Wine Insiders

My never-​ending quest for actual good wine at bargain prices goes on. Ordered a teaser-​rate case, 2 each of 6 wines; WI claims all retail for at least $ 15. I would be very disappointed had I spent $ 15 or more for any. They’re just very generic, 4 of 6 «vinted» by «Jenna» and 2 by «Saddlehorn,» both in San Martin, CA (small town in southern Santa Clara Valley). They must buy low quality bulk grapes or even just juice and bottle under a bunch of labels when it all comes from the same place; I think they’re all made by ASV wines. Example: Geja’s 2013 California Private Reserve Big Bold Red is not big but small, not bold but mild; it is red. No indication of grapes used; «Private Reserve» is ludicrous (but other big CA wineries do the same). Another: the Saddlehorn «Monarch Glen» Merlot hasn’t a hint of varietal character. This stuff is just plonk; nothing I’d serve to friends who know anything about wine. But shipping was cheap and fast, didn’t have any trouble with the charges. Verdict: $ 5 bulk wine for $ 6.50.
And they email at least daily. I just got an offer for a red blend from «Pretium, the renowned French winemaker.» You can’t even find Pretium on Google! I guess it’s so renowned it’s completely secret. I did learn «pretium» means «price» in French.

I got the wine from Groupon and its gross! Such cheap wine!!! They taste like $ 5 bottle wine. They claim the wines are worth a couple hundred but it’s not worth $ 100 total!

I have read the bad reviews posted. I have never had a bad experience with Wine Insiders. I have ordered so many times that I cannot count. I really like these wines. The customer service is also great. They have great prices on nice wines. Do not place an order expecting a $ 30 bottle of wine. These wines are comparable to $ 8 — $ 15 bottles. If you sign up for the mailing list, they will email you specials and send flyers in the mail. I purchase cases for $ 6 — $ 8 a bottle with 1 penny shipping. They also ship pretty quickly.

Don’t order from this company. They offer cheap wine that can’t be served as table wine. For cooking wine, they are okay. Also, they still owe me a corkscrew after I received my order a month ago. Each time I call, each rep tells me a different story and promises a shipment is on the way. But no corkscrew yet. Once the company gets your money, they won’t care about you.

Even with the extra $ 30 for shipping, the Groupon was not a bad deal for a case of wine for $ 100. I was hoping I would get some great wines at a good price if they buy in bulk. The truth: each bottle of wine tastes like it should cost less than $ 10. I cannot believe the assortment they sent me was their «popular» varieties. In fact, some of them appeared to be very thin or watered down. Save your money.

I bought the GroupOn for a 6 pack of their wine for $ 39. After Wine Insiders charges you $ 18 for shipping it come to about $ 57 for 6 bottles of wine. Not a terrible deal.
My complaint however is with the customer service. Their website is unimpressive and although I was able to follow GroupOns directions to place an order on
, my order was lost in cyberspace. I received an email with an order confirmation and everything. 2 weeks later and I haven’t seen my wine, I call them and they have no idea what I’m talking about. I forward the email I received from THEM to customer service.
So they don’t apologize. They say, OK we’ll send your wine out. Well now It’s too late to give these bottles of wine to my Mom for Mothers day, but I’m a chill guy, I’ll drink it eventually, mistakes happens, I can get over this, it’s simply a 2 week delay.
WRONG. It’s been almost 4 weeks now and I notice a charge on my credit card for $ 197 from these clowns. I call them up and have the pleasure of speaking with a less than apologetic or helpful gang of ass hats in Customer Service.
Well, turns out when the original order ‘disappeared’ (EVEN THOUGH I PROVIDED AN ORDER #) so did my GroupOn coupon #. Now I’m on hold calling GroupOn to get this figured out.
I understand mistakes happen. I understand sometimes people can be grumpy and short with you. But this seems to be more like just a sub par operation. Don’t waste your time.

I have ordered from Wine Insiders 3 times in the past 2 years. I have thoroughly enjoyed every selection that they have sent. The first order was with a Groupon. The next two were not. My husband and I love to try different wines and we have been very pleased with the wines we have received. All of our deliveries have arrived in approximately 1 week from the order date. I am not sure why others are displeased. We knew we were getting a variety of different wines and have found them to our liking. We are pretty well traveled and enjoy enjoy researching and tasting new wines.

The deal looked great, big discount for some potentially good wine (Groupon). After I placed the order I realized I ordered the international mixed reds instead of California. I immediately replied to the order (based on the included instructions) to change the order. I followed that up with an additional change order request about a week later. Still no response — and the international case shipped. So, I have opened a few bottles and so far not good at all. I can’t find reviews for these wines anywhere and I can do better at the grocery store (sub $ 10 per bottle).
And then 3 weeks later I get an email saying they can’t change an order after it ships. Great customer service! Definitely not ordering from here again.

