Best International Wine Clubs

Plonk wine club doesn't use the label "International" wine when describing their Curated wine club, but it features a fascinating selection of unique wine from around the globe. This wine club appears on many of our best wine club lists because the wine is among the best you'll find in a wine club anywhere near this price.

We're also partial to the quirky selections and adventurous spirit of wine discovery promoted by Plonk.

VineBox is the first of its kind, a wine by the glass club. We love the wines that get delivered from VineBox and think it's the perfect way to enjoy red wine if any of the following apply to you: You typically only drink a glass a time, you are counting calories but still want a little indulgence without wasting a whole bottle, your weeknight policy is to cut back on alcohol, you wish you had more time to go wine tasting, or you want to expand your wine preferences and knowledge. It also makes a terrific gift.

International Wine Selection: Not content to merely develop a new technology to transfer any old wine into convenient and sleek single-serving pours, their sommelier excels at choosing interesting wines from abroad, primarily from lesser known wine regions in Europe's biggest wine producing-countries — France, Italy, and Spain. Their "Current Edition" is right up any somm-wannabe's alley: choose between a Bordeaux Vertical (2010, 2011, and 2012) or a Nebbiolo neighbor comparison (Barolo and Alba).

Love a wine you tasted? You can purchase more glasses and (sometimes) full-size bottles from VineBox through your membership page.

International Wine Prices: VineBox's wine subscription doesn't make it easy to do a cost comparison as it would be if it were a regular wine subscription. Their new format means you're getting a little over a bottle of wine in each shipment (900 ml vs 750 ml which is a standard wine bottle). The wines themselves sell between $30-60 a bottle. You're definitely paying a premium, but what you get for that premium makes up for it: wine tasting at home, sommelier-selected wines, excellent packaging, and in the case of the new format, wine education good enough for sommeliers.

International Wine Gift info: For certain kinds of wine drinkers, VineBox is one of the coolest red wine gifts you can give. Anyone with a curious palate who likes to try new wines will love this gift. It's also available as a white wine only and mixed wine wine gift subscription.

Gold Medal Wine Club also makes an appearance on many of our best wine club lists. They consistently deliver excellent quality (usually California) wine and they have excellent gift packaging which makes you look good when you give wine.

Their International wine club takes it a step further. Each quarterly shipment contains three bottles of wine from a single wine region somewhere in the world. We've received delightful shipments from Portugal, France, and Italy over the years. The full-color brochure that accompanies each shipment fills you in on the region, the winery, and the wines you'll be drinking, and it includes recipe pairing ideas.

The best feature of this wine club? You can upgrade it to include a Gourmet Adventure package which includes sweet and savory foodstuffs from the featured region. We've received teas, spices, cookies, honey, and so much more.

Overview: This is the happy medium of wine clubs they offer as you get one bottle from their entry-level subscription and one bottle from their premium membership. If you're doing your math as "average price paid per bottle" you might not love this club, but if you consider that you're getting one value-priced wine and one special-occasion wine in each shipment, it's a neat concept.

What We Love: Unlike some other wine clubs which focus on acquiring closeout wines to ship to their members, this wine club cares a great deal about coming up with consistent selections befitting their reputation of 25 years in the business. Their tasting panel includes proprietor Kris Calef, wine professionals, and everyday wine drinkers, so they excel at finding palate-friendly wines with wide appeal.

Could Be Better: We'd love to see four-bottle shipments offered by this wine club as a way to help mitigate the cost. The company offers a reliable, quality-driven service, so you don't really get deals on the wine in the shipments. While we'd probably pass on this particular subscription for ourselves, we think it makes a terrific wine club gift — especially if you mix it up with some of their other cool monthly clubs.

The California Wine Club (one of our favorites) also has an International wine club... who knew? This wine club highlights a new wine region around the world each month and comes with all the benefits of being a member of the most customer-centric wine club around.

