Wine! Good wine! Delivered every month! To your doorstep!

That’s really all you need to know, right? /end review

Just kidding. It’s not over yet, we have pics of the box we received and the bottles inside. And tasting notes. And actually a lot more. Ok fine, this is a real, legit review.

But c’mon, you’re already sold at Wine. Delivered. To your door. We might be kidding you, but don’t kid yourself. You’re looking for that “buy now” box.

Let’s see, where did I put that… oh here it is! Found it. But first, our legal disclaimer:

Our website is supported by our users. We sometimes earn a commission when you click through the affiliate links on our website. See our privacy policy & disclosures for more information.

… aaaaand yes, I did receive this for free to review. Not like you wouldn’t do the same thing if you could, don’t judge me.

Ok here’s that button:

There you go! Bye!

You’re still here? You really want that review and unboxing stuff, don’t you? Very well. Let’s get to it.

First, unboxing. Then, our “review.” Yeah, the air quotes. You’ll see why.

Wine of the Month Club: Unboxing

Our story begins with that most magical of creatures, the FedEx Delivery Person.

Actually our story begins a little before that, when Amazing Clubs reached out to me and asked if I wanted a sample. “Yeah, duh,” is what I said (if I recall correctly) and now we can get to the FedEx Delivery Person.

This sublime individual knocked on my door then left* the box.

*They’re supposed to have me sign for it, since it’s alcohol. But me and our FedEx driver go way back, since we get like 6 deliveries a day and they know that I’m probably over 21 and am always around, since I goof off on the internet work from home.

Anyways, here’s the box:

Looks a little bendy, but not to worry. They know how to do the packaging inside:

Wait, hang on, there’s some paper in the way. What’s that?

Oh, it’s the “Bunch of Grapes” newsletter:

Looks like they put one into each month’s delivery. Reading over it, I see descriptions of that month’s wine selection, the winery, and where the types of grapes originate, yada yada.

On the back side they have membership info, customer service, tips for storing wine, and other stuff. Good to know.

All righty, here is the packaging:

You can tell it is very sturdy and well-designed with the ribbed edges.

The two sides of the top are connected, as are the two sides of the bottom. So you can fold them in half to have two separate, individual wine storage thingies. I saved them for future use. (These are ideal for traveling with wine. I have big plans.)

Once I removed the top protective cardboard piece, this is what I found.

They sent me a white and a red. (Note: You can choose what you prefer when ordering: Two reds, two whites, or one of each.)

Here they are:

First, the white:

The 2019 White Wine from Loseta of La Mancha, Spain. It’s a Vino Espagne composed of Airen and Macabeo.

Next, the red:

It’s the Vin Rouge, a Merlot / Cabernet Sauvignon from Gagneux Wines in Minervois, France.

I must say, these both look fun. Now, what do they taste like? What’s our impression of the whole experience? And would this make a good gift for a wine lover in your life?

A quick recap of the unboxing:

• Get notified that the wine is on the way
• Box gets delivered; you’re supposed to sign for it
• Slice open box
• Read the newsletter if you want to
• Pull out wine

Got that? It’s so easy anyone can do it. Even me.

Wine of the Month Club: Review

Overall – if you can’t already tell – my wife and I loved it. We’re not super wine connoisseurs, so factor that in. We like dry reds, and when we taste something really nice we can tell the difference, but we are also completely satisfied with those $7 bottles from Sam’s Club.

In other words, these ones are a step up from our typical selections.

As I mentioned above, unboxing the wine is easy. You just open the box. Ordering is just as easy – go to the Wine of the Month Club site, choose the options (more on that in a moment), then put in your billing/shipping info and order.

We popped open the first bottle the first night, and the next one the evening after that. Why wait?!

Gagneux Vin Rouge

We like dry red wines, and this one hit the spot. It’s a deep red with plenty of “legs” (not that I can taste the difference!). Earthy with a bit of sweet fruity flavors on the back end, it stays with you without going bitter at the end.

We really, really liked it.

Loseta White Wine

If I had known at the time, we would have chosen two reds. But oh well. For a white, this one was pretty good.

It was light, with enough citrus to keep from being cloyingly sweet. IMHO, that’s the downfall of too many white wines. The newsletter description mentions a “pleasant acidity,” and I think that’s what did the trick for us.

Not my favorite, since I’m not really into white wines (like, at all). But for a white, it won me over. We finished the bottle so you know it wasn’t all bad. And the bottle is pretty cute.

The Wine Club Experience

The whole experience – receiving, unboxing, opening, savoring – was great. Who wouldn’t want fancy wine delivered to their door? I mean, c’mon.

That’s probably why we enjoyed the white enough to finish off the bottle. We really don’t like whites. But it was fun! It’s fun to get wine in the mail, fun to try new things, fun to wonder what it’s going to taste like, and fun to hit on a real winner (the Gagneux).