An update to an update? I think this might be a Unilocal first for me.
So several months ago, I was promised replacement wine after my purchase was refunded. I had gotten my money back after a really bad experience, so I did not really care if they did not not (and to be quite honest, I didn’t really believe it).
Well guess what showed up at my office on Tuesday? You already know, but in case you don’t: it was a case of wine as promised. I’m having several people over for dinner tomorrow, so I will know if this is crap case #3, or if all is good. Given the weather we have had lately, I do not expect to be disappointed.
I am impressed that WI said they were going to do something, then actually did it. They even got rid of the bogus «expedited shipping» verbiage that started all of this to begin with.
Good job, Wine Insiders.

A few of the wines were good. But we tasted these 2: 2010 River’s End Merlot,
2010 Burke Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and literally poured them down the drain, the entire content of bottles. Just bad, no depth of taste, no finish. Awful

I was given a groupon as a Christmas gift and have been disappointed with my transaction so far. I placed the order Feb. 19^th and they have yet to ship my order.
I received several calls three weeks ago informing me that one of my wine choices was permanently out of stock and I needed to call within three days to choose a new one. Upon returning the call, I reviewed my order with customer service and they had the wrong wines on my list. I’m not sure where the confusion happened and neither did the agent.
The groupon deal does seem fantastic as I was able to choose five bottles of wine for the price of one (shipping was additional) but having to wait over a month (and counting) for the wine to even ship is very disappointing.

Never again will I purchase this Groupon. First of all, the deal seems great, but in actuality, it’s not. I ended up paying $ 30 extra for shipping, so make sure you consider that when buying the Groupon.
What really pissed me off was the customer service. No one seems to know what’s going on with my order. Why? Lack of communication. Plain and simple.
Since I ordered my wine two weeks ago, I have not had one straight story as to where it is or when I will get it. I was told by one person that one bottle that I ordered wasn’t in stock. Then I called again and another person told me that they would be shipping my full order to me that day — but they thought I only ordered 3 bottles (when I actually ordered 6). A couple of other people I spoke to kept telling me that my wine would be sent out that day/​or the next day and I would receive a tracking number… well, that never happened either. I received some automated emails from someone named «Yolanda» who never responded to my inquiries. Basically, their customer service sucks. I will go everywhere I can on the Internet to let that be known.
I will update this review once I eventually receive my wine (that is, if I even receive the entire order). To the folks at WineInsiders, this is not the way you run a business. You put your clients first and answer the questions that they have in a CONSISTENT manner.
Very, very disappointed that I wasted my money with this company and I highly recommend that you do not make the same mistake.
UPDATE: Finally received my wine and it turns out that THREE of the six that I ordered were wines that I didn’t order. I have no idea where the other 3 are that I ordered but I give up. I’ve contacted your customer service so many times to no avail. Never again will I buy from you. Terrible, terrible service.
UPDATE AGAIN: Tried the wine — it tastes like Franzia.

I purchased a Groupon, spent $ 25 for a code worth $ 75. I made a first purchase and loved it, but noticea I had a balance of about $ 23.00. I looked at my receipt and noticed shipping wasn’t included. I went back to make another purchase with my groupon balance and when I checked out the order was excepted amd I received an order confirmation. Later in the day I spoke with someone at wine insider and was told they would not except my order and canceled it with out my authorization. The manager wouldn’t even talk to me. I won’t go back to Wine insider’s, it is obvious they are not concerned with providing customer service.

This has to be the wine O have ever tasted. I did the mix half case. The Secret Pass Chardonnay, Brannan Estate Zifandel, 2011 Hamilton Estate Merlot, Gejas Big Bold, 2009 Twin Bridges Pinot Grigio, 2010 twin bridges Trail white Riesling. All the wines tasted like crap with exception Zifandel. I have yet to try merlot. But I will never order from them again. I will go to my local wine shop.

A while back I purchased a $ 25 Groupon for $ 75 worth of wine. I also used G-​Bucks at the time, so I really got the deal for free. Can’t complain there.
I ordered the Best of Everything 12-​Pack Mixed for $ 139.88 (saves $ 44.95 according to the site) and took advantage of their 1¢ shipping offer (normally $ 19.95). Therefore, I ended up paying $ 64.89 for a dozen bottles of red and white wine. Can’t complain there either.
They advertise the wine under this description:
Enjoy the 12 wines we can’t keep in stock. Our best sellers in the Best of Everything 12-​Pack. We guarantee you will love each wine in this collection.
The collection included these wines:
2010 River’s End Merlot
2010 Burke Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2010 Fair Oaks Reserve Zinfandel
2010 Geja’s Big Bold Red
2010 Black Fox Cabernet Sauvignon
2010 Monarch Glen Merlot
2011 Spencer Family Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
2010 Moon Crest Sauvignon Blanc
2010 Hayton Chardonnay
2010 Cannery Row Chardonnay
2011 La Petite Tour Classic White Wine
2009 Bayshore Vitners Pinot Grigio
Here’s where I complain:
My belief is that they can’t keep these wines on the shelf because they sucker people into these mixed cases of crap. Along with Naked Wines (a company with a similar businesses model and equally shitty product), these were some of the most horrific fermented grapes that have ever graced my lips.
Unless I have recommendations from other wine-​loving friends whom I trust, I will no longer be purchasing wine deals online.
They say if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. That is exactly the case with Wine Insiders’ cases, at least with the ones they give deep discounts on. Cheap wine doesn’t have to be crappy. Unfortunately, these were. You’d be better off going to a local liquor store and paying a couple bucks more for Murfatlar or Rex-​Goliath.

