With their “StewardShip” program – $59 annual fee for unlimited free shipping – and transparent shipping/delivery info, Wine.com leads the field for wine gifts. Our Wine.com review highlights what, in our experience, is this discount wine seller‘s edge in the competitive world of online wine sales. Click here for $30 off your first order Wine.com promo code! (Wine.com’s “Give $30, Get $30” referral program!)
Note: we are, frankly, perplexed by the number of extremely negative wine.com review posts. Wine.com has entirely met or exceeded our expectations. Looking at the content of some of the negative wine.com reviews, it seems many of them are rooted in shipping issues. Maybe we’ve just been lucky, but we have learned a lot about the potential pitfalls of wine shipping, which we will address later. T
here are also complaints about long wait times or lack of responsiveness by customer service. Our experience has been entirely positive – timely responses and satisfactory adjustments when needed. Obviously we hope your experience is five star, as ours has been, but, do take note of some our shipping comments if your relatively new to online wine purchasing.
The “TLDR” of our Wine.com review
Wine.com has an impressive inventory of wines and spirits, offered at good and sometimes great prices. With their StewardShip program, a $59 annual fee gets you free shipping on any size order nationwide, making ordering for special occasions or adult gift-giving affordable and easy. You can sort through their inventory by numerous filters, including ratings and percent savings on deals. Customer assistance – including product suggestions – is available via live chat, phone or email, and the site shows when to expect products to be shipped. Wine.com does not have the most aggressive pricing on the internet, but our comparative shopping experience is that their prices are good, and sometimes great for sale items. With their “give $30/get $30” referral program, you can try them out with $30 off your first order with this link (NOTE: Shipping is $15.95 for the 1st bottle and $2.15 for each additional bottle – about $40 for a case – if you’re not subscribed to the StewardShip program.)
They also offer a personalized wine shopper experience – the Picked by Wine.com personal sommelier curated wine club. (Picked by Wine.com review below)
The full version of our Wine.com review:
The Concept
Wine.com bills itself as “…the World’s Largest Wine Store.” Whether hype or fact, we’ve been impressed with the extensive inventory, and the broad spectrum of price points — from $10 to multiple thousands. When we’re searching for a wine, it’s a rare occurrence not to find it on their website, but obviously no business could stock every wine from every vineyard. (It’s our understanding they store and handle fulfillment from their own facilities,) Their pricing seems competitive with other online wine sellers, as well as brick and mortar retailers, such as Total Wine and More. With a special section for “Great Deals,” we continually explore and add to our list of favs. Their “$59 annual price for unlimited shipping” StewardShip program, makes wine gifts (and spirits) affordable and easy. (And here’s $30 off your first order with their “Give $30/Get$30” referral program.)
Features We Like
- Wine Ratings. The “pro” ratings for the wine (if available) are easy to find, right under the wine title as you scroll. Wine.com has also added “customer reviews,” in addition to the pro ratings, with a consolidated customer score and number of reviews right under the pros numbers. (An aside, w)e find, for our palate, we’re more aligned with customer reviews than we are with the pros, and we’re looking forward to that customer database expanding.)
- Search options and filters. Many kudos for the easy to use search filters! They start with a category of searches – varietal, region, discover, gifts and spirits. In particular the “discover” and “gifts” categories have a number of useful suggestions for exploring, You can search by type of wine, country and/or region, deals, ratings, and curated lists, and then within those categories, filter again by price, savings, ratings, etc. Pretty cool!
- “When will it be delivered?” transparency. First site we’ve run across which tells you, while you’re shopping, when it can/will be shipped. For our experience, we’d rate Wine.com’s communication about processing and shipping as excellent. Some things to consider: 1) Wine is shipped via FedEx. Even with expedited shipping, the wine will end up in a truck which is not temperature controlled. In extreme heat or cold, the wine will degrade, significantly. If there is extreme heat or cold between or at the origin and/or destination, the shipment will be delayed, and the length of the delay will be unknown. 2) An adult signature is required at the destination. Period. Even when we’re home, we’ve missed deliveries – stepping outside at the wrong moment, taking a phone call and not hearing the door, etc. We now ship choose ship to a local pickup location, for ourselves and for gifts. The location is usually a nearby Walgreen’s, Safeway, etc., where it will be held (in a climate controlled environment) for 7 days, and picked up when convenient. It’s so much less stressful than spending a whole day trying to make sure not to miss the delivery!
