It’s that time of year again. The twinkly lights are out, the décor is up, the festive music is on, and the malls are packed – everyone is out and about and searching for that perfect gift for everyone on their gift list. It’s the Holiday Season, and time to do something special for the loved ones in your life. If you’re tired of resorting to the cliché gift ideas (or if you have no idea where to begin), then why not step outside the box and surprise your friends and family with something different?

This year, Gold Medal Wine Club helps solve the dilemma with an assortment of new gift packages and wine clubs designed especially for everyone from the wine novice to aficionado. Wine makes a great gift because it’s not something that will be put away and forgotten about – it will immediately be opened, shared, and enjoyed with friends and family. What’s more is with a wine club gift, your recipients will have something to look forward to not just during the holidays, but throughout the year.

Wine Clubs also make a great gift for your boss in the office – or if you are the boss, think about giving wine to your best accounts, employees, and business partners. The Holiday Season is a time to look back on the success you’ve had over the past year, and thank those important people who helped you get there. What better way to show your appreciation and commemorate the year than with a special bottle of award-winning wine?

With a multitude of wine clubs out there, it can be hard to decide which one is the best fit – maybe your Dad is into those really prestigious wines with small production and top-of-the-line ratings, whereas your Son or Daughter might benefit from a wine club more catered to featuring “everyday wines” that still introduce their palates to nicer wines, but without the intimidation factor. With five different wine clubs to choose from, ranging in price point, wine varieties, and quality level, Gold Medal Wine Club is a one-stop-shop for everyone on your holiday gift list.

The most popular gift choice from Gold Medal Wine Club is the Gold Series wine club, featuring hard-to-find, medal-winning wines from small, family-owned California wineries. Each month, your recipient will receive two outstanding bottles, beautifully presented in gift-wrapped tissue and bows and a full color newsletter publication called “The Wine Press.” This exclusive publication presents information about the wines, the fascinating backgrounds of the winery owners, a behind-the-scenes tour of the vineyards, and special food pairing recipes direct from the winemakers themselves. Starting at just $35 per month, the Gold Series is a great value and truly an impressive gift.

Gold Medal Wine Club also offers upper-level and international wine clubs to help you find the right fit for everyone on your gift list. The Platinum Series features 90+ rated, ultra premium wines from California; the International Series highlights a different country with each shipment and offers a special add-on option of gourmet imported food items; the Pinot Noir Series is the perfect choice for the Pinot lovers in your life; and the Diamond Series selects only those most prestigious bottlings with legendary 93+ rated marks and serious “wow” factor. Sure to be enjoyed by any wine enthusiast on your list, the wine club offerings from Gold Medal Wine Club are just plain hard to beat.

For a limited time, find FREE Bonus Gifts (stainless steel corkscrews, neoprene totes, and Vinturi Aerators – just to name a few) included with various wine club gift options (www.GoldMedalWineClub.com/gift_guide). It’s an easy way to make that holiday gift extra special.

In business since 1992, Gold Medal Wine Club has the reputation as one of the leading independent wine clubs in the world – and for good reason. With unbeatable standards for quality and customer satisfaction, and consistency in offering simply incredible wines to their members at unbelievable discounts, this wine club gift is the choice for this year’s Holiday Season.

Place your orders by logging on to www.GoldMedalWineClub.com or calling 1-800-266-8888 to be sure your gifts will arrive in time for the Holiday.

Our annual Earlybird Special is in full swing, and this year we have SO many new specials and gift ideas for everyone on your holiday gift list. Whether you’re shopping for wine clubs, gift baskets, case packs or gift sets, we have you covered – and at seriously discounted prices. For a limited time, you can save up 46% off winery direct prices - that’s a value you won’t find anywhere else!

Savings at Gold Medal Wine Club have NEVER been this big, so take advantage of these incredible offers while you still can! Give 3 months of the Gold Series wine club for under $100 or peruse the Combo Case Packs for award-winning red wines and 93+ rated legendary bottles. Find a luxuriously wrapped Gift Basket filled with wine and gourmet treats from Napa Valley, or add on a FREE Gift Set to 12-month gifts of the Platinum Series wine club. These are just a few of this year’s amazing Earlybird Specials – check out the website for everything we have in store for you.

Shop early and save! Happy Holidays.

It’s almost that time of year again…the spring and summer seasons when you can finally escape and set out on those much needed vacations! Whether you are moving to your summer home for a few months, or just taking off for a few weeks, remember that Gold Medal Wine Club can supply your wine needs while you’re away. Stock up on some crisp, refreshing Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays, or if you’re a red person, maybe you want to opt for some nice Pinot Noirs and Cabernet Sauvignons. Whatever your prefence, check out our online Wine Store  and take advantage of the incredible savings you earn as a wine club member! Remember, you’re saving up to 45% off Winery Direct pricing!

