The major element that Tahbilk added to my options was the freight free status of the Tahbilk Wine Club and the Everyday Drinking Range. I don't buy that much Everyday Drinking wine for myself these days, but recommend the Cellar Door Whites and Cellar Door Reds and similar mixed dozens as a good way of keeping the wine rack topped up with everyday drinking styles.
If you're new to the tasting caper, they offer good examples of reasonably priced varietals including Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho, Cabernet Franc, Mourvedre, Grenache and Sangiovese. Best of all, everything is freight free and there's no commitment to buy.
Our next stop brought me into different territory. When we arrived at Baileys of Glenrowan I wanted to try the Liqueur Muscat and Tokay and was looking forward to the Shiraz. Didn't buy anything, but signed up for the mailing list, which subsequently advised me of the existence of the 1870 Club, which delivers half a dozen substantially discounted wines twice a year freight free. There's also the possibility of reorders at a substantial discount, but those two shipments will probably suffice as far as Tokay and Muscat and old growth Shiraz are concerned.
A couple of days later we rolled into Pfeiffer Wines and were impressed enough to sign up for the C2 Club, which delivers a mixed dozen twice a year. There's also a C3 option, but three shipments a year is a bridge too far when you consider other commitments in our neck of the woods.
Those Pfeiffer dozens contain a mixture of current releases and Members Only Museum Releases, and while they're always an interesting blend, anything I order in addition will fit into a mixed dozen dominated by Gamay and The Carson Gewurztraminer. You need to get in quick for the Gamay, which sells out quickly, so maybe it's just a summer drinking mix of fridge friendly light red, curry-friendly white and maybe two or three extra bottles.
While we were in the neighbourhood we were impressed by Dal Zotto, which subsequently started up a wine club operation, though the way they've structured it doesn't quite fit in with Hughesy's current priorities so I haven't taken things any further.
The same thing applies with Sam Miranda. Four deliveries a year is stretching things too far, though I receive regular snail mail updates.
Late 2007 saw us in Tasmania, and a circuit around the wineries on the east side of the Tamar Valley brought us to Brook Eden Vineyard, where the wine club offers a large enough discount to cover much of the freight cost. Two half dozen shipments per year cover their Pinot Noir, Pinot Rose, Chardonnay and Riesling. That's probably enough Pinot, and reorders tend to favour the Rose with the odd bottle of Riesling or Chardonnay to fill up the box.
Up to this point our winery visits were either a hit and miss (Hunter and Yarra Valley) or highly selective, as in we know about these places and we're not going anywhere else (northeast Victoria) or we're only going around that side of the river (northern Tasmania). In November 2008 however, we were heading off to South Australia, and once the various time-splitting options had been discussed at length we ended up with three days in the Clare Valley, one in the Barossa and some difficult decisions to make.
With the help of the ubiquitous Halliday it wasn't difficult to sort out where we were going in Clare, and the decisions made were the result of very early recognition of the fact that we probably wouldn't be back. Fortunately, the number of Five Stars was small enough to allow us to get to all the ones that were open to the public at the time. It took some doing, but we managed it.
Now, since everywhere we went was highly rated, there wasn't too much chance of us not adding my name and contact details to the mailing list. Interestingly, none of the places we visited offered a Wine Club a la Pfeiffer and Brook Eden. It would have been interesting if someone had, though whether that would have ensured an on the spot signup would have depended on whether we got there towards lunchtime on Day Two. In any case, the only place that offered a Wine Club was Pikes, and their version was one of the buy two dozen and you're in variety. Having left contact details everywhere I wasn't too worried by the lack of scheduled deliveries since I could place an order when it suited me.
At least, that was the theory. In practice it has taken me almost two years to get to all the places I wanted to buy from, partly due to prior and ongoing commitments but largely the consequence of emails and phone calls making offers that were difficult to refuse. Not that I'm complaining, but it made it difficult to get to certain places where it looked like a definite case of two cases.
I finally got around to placing that order with Pikes last week.
We had to be much more selective when it came to the Barossa since we expected to arrive just before lunch time and would only have an afternoon to go tasting. Long time aspirations ensured that Rockford was automatically on the list, and for one more definite Seppeltsfield went onto the list with Thorn-Clarke as an option if time permitted.
None offered an automatic delivery Wine Club, though Rockford does have the Stone Wall Society, which operates on a wait for a vacancy basis. You don't get onto the mailing list unless you've actually bought something. Given Summer Drinking options an immediate order for some of the Alicante Bouchet soon took care of that consideration.