Our English Wine Subscriptions - a Customer's Viewpoint

Nadia Zammal, one of our subscription customers, very kindly shares her views on our wine subscription service

You could ask, “Why an online wine subscription as I can buy wine from the shops right?”

Online wine subscriptions, amongst many other reasons, are an amazing and fun way to discover or     re-discover the world of wines from the comfort of your own home.  

As you have landed on this blog page, it is possibly because you have an interest in an online wine subscription or you have an interest in English wines, or even better, you are thinking of getting an online English wines subscription delivered to your home!

There is a little bit of everything for everyone in each  subscription box (depending on the subscription option of course), whether you are a white, red, rosé or sparkling wine lover, the  monthly, quarterly or 6 monthly options might just be for you – pop over to the subscriptions page to explore the options.

Online wine subscription vs Supermarkets

An online wine subscription is a bit like Christmas before Christmas, it is either a gift to yourself or something you can gift to someone, either way, before it comes you don’t know what is in the box and that makes it ever so exciting. When your wine subscription lands on your doorstep, you have the pleasure of discovering what is I the box and taking your taste buds on a new journey.

If you haven’t done your research beforehand, buying wine from the supermarket can be a bit hit and miss, moreover English wines aren’t that popular yet in our local stores. With the online subscription your wines are carefully selected by the Master of Wine, Clive Barlow - for example from small local vineyards and/or wineries who wouldn’t have supermarket exposure and therefore you probably wouldn’t come across them. But don’t worry, most of the boxes will also have well-established names which you will very likely recognise.

I began my own online English wine subscription with Corkk in early 2020 when I started having a greater interest in English wines. I couldn’t find a wide selection of English wines in supermarkets nor at other wine specialists, as I kept finding the same wines over and over again, with the exception of a few new vineyards. Choosing the quarterly still wine subscription enabled me to go on a completely new wine experience, swirling and tasting new wines throughout the spring and the summer. This was the perfect solution for me.

Grapes and wine-styles discovery

We all have our favourite go-to grapes or wine styles haven’t we? I am sure that for 99% of us, our go-to wines aren’t Bacchus, Seyval Blanc nor even an English Sparkling wine over a Champagne or a Cava. bottle, is it? Or even a Pinot Gris which is a more widely available grape variety.

Pinot Gris from England you say? Really? And oh yes! The Pinot Gris from England, well to be more precise from Stopham Vineyard in West Sussex, was a true revelation. I wasn’t expecting such an “exotic” wine from an English winemaker in the South Downs. This beautiful wine discovered in one of my quarterly still wine subscription boxes took me on an aromatic taste buds tour with passion fruit, mango and apricot notes coupled with a fresh and crisp punch. This wine would probably never have made it to my shortlist had it not been for the still wine box selected for me and fellow subscribers by Corkk’s Master of Wine, Clive Barlow.

Another beauty was the award winning Hidden Spring Bacchus Fumé 2019 from East Sussex which came in a quarterly mixed case subscription. With this wine, had it been a blind tasting, I would have sworn I was drinking a lightly oaked Sauvignon Blanc grape but no it was the Bacchus grape which I wasn’t too familiar with although I had heard of the name.

Wine information and flexibility

An online wine subscription is more than just a wine delivery, it is an experience! With each wine box I receive comes an envelope with informative cards about each of the wines in the box describing the wines with their tasting notes, provenance and other anecdotes about the vineyard or the winery. In a nutshell, the Master of Wine does the work for you by not just selecting the wine and adding it to a subscription box but by doing some research and writing it up so it just ready for you to read while relishing your wine.

In more recent months I have discovered English sparkling wines, which were another revelation to me as I would never have expected them to be so good, so refined and elegant! True sparklers of England!          A couple of months ago, I decided to change my online quarterly wine subscription from a still to a mixed wine case. The swap process couldn’t have been easier as Jonathan at Corkk made it an effortless and smooth transition which showed me that having an online wine subscription was flexible and easy to adapt to my changing taste.

Taste Local and Support Local

2020 more than any other year, is the year of discovering, supporting, eating and drinking local! These English wine subscriptions do exactly that. Through my quarterly subscription, I am supporting local businesses in England as well as personally taking great pleasure in exploring fantastic local products and even giving me the local travel bug as I have since this summer been exploring local vineyards in Sussex and Kent!

Will you join me on this fabulous wine journey?!