Today I am doing a review of the online wine club, Naked Wines (
https://us.nakedwines.com//). I don't know about you guys but I absolutely love searching for and tasting wines from small or "Boutique" wineries. By the way for those who are wondering, any winery which produces less then 50,000 cases of wine a year is considered to be a small, or Boutique winery. This is where a wine club such as Naked Wines, comes in. From what little I know about wine clubs in general it seems that they all for the most part deal with wines from Boutique wineries that most people have probably never heard of and would continue to never hear of if it weren't for these wine clubs.
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| Winemaker - Matt Parish |
Now, let me say something here, simply because a winery is small does not mean the wine(s) they produce is in any way bad, they are just very simply from small wineries and therefore probably don't have the money for advertising and hiring fancy Public Relations companies to help in promoting the wines they produce. In today's review of Naked Wines, some of the questions I will try and answer are how is their Customer Service? What are the prices like? If I don't like a particular wine can I get my money back and, do I have to actually join the club in order to make a purchase? In the end I will determine based upon all the different factors presented whether or not I can recommend Naked Wines to you. Let's go ahead and get started now.
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| 2017 Matt Parish - Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon |
On December 30th I sent out an email to Naked Wines inquiring as to whether or not they would be interested in participating in my review of various wine clubs. The following day I received a response back from Micaela Green who is the "Community Manager for the marketing team", saying "We'd be happy to have you review a sampling of our wines." A few days later I received a half a case of wine for review in the mail. For those of you who are interested, I also did a video of the box opening of the wines here (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI3PburklPA) on my YouTube channel.
My initial thoughts - The outside of the box was pleasant looking and when the box was opened I thought the bottles were packed very securely in order to ensure they arrived intact. The one thing I was a little disappointed in and that I did miss was that there were no Tech Sheets from the wineries or the club itself which in my past experience with wine clubs are usually included. These Tech Sheets would describe the making of the wines and contain information such as is the wine blended with any other varietal? Did the wine sit in oak or Stainless Steel and if so, what kind and for how long? Where were the grapes grown etc; I have to say that even though it does not appear the company spent tons of money on a super fancy, wonderfully designed box, that is fine by me as I don't need a pretty box, I need good wine and in reality therefore would much prefer them offering that rather then offering fancy Cardboard. I guess all of this this should really come as no surprise though because the company themselves says that they do not invest in "Fancy packaging and other things you can't taste." They are indeed transparent and I can't fault them here.
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| Typical Money Wasted For Marketing Of A Wine |
Customer Service - From my very first email all the way to my last email I had been in contact with Micaela and she has been absolutely wonderful to deal with. Micaela has answered all of my emails in a timely manner and made herself available to me even up to the point of her inviting me to actually give her a call to discuss any other questions I might have. While I never did call her, to her credit she continued to allow me to pepper her with emails and she continued to answer them. I also have to say that Micaela appeared extremely enthusiastic in her responses. These emails with Micaela are my only experience as far as the companies Customer Service goes. While on one hand I admit that my Customer Service interactions with Naked Wines was rather limited on the other hand that is a good thing as there were no issues for me to complain about. I would say that as far as Customer Service goes Naked Wines passed with flying colors.
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| Naked Wine - 2017 Stefano Di Blasi - Toscana |
Who is Naked Wines? - Naked Wines is a U.K based company which was founded in December of 2008 by Rowan Gormley. In 2015 the company was bought out by a Brick and Mortar store named Majestic Wines (
https://www.majestic.co.uk/) which is also located in the U.K. The company was just again recently sold and was purchased by an equity firm named Fortress (
https://www.fortress.com/businesses/private-equity) and therefore the companies wine section is back to being an online only business.
Naked Wines Business Model - Here is how the wine club works. In order to actually join Naked Wines you just agree to have them debit a minimum of $40 a month from your account and at that point you become an "Angel" which is what they call a club member. There are no membership fees and you can stop (leave the club) or even increase this deduction at any time. The money they debit can either accumulate in your account without a cap or you can use it immediately to purchase wines or other items that the company offers.