I recommend it. Especially as a gift!

More on gifting below. But as for the idea itself, I’m sure the recipient will discover some they love and some they are ‘meh’ about, but no matter what, it’s the experience they’ll remember. If you’re looking for a unique gift for someone who likes wine, why the heck not this?

Related: Our Favorite 50+ Experience Gifts

Membership & Delivery Options

Payment. You can pay in full ahead of time, or pay per shipment. Whatever works for your budget. Shipping is free in the continental US.

Duration. They offer 3 months, “Seasonal” (which is 4 shipments, delivered once each quarter), 6 months, and 12 months. Longer subscriptions get a bit of a discount. One thing I appreciate is that they show your grand total for each option, so you can see up front your total spend.

Frequency. Choose every month, or every other month. This is a nice way to stretch out a gift of 6 months of wine into a full year, without adding to your overall cost.

Wine type. As mentioned above, you can choose to get two bottles of red white, two of white, or one of each.

Start of delivery. This is typically next month at the earliest, but you can also order now and schedule the first shipment up to 12 months in advance.

Gift options. They don’t show this on the first page, you have to add to cart to choose how the gift note works. See the next section.

How to Give the Wine Club as a Gift

Once you’ve chosen the membership options, the next step is where you put in the recipient information. If this is yourself, well, you know what to do.

But if you’re giving the wine club as a gift, then you have a few different options:

• Printable gift notice that you print at home and give/send to the recipient
• Email sent directly to the recipient (you can schedule this to send whenever you want)
• Card sent in the mail to you or to the recipient (there’s a 99 cent charge for this to cover postage and printing, I guess)

Their whole checkout system is very simple and self-explanatory, so it’s easy enough to do.

So get to it! Order yours here.

For more choices and higher-end selections, see the Wine of the Month subscriptions available from Monthly Clubs.

The post Wine of the Month Club Review (Amazing Clubs) appeared first on All Gifts Considered.

Our website is supported by our users. We sometimes earn a commission when you click through the affiliate links on our website. See our privacy policy & disclosures for more information.

19 Most Interesting Oak Barrels Facts

1. A barrel maker is called a cooper

Someone who makes oak barrels is called a cooper. If you or someone you know has that as a last name, chances are some relative was a brewer, distiller, or winemaker.

Check out this master cooper in action:

2. Oak beat out clay back in Roman times to become the standard for storing wine and spirits

It used to be that wine was stored in clay vessels called amphorae. These (or similar vessels, the text says “stone jars”) are featured in the famous story in the Bible of Jesus turning water into wine. Stone, clay, and other pottery types were typical for storing and aging beverages in ancient times.

Wood became popular during the time of the Roman Empire, as large quantities of wine needed to be transported to help quench the thirst of the great Roman armies. Wood is obviously far less breakable than clay and thus much more suitable for travel.

Many woods are difficult to work with or too porous, so oak and a few other types were commonly used. Soon, wine and beer makers noticed that oak wood actually enhanced and improved the flavor and quality of the drink, so oak wood barrels became the standard for brewing and aging barrels.

3. The top 50 most expensive wines use oak aging in some way

According to Wine Folly’s commentary on The World’s 50 Most Expensive Wines from Wine Searcher.

4. Barrels are shaped that way for a reason

Barrels can easily be rolled like a wheel, but also stand upright to remain stationary.

5. Oak barrels do neat things to wine

For wine, aging it in an oak barrel does two things: It allows for a very slow introduction of oxygen into the contents of the barrel, and conveys some of the character of the oak wood into the wine itself. (Source)

Specifically, using an oak barrel to age the wine introduces vanillin, guaiacol, 4-ethyl guaiacol, ferulic acid, eugenol, 4-methyl guaiacol, 4-ethyl phenol and p-coumaric acid. Each of these exerts a subtle effect on the wine.

Read all about it in The Complete Guide to Growing Your Own Grapes and Making Your Own Wine.

6. Oak barrels do neat things to whiskey too

Same as above, but whiskey style. Same goes for bourbon, rum, sherry, etc. Read more in The Joy of Home Distilling.

7. North American oak is different from Western European oak, and people argue bigtime about which is better

There are different types of oak wood used in barrels, and the different wood changes the flavor profile. From Evans Family Barrels:

Contemporary barrels are made from white oak. However, Western European oaks and North American oaks are slightly different species of tree…

In general, the French oak wood is aged from 24 – 36 months. This aging helps to neutralize some of the coarser flavors. Many (not all) American coopers use a kiln-dry method of seasoning which is generally thought to be less refined, but much faster.

A French oak tree may be 80 to 120 years old before being harvested, but only produces two barrels due to the fact that their oak must be split, yielding only 25% of the tree as usable for barrels. American oak may be serrated, making it twice as economical.

