The Clubs of Pubs

The announcement that the Wall Street Journal was starting a wine club got me thinking: There sure are a lot of publications with wine clubs these days. 

In the UK, there is the Sunday Times Wine Club, but as with many of these clubs, the connection to the publication in the name is unclear. Like the Wall Street Journal's wine club, this one doesn't link to the original publication. There is also the Official Courier Newspaper Wine Club somewhere in the UK I think, but since it doesn't link to the Courier Newspaper (not an uncommon name) I'm not sure exactly where.

NewsDay, which I think publishes a few newspapers in the US, has a NewsDayInsider Wine Club, but you need to be an Insider subscriber to learn about it.

The San Francisco Chronicle's Wine Club makes the most sense, since they have a stand-alone wine section in the newspaper each week. At least, I thought it made the most sense, but when I searched for clubs from the wine-specific magazines like Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, and Wine & Spirits I couldn't find any.

I could, however, find wine clubs for Departures Magazine, only sent to people with American Express Platinum Cards, as well as one for readers of Better Homes and Gardens and Sunset Magazine.

Many wine clubs are sub-clubs of other membership organizations (or their newsletters). You can join a wine club as a member of KQED public media or even the NRA. 

I guess these days for every pub, there is a club.