSJ “reds” case). I don’t remember them specifically, but I certainly don’t remember hating them! In any case, a whole bunch of Sicily and Puglia weeknight wines will never be unwelcome at my dinner table.

Let’s look at the numbers: The introductory shipment of WSJ’s World Wine Tour cost $69.99, plus $13.13 for shipping at $6.86, for a grand total of $89.98. The invoice breathlessly claims that the shipment is “a $284.86 value!”

While I wouldn’t go that far, this is a bargain case if I ever saw a bargain case. And I didn’t have to lug it out to my car. And I got some cute flutes to replace the two I’ve broken so far this year. My membership also came with a free Wall Street Journal digital app subscription, which I will enjoy for a couple of months (until I cancel the wine club).

The per-bottle price is really crazy. Counting the bonus Prosecco, I now have 13 bottles sitting on my counter for a unit price of…about $6.92 a bottle, including tax and shipping. My local corner store sure doesn’t have any wines under $7 anymore. And even if they did, I’m certain they’d be worse than these. These wines would have to be really atrocious before I’d call this shipment a waste of time or a bad deal.

Observant readers will note that I haven’t actually opened any of the wines yet. But I will. I’m going to take one for the team and try each and every one of these wine club bottles–I’m planning to review them for the blog, too.

I have a backlog of good stuff to drink at home and it’ll most likely take me a year to get through them, honestly. But once I do, I’ll post a link to the reviews here.

Who It’s Not For

The WSJ Wine club is not for everybody. Here’s three types of people who should probably go with their first impulse to shred that mailer or “X” that pop-up:

High-end drinkers.

The wines in WSJ Wine Club are comparable to wines that retail for about $11-$15. If you don’t normally buy wine at this price point, then the club probably isn’t a good value.

Similarly, even if you’re not a wine snob, the wine snobs in your life will likely look askance at wine club bottles. You can bring wine club leftovers to casual gatherings or serve them at house parties–but the labels are unlikely to impress anyone who knows much about wine.

Forgetful people.

Just like the gym at New Year’s, wine clubs make their money on folks who sign up and never think about it again. Call them forgetful, lazy, distractable, or well-meaning…you know if you’re one of those people.

A $100 case of middling-to-good wine is a fine thing in my book…but a $200 case, not so much. It’s not difficult to cancel a WSJ Wine subscription. (Go to Account, then My Clubs, then Wine Club Settings, then scroll all the way down to Cancel My Membership.)

You can do it over the phone or online in less than five minutes. But you gotta remember to do it, or the recurring billing will bite you. Here’s what the “Cancel Membership” button looks like once you’re logged in to your account:

Gift-givers.

Some people have asked me if its possible to give the WSJ Wine intro shipment as a gift to clients, friends, and family. It’s possible, yes–but probably not advisable.

The recurring-billing model isn’t set up for gift-giving. For instance, there’s no option to include a gift message or conceal your invoice details. Also, once WSJ Wine has your giftee’s address info, they will spam them until the end of time. Better to use an actual gift-focused wine delivery company (c’mon, big spender), or ship the club wines to yourself to mix into gift baskets and such.

Who It Is For

Cool-ass, cheap-ass wine drinkers with varied tastes.

I enjoy wines all over the price spectrum (and taste spectrum), so I will have no trouble finding times and places to drink my humble Italian haul. There’s a respectable number of regions and styles represented in the mixed case. That gives me a lot of options for food pairings and different moods. I found the “World Tour: Italy” booklet included in my WSJ box to be well-written and entertaining, too.

There’s also the convenience factor. Wine club shipments can be a boon for busy people, people without cars (wine is heavy), and frequent hosts. If having a case of not-terrible, inexpensive wine brought to your doorstep every 1-3 months would make your life easier, it might be worth joining. However, do keep in mind that the cost per bottle roughly doubles after the introductory offer.

I wouldn’t want to only drink wine club wines. But like sugary breakfast cereal, I think they can be part of a balanced wine diet. I like having some simple, young, and fruit-forward wines in the mix–bottles I can open without hesitation and drink without overthinking them.

Like I mentioned early, I plan to taste and rate all 13 of these wines in future posts. (I’ll add review links to the list above as I get to them.) If you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to The Wine Fairy blog for more wine news and reviews!

Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.