Following up on the wine I ordered. If i could give Wine Insiders a negative amount of stars I would. So far we’ve tried 2 of the 5 bottles we ordered. The pinot grigio was TERRIBLE! tasted like the cheapest wine EVER! no flavor at all! took it to a labor day cookout and left it in the cooler. The Pinot Noir was tolerable. but its the lightest looking Pinot Noir Ive ever seen. looks almost like Welches grape juice and once again barely any flavor. Like I said before i dont usually write reviews, But I would stray from using this groupon or even using this company to purchase wine!

I purchased the groupon last year for $ 25 for $ 75 worth of wine. When I attempted to use this groupon, the website said it was already expired (although it clearly wasn’t). I contacted Groupon, who told me to contact the company itself due to a glitch. The company rep advised me to go ahead and place my order, and to email Sue Forrester (
) to be reimbursed for the $ 50. I sent her a screen shot of my order per the customer service rep’s request. Some time later, I received a response saying they need additional information. I sent all of the information I had available to me, and I received no response. I tried to get in touch by email several times since then, with today being the most recent, only to receive a mailer-​daemon response saying the email address is invalid. The wine was good, but I do not care how good it is if I am getting RIPPED OFF.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY.

I bought a recent Groupon for Wine Insiders — a seemingly exciting $ 25 for $ 75. My box containing several bottles was shipped quickly and without error, so no complaints on that front.
The wine itself is completely mediocre — or at least the several red varieties that I ordered. The Groupon ‘deal’ doesn’t really end up saving much money because of the $ 20+ shipping attached to each order. Not saying they should ship for free by any means — it’s just that it’s so easy to forget about hidden costs when jumping on a stupid Groupon deal.
It’s probably better to go to your local wine/​liquor store (around Hartford, I’m a fan of Manchester Wine & Liquors for their stellar $ 10 and under section) and actually talk to the employees about what you’re buying. Wine Insiders is just… okay — nothin’ special. Save yourself some shipping and get your butt to your local wine shop (or better yet — winery!)

Groupon is running another deal for these guys today so I figured I’d write a review.
I bought the Groupon without reading Unilocal and got nervous when I read the reviews afterward, but Groupon refused to refund me, so I bought 3 bottles of wine (shipping was $ 15 unless you bought 12 bottles or more, keep that in mind). Shipping was quick, no complaints there. I got Londer Vineyards Pinot Noir, Sierra Trails Cabernet Franc and Tied Knot Riesling. The reds were just okay… I didn’t feel the pinot ($ 25) was any better than a $ 10 wine at best, but I *did* enjoy the Riesling and would recommend it if you like sweet wine.
Unfortunately these people now SPAM the bajeezus out of me with both snail mail and email, even though I click the Unsubscribe link on every email and have contacted them directly about both methods.
Overall not worth it. I could have bought 3 bottles of my favorite $ 10 wines at Albertsons for the same price, had better wines, and been spam free.

Back in June, I bought a Groupon special of $ 75 worth of wine for $ 25. I bought 12 Groupons for $ 300. While it doesn’t quite come to $ 900 worth of wine for $ 300, because of shipping costs, it is still a very good deal.
So far, I have used 7 of my 12 coupons and with each shipment, depending upon the cost of the wine, I am getting 4 – 5 bottles with a small amount that needs to go onto my credit card. Not bad for $ 25…and I’d rather go slightly over than ‘lose’ any of it :-)
I usually prefer red wines, so that is usually what I order. However, I have chosen a couple of white wines to take to friends’ houses since a lot of people like white wines in the summer.
So far, it is the best Groupon special that I have ever purchased… and I would do it again if offered.
The only reason for the 4 stars instead of 5 is because the choices of wine don’t vary much. I thought about waiting a few months to use the remaining 5 coupons, but I worry that something will change and my remaining coupons wouldn’t be honored. Probably not something to seriously worry about though.
My wine collection has built up significantly and my daughters always know that I’ll bring a bottle with me to share when I visit. I’d like to use the coupon to buy a case of wine, since the shipping would be free, but it would be a lot more out of pocket since you can only use one coupon at a time. I may do that that the last 2 or 3 coupons.
Yay Wine Insiders! I’m a fan :-)