When it comes to Italian wine clubs, there aren’t a huge number to choose from (that are easily found online). But, if you love Italian wine and have traveled to Italy, chances are that you might have considered finding an Italian wine club to join at some point. You also may have considered bringing back wine from Italy to the U.S. and found that it was just too expensive and difficult. And, this used to be the case for both individuals and businesses.
For individual consumers, shipping wine back to the U.S. from Italy is still cost-prohibitive. However, in recent years, an increasing number of savvy businesses and wineries in Italy have figured out ways to partner with wine shipping companies and ship wines directly to customers in the U.S., from Italy for more reasonable prices.
One of the best ways to take advantage of these collaborations, is to join an Italian wine club, either through a local winery partner (a regional organization that runs a wine club that includes a handful of local boutique wineries’ wines) or through the winery’s import partner in the United States.
Here are a few of the most interesting (and independently run) Italian wine clubs, I’ve found (two of which I’ve joined myself), that offers an easy way to enjoy wines from Italy.
Cin Cin!
Roscioli Italian Wine Club
The Roscioli Wine Club is one of the first and best Italian wine clubs that ships wines directly from Italy to members.
The club was started by Lindsay and Alessandro of Rimessa Roscioli restaurant in Rome, an American-Italian couple who both come from a long background of sharing their passion for Italian food and wine with their patrons. They launched the Roscioli wine club a little over three years ago.
They have visited over 600 wineries, almost-exclusively artisan/boutique producers, to bring their wine club members the most authentic Italian experience – directly to the vineyards, cellar, and true story of the wine. They also have a killer winemaker interview video collection and offer all sorts of educational, informational, and fun resources to customers that are interested in learning more about Italian wine and the boutique producers that make the wines they are drinking.
In addition to their wine club (which has three different tiers customers can choose from), Roscioli offers wine courses, for all levels of wine enthusiasts, where you casually learn about the non-technical side of wine or do master class lessons. They have also built a unique wine community of over 1,000 winemakers, restaurant owners, wine lovers, and sommeliers – where you can ask any questions you have about the wines they feature in their club.
Check out the Roscioli Wine Club here. It may be the perfect gift to give that special Italian wine lover in your life (even if that wine lover is you!).
Roscioli Italian Wine Club Reviews
**Roscioli has a 4.8 star average rating on Trust Pilot with a total of 57 verified reviews.
The Barolo Italian Wine Club
If Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco, I left my heart in Piedmont (Piemonte), the home of Barolo and Barbaresco (among many other fantastic wine villages and wines). So, the Barolo Wine Club, started by my friends Anna and Claudio, is a venture I am pretty excited about.
Anna and Claudio run a local food and wine tour business in Piedmont, so they have relationships with the best local boutique, family-run wineries and winemakers and are incredibly passionate about what they do. They personally select the wines for each club shipment, from among their favorite small-production wineries (most produce a few thousand cases or less).
How the Barolo Wine Club works:
-Customers choose between three different wine club options. The clubs vary in price point (250-500 €/shipment including shipping and VAT) and the types of wines that are included.
-Once a customer has signed up for membership, they receive their club shipments, straight from Italy to their door, twice a year. *Please note, that when receiving wines shipped directly from Italy it’s necessary to leave these wines to sit for 10-14 days before you open them up and drink them (wines will be in ‘bottle shock’ after this kind of international travel and jostling around, etc.)
-Club shipments include notes on the wine, and members have access to other fun content such as video interviews with the winemaker, virtual tastings, etc. that Anna and Claudio share via email and in their private member Facebook group.
-Club members who visit Piedmont (which I would highly recommend), receive a 10% discount on Piedmont artisan food and wine tours with Italianna (Anna and Claudio’s extremely highly-rated tour business).
La Spinetta’s One Liter Italian Wine Club
La Spinetta is an Italian wine company that was founded in the 1970’s in the Piemonte region of Italy. The brand now makes wine in multiple regions (Piedmont and Tuscany) and has multiple labels within its portfolio. They also have a tasting room and restaurant in the center of Alba (one of my favorite cities in Piemonte, Italy).
La Spinetta’s Italian wine club, the ‘One Liter Club’, was created to pay homage to the Piedmont tradition of making wine in one-liter bottles, which was the common practice before new European glass trends set the 750 ml bottle as the new ‘standard.’
As La Spinetta puts it, the One Liter Club is for those ‘who feel that a 750 ml bottle is just a bit too small, but that a Magnum is just a bit too big’.
The La Spinetta club is unique in that it does not require any specific commitment, nor do they specify the number of shipments or promotions members will be offered per year. They treat the club more like a private mailing list, where subscribers get exclusive access to products that aren’t available to the public, than a traditional wine club. Color me intrigued! I joined their list, of course. I love one-liter bottles.
How La Spinetta’s One Liter Club works:
-Customers request to be added to La Spinetta’s ‘OLC’ list
-Customers receive emails and newsletters that contain exclusive offers on special, limited-run, one liter sized bottles of La Spinetta wines, as well as exclusive invitations to La Spinetta events in the U.S., etc.
I have friends who are members of this club, and they really like it. I have yet to receive my first email offer, but when I do, I’ll come back here and share my notes.
Italian and European Wine Clubs Run by Import Companies
Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant
Kermit Lynch is one of the longest-standing and most respected European wine import companies in the United States. Based in Berkeley the business was started by California native Kermit Lynch, back in the early 70s in a one room retail store with thirty five cases of French wine that he’d gone to France to select and purchase himself.
Over the years Kermit Lynch has become known for more than just importing fantastic (as well as affordable) French wines. The business works with great producers across many regions in both Italy and France and offers three different wine clubs that include well priced wines from both countries (a red club, a white club, and an ‘Adventurers’ club).
Want to try a few of their wines first before signing up for a club? Choose a few bottles from their Italy section (or checkout which wines they featured in their most recent newsletter) and have them shipped. Once you get acquainted with the wines/wineries that these guys import I think you’ll probably want to keep ordering more (I have put my trust in them for almost 15 years and have rarely been disappointed with the wines I’ve purchased).
Take $20 off of your first order with this code and get Free Shipping on orders over $125. I love ordering wine from these guys because they are just over in Berkeley which means that when I place an order to be shipped I get it just 1-2 days later.