Wine List By The Glass subscription box
Buy now £15 (plus postage), Winelist.com
Arriving in letterbox-friendly packaging is the dream for any subscription you recieve. Although many of us are still working from home, when we’re not, it means we can still get our goods delivered without worrying about them being left on our doorstep or taken to a depot that’s only open at annoying times, risking missing out on the vino.
Landing on my mat was three little pouches of wine – two white and one red. The trial box (which is the one I received) is made up of three favourite wines from the virtual Wine Cellar list on the website, which you can rebuy if you really like them (I assure you that’s pretty likely). After that box, two of the choices follow from the main full wine bottle subscription, and the third is again from the Wine Cellar. Each wine you receive comes with a tasting card, including information such as where it’s made, the climate and grape variety, along with the winemaker story (this is 2021, we all like to know provenance), suggested food pairing and trivia, which will no doubt set you up for your next quiz.
After opening my box, my first thoughts were the pouches are fairly small. I think that suggests I’m greedy more than anything, as in fairness, they are marketed as "small" glasses of wine. But when I pour the contents into my usual wine glass (albeit, I use a large gin glass…), it looks decidedly smaller than my usual self-poured measure.
The red is from Bulgaria – true to the Wine List’s form, it’s not a red I’d usually pick, nor see in supermarkets, or many restaurants, unless it had a really good wine list. It’s made from the ruen grape which, again, is not one I’m familiar with, but after tasting am very much into, thanks to its flavour bursting with blackberries that is incredibly smooth and deep in colour. It’s aged in Bulgarian oak and is the last vintage overseen by the grandfather of the current vineyard owner before passing away aged 85. Who doesn’t love details like this?
Read more: This wine subscription taught me how to taste vino properly
The first of the whites I’d actually already received in my first Wine List bottle subscription box a few months ago, the Quinta da Ribeirinha’s vale de lobos reserva white 2018. Made from four grapes: sauvignon blanc, verdelho, chardonnay and gewurztraminer, the winemaker is all about long-term sustainable farming. On the nose it’s fruity with notes of lychee making it perfect for summer. It’s creamy and full bodied, but still extremely easy to drink and is gone pretty quickly.
Last up is another unexpected yet welcomed wine: a riesling from Czech Republic. Riesling is a resurrected relic from the Eighties of cheap and oh-so sweet wine but now it’s way more grown up. This one is just pure apricot for me with notes of citrus and is nicely acidic on the palette too, and is something I’ll absolutely be looking out for in shops and wine lists from now on too.
Creating a wine subscription that doesn’t involve wine bottles is also a better way of shipping wine, as bottles are heavy and more expensive to ship. Wines will last two weeks in the packages, you can cancel anytime, and your first box is free – all you need to do is pay the £4 postage. Boxes are usually £15 plus £4 postage, but for three glasses, that’s an awful lot cheaper than going out for wine. And if there’s a glass you really like, you can order a full bottle from the online shop and be confident it’s money well spent.