Order your vacation wine early and take it with you, or have us lighten your load by shipping directly to your destination – we are happy to help you make the most of your fun times and we would love to set you up with some of your favorite, award-winning selections.

While you’re away, we can also hold onto your regularly scheduled wine shipments and send them to you when you return. It’s easy - just let us know the dates you’ll be away, and we’ll take care of the rest.

Give us a call at (800) 266-8888. Cheers and Bon Voyage!

Here at Gold Medal Wine Club, we use fairly strict criteria when we select wines for the club. As an overall guideline, the wines we feature are medal winning and from small production wineries.  Our five Series allow you to make selections based on rating, availability and price – the higher level the Series, the higher the accolades.  As another guideline, we also try to select the medal winning wines that come from boutique wineries; selections that you generally wouldn’t find in your local mart or grocery store.

Realistically speaking, however, not all of the wine you drink or buy will come from our club (though through our wine store and discounted reorder program, we’d certainly be happy to become your number one provider!)

That said, when you’re out there on your own, what matters most to you when you select a bottle? Is it price? Brand recognition? Varietal?  How do you choose your bottle when faced with that daunting wall full of wine at the grocery store or bottle shop? A recent study from various universities found that on a global scale, American criteria for wine selection is similar to those of the international community (with some variance) and points to previous experience with a bottle as the number one f actor in wine selection.  Coming in at a close second was recommendation from a trusted source, such as a wine review or wine club, followed thereafter by Variety, Origin, Brand, Medal (accolades), and “Read about it.” See the full article and write up by Wine Business Monthly.

The study focused not only on purchasing habits in retail stores, but also on wine selection criteria in restaurants. The study found that still the number one criteria was previous experience with the bottle, followed by, logically, the wine pairing with the dish for the evening.

Do your criteria change when in a restaurant vs. when in a store? What is most important to you when buying a bottle? Feel free to leave your comments below! We’d love to have your input!

What do we love? We love wine, of course! But we also love viticulture. We love the stories that develop over a bottle of wine. We love visiting wineries. We love food and wine. We love the living, breathing qualities of wine. We love that feeling we get after a frazzling day of work and finally having the chance to plop down on the couch with a glass of wine. But what we really love, what truly makes our hearts sing, is sharing these experiences with others! Its why we do what we do – because sharing wine with others can be one of the most rewarding experiences out there, especially when what we’re sharing is a truly fabulous bottle. We’re in the business of bringing high quality wines to your door; this much is obvious from our website. But what’s not so obvious is the amount we’re willing to bend our memberships to make them something that suits your needs. Which brings us to our last love, giving you what you really want.

I’ll use the Gold Series to set an example of the kind of tweaking we can do to your membership. The Gold Series is the most popular of our five wine club memberships. It is the least expensive of the selections, but the wines are high quality and very versatile. The website explains that the standard membership consists of two highly sought after small production, California wines, sent out on a monthly basis. Generally, it is one red and one white, but sometimes two different reds. The website also offers a Red only or White only option. But, what’s not advertised are alterations to this: if it is your preference, we can make sure that we always send you one red and one white, even in the months when “two reds” is the standard mix. Or, maybe you like red wine, but only Cabernet and Merlot, and in terms of white, you want to avoid Chardonnay and Viognier? (This is all hypothetical, of course. I can’t imagine why anyone would limit himself or herself in this way, but I do understand people have their preferences, and sometimes you just know what you like!)  Well, to sum it up, we can accommodate these requests as well. Perhaps location is your thing. We can send you a shipment only when we feature wines from a particular area like Napa Valley. We’ll work with you to find out your particular preferences. In months that we feature something you’d rather not receive, we can send you something from a previous month’s selection, or we can skip that month entirely, or maybe there’s something else you want to do. Fine by us!

And what if two bottles each month just isn’t enough for you? (Now, we’re speaking my language…) The website offers a four bottle membership, which is essentially two of each of the featured wines from the month. But, believe me, by no means does it have to stop there. If you’d like to have four bottles each month but want three reds and one white, we can do that. Or three whites and one red? Yes! Like to try six wines each shipment? Yep, we can do that too. There is virtually no limit to the number of bottles we send you in a month.

And here’s another thing. Moving from the topic of wine selection to frequency of shipments, the website offers monthly, every-other, or quarterly shipments. But we actually can send shipments any time and as often as you like. If you want to have shipments only in months ending in “y”, we can do that. Or, only with the months with a major holiday, we can do that, too.  As often as you would like a shipment, we’ll send one your way.

