CLUB W Subscription Box Review - May 2015

What it is:  A monthly personalized wine club 

Cost:  $39/month for 3 bottles of wine + $6 shipping;  Free shipping when you order 6 bottles of wine/month or more.  ***Click here to get 50% off your first order of 3 bottles of wine.***

Details:  Each month, Club W makes recommendations for you based on your Palate Profile (you complete when you sign up).  Choose from Club W's suggestions or make your own suggestions from their ever-changing assortment of wines from around the world.

My Current Wine Knowledge Level:  Much like my cooking skills, my wine palate leaves a lot to be desired.  I like sweet white wines primarily, such as Moscoto or Chardonnay, or chilled red wines such as Lambrusco (my husband would be so embarrassed by my admitting that).  I figured I'd give Club W a try so I can expand my knowledge of wine and perhaps find some new favorites!

I was a little nervous about wine being shipped without breaking, but they were securely packaged.

My Selections for this Month:

1.  2014 Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy - Sauvignon Blanc - Marlborough, New Zealand - My Selection

The description from Club W of course sounds fabulous!  I love the cards they send describing the wines.  This wine in particular is what lead me to sign up for Club W.  I love lemon and had never tried a lemon-flavored wine before.  I expected this wine to be a bit sweeter than it was.  The lemon flavor takes a moment to really surface, but once it does, it's good.  I like this wine and am glad I tried it.  My husband enjoyed it too. 

Club W also sends recipe cards which feature flavorful meal pairings to go with each wine.  In this case, the recipe was for a shaker lemon pie.  I've never made a pie before and I love lemon, so I decided to give it a try.

 The instructions for this pie were nice and easy!  You basically just slice 2 lemons and add them in with 2 c sugar and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.  

The lemon acidity ends up dissolving the sugar. 

 Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and combine 4 beaten eggs in with the lemon mixture.

For the pie crust, I bought one from Kroger.  (This is the first pie I've ever made.  Maybe in the future I'll try to make my own pie crust, but for my first one, I went for simplicity). 

Laid the pie crust out in the bottom of the plate and formed it.

Next, add the lemon mixture and bake pie in the center of the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, turn the oven down to 325 degrees and back for another 45 minutes (or until pie is set).

The final product:

This pie was a lot of fun to make!  I loved slicing the lemons and seeing how the lemon juice liquefied the sugar.  It was fun to arrange everything and to make the pie pretty.  And, it tasted really good too, especially with vanilla ice cream and the Lemon Squeezy wine!

2.  2013 Tempo Vero - Montepulciano d'Abruzzo - Abruzzo, Italy - Club W Suggestion

This wine was advertised as being the red wine equivalent of "Italian comfort food", so I had high expectations for it.  It was absolutely AWFUL though!!  This wine tasted like drinking chemicals.  Even my husband (who LOVES red wine) wouldn't drink it after two sips.  I tried to get myself to finish my glass so I didn't waste it, but couldn't do it.  Down the sink it went!

The recipe pairing - Cinnamon Lamb Stew.  I'm not a fan of lamb, so this isn't a recipe I'll be making.  If any of you try it though, comment below and let me know how you like it.    

3.  2013 Wayward - White Wine - California - My Selection

This wine tasted like most Chardonnays I've had before.  Yes, it smelled pretty and fruity, but in the end, it tasted like.... chardonnay.  It did give me a nice, warm fuzzy feeling after just a few sips, but other than that, it was unremarkable to me.  I wouldn't spend $13 on it in the store unfortunately.

The recipe pairing for this wine is Mac & Cheese with a Sneaky Veggie Puree.  I love mac and cheese, but the veggie puree ingredients were not appealing to me (specifically the turnips, cauliflower, and parsnips).  There's a lot of ingredients that go into this dish and a lot of steps to make it too.  Decided to pass on this dish.    

VERDICT:  I am a white wine drinker while my husband prefers red.  I love that you're able to customize this box according to your preferences and that you can mix and match types of wine!  I also love the Palette Profile and all the questions it asked (preferences regarding sweetness, aromas, etc.).  I joined Club W for the sole fact of wanting to try the Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy wine, which was a hit.  Despite my dislike of the red wine, making the Shaker Lemon Pie recipe Club W sent made this experience worth it.  Check out their recipe pages (and sign up for their e-mails)!  They have a lot of amazing recipes posted that made me salivate as I was looking at them!  (I pinned over 25 of them).  Many of the pairing wines for these dishes sound good too.  In the future, I may look for some of them when I place my order.  

Overall, I've come to the conclusion I'm just not a wine aficionado.  I'd love to be all fancy and talk about the legs of the wine and the oak-y notes, etc., but that's just not me.  I like sweet, flavored wines like Moscoto that really don't taste like alcohol.  In the future, I might order ones with a peach or strawberry flavor (or something along those lines), but otherwise, I can't see myself placing an order each month.  (It will probably take me another month to get thru these three bottles of wine).  I am excited to see what the selections are for next month though!  

Have you checked out Club W yet?  If so, what did you think?

XOXO,
Stephanie