The listings featured on this site are from companies from which this site receives compensation. This influences where, how and in what order such listings appear on this site.
Buying wine at retail prices can be less than ideal. Naked Wines provides unique wines at wholesale prices, allowing you to save money while also enhancing your tastebuds. The decade-old company invests in over 150 indie winemakers and uses its business model to bring unique, high-end wines to market affordably.
Here’s how Naked Wines works: prospective winemakers submit their wine for approval, and, if approved, receive an advance to aid in the winemaking process. Nakedwines.com views their “Angels”, or subscribers, as customers who act as investors. Angel members invest $40 every month to invest in individual wine orders; this helps winemakers and gives the Angels exclusive perks such as 40-60% off on all orders and freebies.
The Firstleaf wine club excels in its customizability and its value to its members. Let’s break these categories down a bit further:
Firstleaf wines average $13 a bottle with free shipping. Shipments come with six bottles that can be chosen for you or picked individually.
First-time members start by taking an online wine taste test. The Firstleaf team uses this data to build a custom first shipment for each member, which is sent to their home in a week or so.
Firstleaf asks members to rate how much they like their new ones, especially if the user has just received their first box. After a member rates just three of these wines, future Firstleaf taste predictions have a 98% accuracy rate. From here, users can continue to rate wines, receive catered shipments they love, and repeat the process as frequently as they like.
Wanting to boldly select your own vintages? The Firstleaf team can help with that. Every Firstleaf box comes packed with a newsletter, written to educate members on the finer points of winemaking, tasting, and pairing. In addition, Firstleaf members have full access to the Wine Concierge team, a fully dedicated team of wine pros ready to nerd out over all things grape.
You might first notice that your Firstleaf box is a bit heavy—well, it should be! There are six bottles of wine in that thing, six!
After opening the top of the box, you’ll find a short member letter, plus a hard copy of the Firstleaf newsletter. The newsletter contains all kinds of helpful bits of information about your selections, so don’t forget to give it a read.
Below the letters, you’ll find the first three wines. After removing these three, you’ll find three more below a molded insert. Now your wines are out and you’re ready to sip.
Firstleaf is the right wine club for anyone who prefers to align taste and value. When you pay for a Firstleaf wine box, you’re mostly paying the winemaker, meaning your quality rises while the cost to you drops. In addition to the low prices and free shipping, Firstleaf offers multiple opportunities for customizability. Members take taste tests, refine their selections, filter wines for the next shipment, and can chat with the Wine Concierge team for pro advice.
If you want to pay a little to get big, bold flavor, give Firstleaf a try.