Want to save a few bucks on shipping costs? How about joining a club membership on a quarterly basis, but receiving all the wines from that quarter at once? Keeping to the example of the Gold Series, you could receive the wines we featured in January, February and March all together in March (totaling 6 different wines in March), then continue on a quarterly basis from there. It will save you money on shipping, but the only downside is that you’ll have to wait two months in between shipments…

Like the look of two of our Series, but can’t decide which one to choose and joining both is going to be too much wine? How about alternating? You could join the Gold Series every other month of the year, and in the alternate months, receive one of our premium clubs, like the Platinum or Diamond Series. You could even receive the Platinum Series on a monthly basis, but in your and your partner’s birthday months, treat yourselves to our highest rated wines club membership, the Diamond Series.  Don’t let us stop you…Go wild! Get creative!

What I’m trying to make obvious for you is that this is YOUR membership. Don’t let the website fool you – we are YES people and we want you to have a great experience with the wine club. If that means you want only 92+ rated wines from Monterey and Napa Valley and you want them only in the months of the year when you visit your Aunt Sadie at her home in Boulder, Colorado, well, that’s just peachy with us. We’ll send ‘em your way. Just tell Aunt Sadie to share!

Call our Customer Service phone number to customize your membership or to talk about your options for a gift: (800) 266 – 8888.

For most people we know, 2009 has been a tumultuous year full of ups and downs and uncertainty.  Together we made it through.  We wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of our loyal wine club customers for your patronage, support and trust in us to bring you hard-to-find, remarkable wines.  We are hoping the wine shipments you received in 2009 were exciting gifts that enhanced your meals, and brought cherished friends and families together.  After all, what a better reason to bring people together than over a fine bottle of wine?

We are looking forward to 2010 and are working on securing some incredible selections for each of our five wine clubs in the new year.

Cheers and Happy 2010!

~The Gold Medal Wine Club Staff.

Vina Robles 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon tasting notes

4 Stars – Restaurant Wine Online
Best Buy & 88 Points – SD Union Tribune

Elegant, well balanced, and juicy, the Vina Robles 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon was produced from Paso Robles Huerhuero Vineyard on the east side of the expansive Central Coast appellation.  Awarded 4 Stars by Restaurant Wine Online and named a Best Buy with 88 Points by Robert Whitely of Wine Talk at San Diego Union Tribune, this Cabernet Sauvignon is very characteristic of Paso Robles, showing lovely soft red fruit and an alluring floral characteristic with impressive potential to age well. Vina Robles 2005 Cabernet is also Recommended with 3 Stars from Decanter magazine. Deep dark, bright garnet in color, this wine has an intense bouquet of dark sweet fruits with dominating senses of blackberry and blueberry, complimented by notes of tobacco and toasty oak. This is a supple, full-bodied, rich flavored Cabernet Sauvignon that has intense fruitiness of blueberry and dark fruits, light oakiness, bright tannins and excellent balance, with a medium finish.

We thought we would share with you some wine club reviews of Gold Medal Wine Club from various places on the web. Because we select only award-winning wines for each of our five clubs, and require no wine club sign up fees, no monthly dues, no minimum obligation and great discounts on ultra-premium wines, we feel we are the best wine club available. Here’s what other’s have to say:

-”Overall, this wine club offers the flexibility, quality and convenience that consumers are seeking in a wine of the month club membership experience.”~ Wine.About.com

-”Kudos to Gold Medal Wine Club for another excellent selection.”~ a satisfied Gold Series recipient

-”Just imagine, once a month, your close friends or family, each receiving a wonderful delivery of two high quality wines from the Gold Medal Wine Club. My sister, who lives in another state, calls immediately after her gift arrives and is so ecstatic. She has begun her own gold medal wine collection.” ~ Fruitwinemaking.net

-”So, my review? Excellent. Everything from the packaging, the initial presentation, to the wine itself was wonderful. There was a card for us to score the wine and return it. I’m not sure that got done, we did consume 2 bottles of wine after all. The prices indicated on the enclosed materials indicated monthly shipments would cost between $39-$43. All those in attendance said that was a bargain for the quality of the wines sent. One of the guests took the information on the Gold Medal Wine Club and is considering joining. Apparently the thought of getting 2 good quality wines every month for that price is too irresistible.” ~ Flosplaceonline.com

-”If you enjoy sampling fine wines, or know someone who does, this is one wine club that knows how to select and present some truly hidden treasures. They even offer four different levels of membership, from gold to platinum to diamond, as well as an international wine club. One of the better wine clubs you’re likely to find!” ~Wonderfulpessimist.com

-”And I love the Gold Medal Wine Club, even though they do not advertise on my site. I think they are a very accessible entry point to better wine for the newcomer. Just thought I’d throw that out there!” ~a comment on fermentation.typepad.com

And here is a review from the wineclubwizard.com site