Zagat Wine

Does anyone have any experience ordering from Zagat Wine? I have received a "Special Introductory Offer" for 12 bottles for $70 plus 3 bottles of Rioja. I've not heard of any of the wines.

My friend Sallie, whom you met at an offline Jon, sent me a coupon for reduced price on Zagat wine club but I was not tempted. I'd rather select my own wines than have someone do the selecting for me.

Me, too, JC. I know Zagat is know for making general recommendations of restaurants but wine seems much more of an individual decision.

[Robin Garr]

I can't testify from experience, Jon, but I know that when we lived in NYC, Zagat's restaurant guide was viewed as laughable by all the "serious" foodies I knew. I'd want to know more about how they're selecting the wines, who's making the decisions, and how the QPR of their selections looks. Got a URL? It might be fun for a bunch of us to go look online and evaluate their offerings, if selections and price are clear from their marketing material.

(And if said info is NOT clear, I would be doubly wary about why they would want to make it hard to find.)

Thanks, Robin. I appreciate your opinion.

[Robin Garr]

Thanks, Robin. I appreciate your opinion.

As I said, though, Jon, in fairness I can't testify from experience. If you'll search Google for the terms
> zagat wine club review <
you'll get a bunch, many glowing, some negative. Hard to tell, of course, what motives and back stories underlie any of the reviews.

I'm also looking at the Zagat Wine Club Website now,
https://www.zagatwine.com/
and the pricing looks QPRish ... $140 a quarter for a 12-bottle case of mixed wines, plus $20 shipping. Total $160, divided by $12, averages out to $13.33 per bottle delivered, with even more attractive introductory packages.

On a quick scan through their extensive inventory, I find that none of the producers appear familiar. When I track some back through Wine-Searcher.com, they do appear to exist, but either are very rare, or in the interesting case of this Italian rosato ...
http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/visionario+rosato
it seems that they distribute all their inventory through online wine clubs. Zagat, 4 Seasons, WSJWine, Amazon.

In short, my best intuition at this point, *slightly* more informed, is that they're legit but dealing in private-labeled and possibly bulk wines, affordable but, at least in the case of a "La Nantais Muscadet," selling it for substantially more than it would cost at a wine shop.

I'm sure their service is acceptable, and for a person who wants to serve varied wines from around the world without having to become a wine geek, it's certainly a reasonable alternative. But given that the wines appear to be sources from what's left after the more wine-oriented importers have come to call, I doubt it would make anyone more serious about wine happy for very long.

[Jenise]

I'll add that these clubs are usually one size fits all come-ons. If you're picky about what you drink, then they're not for you. Quality will never exceed medium at best and will mostly be all over the map, with a high risk of getting a lot of gobby, low acid fruit bombs.

Jon: I'm a newbie here, my first post. I'd somehow got lured into, and bought, a similar Zagat case (12 various red wines, plus 3 Riojo's) three weeks ago. They've come...and I'm pretty happy so far. A variety of good-sounding wines from Spain, Italy, Aussie, USA's NW, etc. True, I've only just now tried the Riojo's (the thinnest of the wines in the 15-bottle case, I think). These are for me...good. I guess I've in recent years become used to the Super-Market fare.

Unlike you, I did pop for $90. Which seems $6 a bottle ($7.50 if future shipments are 12-bottle cases). Surprising me, my order did enroll me in their "club." I see that I can cancel or reject any future 3-month-away shipments before shipping them, if I wish. So...I'll stay with the "club" for at least another offering.

I truly didn't rember to check WineLovers before biting and ordering these 15 wines from Zagat. But so far, I see no downsides. I'm enjoying my red wines.

Robin might (if he's a top-drawer magician) recall me from his pre-website endeavor years. I even once sold him a bunch of my CDs back then...maybe 1998 (wild guess). Anyway, Robin, do know that I remember YOU. Those were for us both...kinder, gentler times (online). Today Robin, I do see you've done well.

-- Jim (from our mutual CompuServe online years, yup).

Jon: I'm a newbie here, my first post. -- Jim (from our mutual CompuServe online years, yup).

Welcome to the forum Jim, I suspect you will like it here.

[Robin Garr]

Robin might (if he's a top-drawer magician) recall me from his pre-website endeavor years. I even once sold him a bunch of my CDs back then...maybe 1998 (wild guess). Anyway, Robin, do know that I remember YOU. Those were for us both...kinder, gentler times (online). Today Robin, I do see you've done well.

-- Jim (from our mutual CompuServe online years, yup).

Hey, Jim! I certainly do remember you, and the CDs are still doing well. I particularly remember (if magical memory serves) a bunch of Kurt Weills including a couple of old German versions of Dreipfennig Opfer. It is very good indeed to see you, sir, and please be assured that our old policy remains: Whenever an old friend wanders off, we keep a good seat reserved, close to the fireplace, awaiting a happy return.

Wow. The name Kurt Weill stirs memories. I was just noting yesterday in a publication from University of Nebraska Foundation that Dick and Judy Weill were listed among the contributors. Dick and his wife were at the university with me back in the 60's. I was under the impression that Dick's father was Kurt Weill's brother but in retrospect he may have been a cousin because a biography of Kurt didn't indicate that a brother lived in Omaha. Anyway, the theater arts department put on "Threepenny Opera" and "Street Scene" while I was at the University and I attended both. It provoked my interest in Kurt Weill's music and I later saw the film version of "Dreigroschen Oper" with Lotte Lenya in a theater in Heidelberg. I also attended a revue of Weill's songs put on by San Jose State students and listened to longplay records of "Mahagonny," "Lost in the Stars," and other works by Weill. In a poetry class at the University we were asked to write a poem based on a poem originally in another language. I based mine on "Les Pendus" by Francois Villon which was also the basis for "Macheath's Requiem" in the English version of "Dreigroschen Oper or "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" which evolved into "Mack the Knife." Dick Weill received a Root-Tilden scholarship for law school at New York University and practiced law in Omaha.

Thanks Bob Henrick, Robin and JC (NC) for replying to my virgin post here. Bob, I will indeed enjoy this forum (it's big, but well-organized and navigatible).

Robin, I possibly did send you Kurt Weill CDs among the dozens you bought off'n me. But you might have got some of these from others too. Today I do several website designings for local community organizations. And when they don't object, I add some background music (no vocal versions...too large and distracting IMHO) to their webpages. And on one such webpage, I did choose an instrumental "Mack the Knife." It sorta fit into that webpage's contents IMHO. What I recall most (about then) is that I'd packed a bunch of CDs into one old cardboard box I'd lifted out of a nearby cafe's dippy-dumpster. And it came to you, was put aside a door on your porch by mailman, and sat there a couple days before you stumbled onto the ugly thing. Happily, $100 worth of CDs received.

Thanks JC for also remembering Kurt Weill (fondly). An acquired taste, for sure. Thanks, all. I'll be back. Gotta go. Time for TV's Vanna White show. - Jim.