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| Majestic Wines Storefront |
By the way, you do not have to belong to the club in order to purchase
wines from them however if you choose not to belong you will pay retail
price for the wines. Naked Wines says that they take the monthly debited
amount and invest it in small Winemakers and small vineyards in order to
fulfill these talented peoples dreams to create great wine(s). In their
own words they invest in "Winemakers who have a proven track record of
making great wines." Some of the Winemakers are fairly new to the actual
wine making business but have been in the wine industry for a long
time but the other people they work with have worked for big time
prestigious wineries at one time and decided for whatever reason to back
off so to speak and move towards creating their own wines only on a much
smaller scale. In Naked Wines own words again, their Winemakers create
"indie" wines.
Pricing, Winemakers, Selection - What is their pricing like, who are their Winemakers and how is their selection? Once you become an Angel you get to purchase some great wines at great prices. As an example take the 2017 Matt Parish, Cabernet Sauvignon from the Napa valley for instance. As an Angel you would pay $21.99 which is a complete steal. If you were
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| Winemaker - Ondine Chattan |
not an Angel you will pay $41.99 for the wine. Go on ahead and research this wine for yourself just as I did and you will see that it does indeed sell for at least $40 elsewhere. Just to reinforce my earlier statement that the club deals with some big time Winemakers I will talk about Matt Parish for a minute. Matt oversaw the wine making of brands like Beringer, Stags’ Leap and Etude decided to begin his own label thanks to Angels. In case you have never heard of Matt Parish (neither did I) here (
https://www.vivino.com/wineries/matt-parish) is a page from an unrelated and reputable wine site concerning Matt's wines and how they rate. One more example of a great Winemaker and a great wine as well as one which is available for purchase at Naked Wines is the 2018 Ondine Chattan, Mendocino - Sauvignon Blanc. The wine costs $12.99 for Angels and $14.71 for non Angels. The wine is made by Mrs. Ondine Chattan. Who is Mrs. Chattan, perhaps this (
https://webpages.scu.edu/womenwinemakers/view.php?id=34) will help explain exactly what her background in the wine industry is. I will tell you though that Mrs. Chattan worked for such wineries as Ridge Vineyards, Cline Cellars, and spent decades running famed Healdsburg winery Geyser Peak. I happen to know so much about these two wines because I received them as part of the six bottles sent to me and I also reviewed them.
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| Actual Naked Wines Customer Case Wine List |
Both of these wines I thought were simply stunning. For those of you who follow me you already know that I am not easy on the wines I review and I call em as I see (or taste) em, free or not. Now as far as wine selection goes there are plenty of wines to choose from and this page (
https://us.nakedwines.com/wines/index) on their website will show you just to what extent you can fine tune how you search for and choose those wines so you can get exactly what you are after. As an example you can pick a wine based upon it's Alcohol percentage, the style, ratings, country of origin of the grapes & even by the Winemaker. These are just a few examples and I have to say that almost any way you can think of searching for a potential wine is accommodated here. The only varietal I did not see was Champagne although they do sell sparkling wine. Naked Wines also allows you to purchase future vintages, yeah, that's right, you can purchase vintages which haven't even come into being yet. Let's talk about their many different options for purchasing a case of wine. There are also many different types of cases of wine you can purchase (
https://us.nakedwines.com/cases) and again they are really diverse in their options to choose from and if you don't see one that you like you can even create your own.
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| Naked Wines Office Space |
Here is an example of some of the different cases available. One case option is the "Cabernet Around The World" which consists of six bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon from countries such as Chile, Argentina, Africa as well as the state of California. The cost is $68.99 plus $9.99 for shipping. That's a total of $78.98 for the case or about $13 per bottle. One of the wines currently being shipped out in that particular case is the 2017 David Akiyoshi, Cabernet Sauvignon and from the few reviews I was able to come across the wine is supposed be very good indeed. Let me go ahead and talk about one more case for you. How about the "All American Sauvignon Blanc 6 pack"? In this current 6 pack offering is that 2018 Ondine Chattan Mendocino, Sauvignon Blanc which I talked about earlier. As an added bonus, for every case you buy Naked Wines throws in an extra bottle of wine for free (Bakers Dozen).