Benefits of membership include: Each shipment includes a travelogue, Uncorked®, which is your guide to the featured region, plus insight to the region's wine scene, wine tips, wine luminary interviews and more; a 100% satisfaction guarantee; Savings up to 50% when you reorder your favorite wines; and a personal wine consultant you can call at any time for help with wines you've received or wines you'd like to buy.

Overview: Among all of the case clubs (12 bottles, typically shipped quarterly), this 90+ International wine club is among the best two deals. The other focuses only on California wine, but this one takes you on a journey around the world. Enjoy eclectic wines at the best prices you'll find.

What We Love: It's so easy to get into a wine rut and stick with what you know. Wired For Wine ® helps you break out of that rut in a low-cost, satisfaction guaranteed way so you can find new wines to love. Also, when compared with similarly-priced case clubs, this one stands out for wine quality in a big way.

Could Be Better: Normally we'd ask for a deal for this club, but it's already priced as low as it can go, so it's nearly perfect as is! We'd love to see a little bit of customization available and also monthly clubs for people who drink more than a bottle a week.

Overview: These are the highest level wines you can get in a membership from The Original Wine of the Month Club ™, generally well-made wines from well-known areas. At $25-30 a bottle, it's competitive with several other wine clubs on price, but the wines are little more "traditional" and not discovery oriented.

What We Love: Paul Kalemkiarian, second generation proprietor at Wine of the Month Club ™ goes out of his way to source interesting wines, and in this price point that can be a challenge, particularly in finding California wines. So he leans on an International selection to bring you better value in this price range.

Could Be Better: This is our favorite wine subscription from Wine of the Month Club, but we think the marketing text on their website is a little overhyped. Expect very good wines for these prices, but "Special Occasion" seems too generous of a description.

Overview: Bordeaux is famous for huge price tags on their Premier Cru wines, but Bordeaux is a big region and there are many producers of less-expensive Bordeaux wines. This club focuses on these growers and ships every other month.

What We Love: Who doesn't love getting world-class Bordeaux wine at bargain prices? While Bordeaux often fetches upwards of $80 a bottle, these other Bordeaux wines delight at just $25 a bottle.

Could Be Better: We'd love to see this club delivered monthly and in larger quantities... two bottle just doesn't seem like enough! It is the perfect amount for a wine club gift, though...

Overview: We really enjoy this International wine club where each shipment contains six different wines from a single wine region somewhere in the world. Of the many clubs that offer an International selection, most aren't themed for additional wine discovery and education.

What We Love: We received shipments of this wine club for years because it always kept a good variety of food-friendly and affordable wines on hand, we never opened a bottle we were disappointed with, and we feel this club offers a good quality-to-price ratio.

Could Be Better: We'd love to see customers rewarded for buying bigger allotments. "Buy more save more" pricing would be a great addition to the line-up. We'd also really like to see the shipping costs come down dramatically.

Overview: Among other "journey around the wine world" clubs Wine Awesomness stands out for exceptional educational materials. This is a great wine club for you if you're not sure yet if you're a "wine club" person or if you're looking to give a gift to a young wine-lover who's just starting to discover the world of wine.

What We Love: The level of sophistication in both design and writing of their monthly magazine and how the wine isn't expensive but is a very good value.

Could Be Better: So many people love to give wine subscriptions as gifts, and we think a gift packaging option and customizable gift notifications would add to the subscription gift option.

Overview: The Bold Reds club features International red wines showcasing, yep, bigger and bolder flavors, that are more tannic and fruit forward. These are not your typical easy-drinking wines but they're perfect for pizza, grill nights, and all forms of meat.

What We Love: More than anything, we love surprise factor of these wines. Every time we open a box, we sort of grimace at the prospect of drinking a Rhone red or an Barolo (wines that we typically don't enjoy because of our own palate preferences), but we're always surprised at how the wines are enjoyable anyway, and usually much better than we were expecting.

Could Be Better: We'd love to see four-bottle shipments offered by this wine club as a way to help mitigate the cost. The company offers a reliable, quality-driven service, so you don't really get deals on the wine in the shipments. Given its specialty nature, the discount aspect of the wine club is not a primary concern.