- Customer service. We’ve dealt with many wine clubs that are Monday-Friday email only customer service. In our experience Wine.com has really stepped up it’s customer service, from the shopping experience through delivery. Live chat is available for fifteen hours daily for general or wine specific questions and recommendations/ Plus, there are real live people who answer a phone, (other negative Wine.com review posts to the contrary, we’ve never had a problem getting through), and email is an option, too. (Note: the “live chat” screen is a big and obtrusive pop-up, but there is a minimize icon.)
- No minimum, free shipping for a flat $59 annual fee. Shipping charges are a big deal, for the vendor and the customer. Many sites offer free shipping for case or dollar minimums, but what if you just want to try a bottle of something, or send a friend a couple of bottles as a gift? Wine.com’s solution is StewardShip, $59 annually, unlimited free standard shipping. ($15.95 for the first bottle, $2.15 per additional bottle without it.) For us, it’s the StewardShip program which differentiates Wine.com from many other excellent discount wine sellers. (Note: the program is an annual auto renew – don’t forget to turn it off in your account settings or call customer service if you choose to opt out.)
- “Give $30/Get $30” referral program. A little extra incentive is always appreciated! 🙂 Wine.com’s “Give $30/Get $30” referral program offers new members $30 off your first order using this link (they do ask for an email and a consent for the referral program, but you do get the $30 Wine.com promo code immediately). We get a $30 credit when you use our code, and, when you refer your friends, you’ll also be able to gift them a $30 Wine.com coupon and receive a $30 credit.
Personalized wine shopper – our Picked by Wine.com review
Well, mini-review 🙂 Wine.com recently began exploring the realm of personalized shopping experiences. If you’re familiar with and like online personal shopper programs such as Stitch Fix in the clothing arena, you’ll appreciate Wine.com’s “Picked” wine club. (There’s a limited time $50 promo code at that link – PICK50. You’re welcome!)
Pick a delivery schedule (from monthly up to every three months), a per bottle price range (as low as $15/bottle), choose reds, whites or mixed collections, answer a few questions about wine preference, and you’ll be assigned a real sommelier to select 6 wines for your first delivery (free shipping, of course). As you rate and comment on the wines, your personal somm gets to know your palate better, and future shipments will be more finely turned to your personal preferences, all delivered to your door. No more spending time glossy-eyed in front of the thousands of wine choices at your local liquor store!
We hope our Picked by Wine.com review is helpful. We do feel it’s a great concept for people interested in exploring new wines and simplifying the experience. (And, for a limited time they’re offering $50 off your first shipment – use code PICK50). Picked by Wine.com offers great flexibility – you can pause your delivery, change your mix of reds and whites, upgrade or downgrade price points – and, there’s a 100% satisfaction guarantee! (They will credit you for any bottle that misses the mark on your next order.) Of course you can cancel at any time.
Wine.com review summary
If you’ve read any of our other discount wine sellers reviews, you’ll note we usually find some aspects of the business “miss the mark.” Again, we’re perplexed by the many negative Wine.com reviews on the web, but, our only negative critique of Wine.com would be they don’t have the most aggressive pricing on the internet. With the $59 annual fee for free unlimited shipping, easily sortable database, excellent customer service and product suggestions (in our experience), you might just find Wine.com replacing many trips to your brick and mortar retailer!
We’ve found all the discount wine sellers and online wine merchants we like fill a niche for us. For deals, we like Last Bottle (particularly during marathons – read our Last Bottle review here and save $10 on your first order) We don’t use them as frequently,, but WTSO.com (Wines Till Sold Out) is worth checking out, too. For times we’re feeling adventuresome, we “roll the dice” with Underground Cellar – here’s our Underground Cellar review, and don’t forget to use our referral code to get $50 off your first order!