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| No Club Membership Needed |
What Else - Becoming an Angel also allows you to join in on the different groups (
https://us.nakedwines.com/groups/list) they offer. In these groups you can talk with other Angels as well as the actual Winemakers and compare notes on the wines or just chat with them and yes, the Winemakers DO actually answer as they are appreciative of you purchasing their wine(s). There is a group dedicated to helping you pair your wines and even a group for posting and talking with others while you are drinking (oh boy). If you don't care for the established groups you can even create one of your own. If their wines weren't enough, Naked Wines also has a little gift shop where you can buy wine related items as well as items unrelated to wine such as the Bahue Valle, Olive Oil. By the way, if you are an Angel you pay $13.99 for this Extra Virgin Olive Oil. If you are not an Angel you will pay $26.99.
Let's talk about shipping now as this is where online retailers usually
get you. Naked Wines charges you only $9.99 to ship any amount of wine
up to $99. If you order $100 or more shipping is free. That means as an
example you can order six wines and if the total is less then $100 the shipping cost is $9.99 to have them delivered to your home. I don't know about you but I think that
is an absolute steal! I get e-mails all the time from the likes of Napa Valley wineries
such as BV or Peju about their great deals on wine and most times the sale prices are indeed very good however when you
add in the shipping costs I can get the wines cheaper at my local store or live without that wine.
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| Another Naked Wines Office |
Now that you know about the good things concerning the club I want to talk about the only negative comments that I have been seeing on line. Keeping it real as always, there seems to be a lot of complaints concerning peoples accounts automatically being debited monthly and them saying these debits were done without their permission. To Naked Wines credit I saw every complaint addressed by the company and the customer told that they should check their Spam Folder and that their account has been closed and all monies refunded. People also said that they used the Voucher and somehow got signed up for the company. Here is my take on these issues. As far as being able to purchase wine as a NON Angel or using the Voucher I provide below and NOT joining the club goes, I looked all over their pages and I did NOT see anything which said that when you do order as a non Angel and/or use the Voucher as a non Angel that you are agreeing to a monthly deduction of any amount of money unless of course you sign up for that. What I did see specifically (see photo) see as a matter of fact is that you DON'T have to become a member in order to use the Voucher they are offering up. The companies exact language in reference to this is "No membership is required — you are not required to join any type of wine club to redeem!" I have two other items of interest with the first being how can you the pay non Angel price and someone claim that you joined the club? The last item that I thought should be included in my review is the fact that during my research I also found (
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Naked-Wines-Reviews-E667926.htm) that people working for the company loved working there and felt they were treated with dignity and were valued as employees.
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| Naked Wines Founder - Rowan Gormley |
Now it is time for my overall opinion on Naked Wines. Wine lovers I have to tell you that I have completely bought into Naked Wines business model as I find it to certainly be cost effective for me as a Customer to purchase what turned out to be great wines at great prices and I also truly believe in what they are doing with the small Winemakers & vineyards. After researching the club and tasting all six of the wines sent to me I have to say that without a doubt, I am for the most part very impressed. I say most part because five of the wines were very impressive and only one was something I would never purchase. If I had purchased the wine however, I could return it for another though. Here is my recommendation to you. I highly suggest that you join the Naked Wines, become an Angel and enjoy the wines they have to offer. I would also certainly use this (
https://us.nakedwines.com/desertwineguy) special Desert Wine Guy Voucher for $100 off of a total of $160 or more in order to get a feel for the (indie) wines Naked Wines deals with. Remember you do NOT have to join in order to use the Voucher. I think you will be just as impressed as I was and come back for more great wine. One last item of note. I currently belong to two different wine clubs and so it is not financially feasible to join a third however if I do ever decide to drop one I would become an Angel in a Heartbeat.
The Desert Wine Guy
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