The taste difference in wines aged in French oak vs. American oak are subtle, but generally those lucky souls with fine pallets declare the French oak is more subtle while the American oak is more “in your face,” as one critic described it.

The barrels we offer in our web store are American White Oak barrels, available here.

8. Oak wood is dried in specific ways prior to being used to make barrels

There are two main drying methods used for oak wood prior to being used in cooperage, and each has a distinct effect on the barrel’s flavor profile.

• Air drying reduces tannic astringency and also releases more vanillin (see below), but takes a long time, often up to two years
• Kiln drying takes just a matter of weeks, but results in less of the valued vanillin

9. Oak barrels are charred and/or toasted on the inside

Charring is done to maximize the effect that the wood has on the contents of the barrel. Both the temperature at which the charring is done and the length of time spent charring change the flavor profile of the barrel.

10. Artificial vanilla is what makes your wine or whiskey taste so good

Phenolic aldehyde, aka vanillin, is an organic compound that naturally occurs in a wide variety of substances. It’s the thing that makes vanilla taste and smell like vanilla, and a solution of pure vanillin – unusually synthetic – is how we get artificial vanilla.

Vanillin occurs naturally in oak in a big way. By storing your wine or whiskey in an oak barrel, the liquid will slowly extract some of the vanillin and that is essentially what creates the flavor profile. There are a few other compounds in oak wood that have similar effects, but vanillin is the most notable.

Toasting or charring the barrels accelerates this process, which is why the inside of barrels are usually charred.

11. Oak barrels add more tannins to wine

In addition to the tannins already inherent in grapes, aging wine in oak barrels extracts wood tannins that occur naturally in oak wood. Tannins are the textural element that makes the wine taste dry, adding a sense of bitterness, astringency, and complexity.

12. Barrels are not made 100% watertight

Most professional coopers making barrels for vineyards and distillers won’t consider their job done until the barrels are 100% watertight and ready for use. But for the average consumer ordering an oak barrel online, don’t expect the barrel to arrive at your door ready to use.

When barrels are made, they are made as tight and leak-proof as possible, but they are only watertight after being “cured” by soaking in water, often for several days. This causes the wooden staves to soak up moisture and swell, making the barrel watertight through pressure against the steel hoops.

13. Smaller barrels age faster than larger barrels

Smaller barrels have a higher surface-to-volume ratio, and as a result age and flavor the contents more quickly than a larger barrel. This means you can replicate the years-long aging done by large wineries and distilleries in a matter of mere months.

14. Some of the content of the barrel will evaporate

This is known as the “angel’s share.” Generally the loss is about 2-5% per year, but that is accelerated in the smaller barrels that are commonly used in home aging and distilling.

15. There is an order for using and reusing oak barrels

For spirits:

• Bourbon legally has to be aged in a charred new oak barrel
• Whiskey is aged in used bourbon barrels
• Scotch is aged in used whiskey barrels
• Rum is aged in used Scotch barrels
• Tequila, the runt of the litter, is aged in just about any old barrel

Variations on this system are what produces different and unique flavors. For instance, many whiskey distilleries like to use barrels from dessert wines such as Port or Sherry.

16. Oak barrels can be reused for 100 years

Oak wood is very durable and improves with age. The effect of age upon the barrels themselves often creates a one-of-a-kind flavor profile that professionals will pay big bucks for.

Wine barrels are commonly reused over and over to create different vintages. Old wine barrels become sherry barrels, and (as noted above), old bourbon barrels have a long life of use in aging whiskey, scotch, and even wine.

17. Barrels can be upcycled

When wine barrels are retired, they can often be put to new uses: Re-purposed as furniture or planters, used as firewood for a pizza oven, donated to a charity, sold to a distillery for use in aging and flavoring spirits.

The barrel heads, too, can become vintage-style plaques, serving trays, or lazy susans.

Related: Great Whiskey Barrel Tables

18. You can order oak barrels online

We offer a variety of oak barrels for home aging, in sizes ranging from tiny 1 liter up to large 20-liter capacities. These include a matching oak wood stand, bung, spigot, storing tablets, choice of hoop color, and optional cleaning kits.

We also offer special gift-ready kits for making and aging your own spirits. These come with an attractive wrought iron stand and feature your choice of spirit:

• Bourbon
• Irish Whiskey
• Rum
• Scotch
• Whiskey

We call these the “Connoisseur Kits.”

19. You can get your barrel personalized

We do personalized and custom engraving on the oak barrel heads. We have a selection of premium personalized designs that allow you to insert the name and more of your choice in wine label, distillery, vineyard, and many more themes.

We can also custom engrave your company logo or other design onto a barrel. See more here.

Read Next: Whiskey Gift Ideas

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