At first I thought it was coincidence, then I thought it was a ground swell and now, well, I think it’s a bondafide reality. That is- newspapers selling wine…thru wine clubs.

I don’t recall exactly when they started (and if indeed they were the earliest entry) but I remember chatting with my friend Connie in early 2007. At the time she was working with the team at the San Francisco Chronicle on their ‘new’ wine club and she was quite pumped. Facilitated by the same company, Signature Wines, that oversees the wine club for Sunset magazine, widely considered one of the most successful monthly wine clubs out there, this program was novel and she was very excited about this new move. I take it that it has done pretty well, as it’s been in place for awhile. Now, in all honesty, the idea of wine clubs is not new but via a newspaper struck me (at the time) as fresh.

Well here we are in Fall 2009, and the Chron’s got company. And lots of it I would add. In August 2009, the NY Times started a wine club and USA Today has now jumped into the fray (September 2009) both following the lead of the Wall Street Journal (September 2008). All have embedded wine overage (Eric Asimov for the Times, Jerry Shriver for USA Today, and the beloved team of Dorothy and John over at the WSJ). Those writers have followings and it seems that, with the growing interest in wine and need for newspapers to seek other revenue sources beyond advertising and subscriptions, wine has officially become a revenue source for the media. And the motivation for Zagat? Who knows but you can read about it here.

In some regards I take this as a very positive sign. These types of clubs which have monthly shipments (based on your price selection and often other criteria) make wine easy for folks, bring them new bottles every 30 days, and otherwise expand their horizons. The newspaper clubs have the added benefit of being able to tap into their food sections and accompany these wines with recipes and other wine/food related materials. Most even have so-called experts choosing their wines. And that’s where I am curious.

As soon as you both make selections and start shipping wines, people will cynically presume that there’s an agenda. Was this wine selected because it’s good? Because their importer advertises with the paper/magazine? What is the driving rationale? It’s one thing to be a retailer and, as a ‘merchant’, make these selections based on the wines that are chosen to represent that retailer. But when the media gets into the game, where is the separation of church and state? They are supposed to be objective in their third party evaluations, points of view, and articles. Unless the selection process is clearly firewalled away from editorial, you’ve got the makings for drama, finger pointing, and big gods of skepticism. I suspect that they’ve thought that all through, but questions will be asked. The response of how we do it and if there’s indeed a conflict of interest needs to be transparent regardless of what the agenda may be. Some of the most successful internet wine sales operations are attacked by people who claim that wines are being pushed thru and sold via partisan media vehicles (hello WineTV!?) though they are in the minority (As Gary is both transparent and honest about how it all works).

So what’s next….I guess that would be Safeway, Whole Foods and Publix getting into the wine club game?