TRADITIONAL WINE SUBSCRIPTIONS:

• Product-focused delivery
• Generic tasting notes
• Limited producer context
• Algorithm-driven selections

WINE EDUCATION SUBSCRIPTIONS:

• Expert-supported curation
• Structured palate development
• Regional discovery journeys spanning Argentina, Austria, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain, plus the USA – and varieties.
• Expert pairing guidance

HOW WINE LEARNING ACTUALLY WORKS

Think wine education where taste comes first. Each monthly selection includes producer stories, regional context, and practical guidance – from understanding wine styles to matching with your favourite cuisines. It's wine club meets masterclass, minus the pretension.

WHY KNOWLEDGE CHANGES EVERYTHING

Once you understand what wine labels actually mean and can identify your own palate preferences, wine shopping becomes discovery, not guesswork. That's the philosophy behind Ourglass – pleasure and learning go hand in hand.

Whether you're starting with wine fundamentals minus the bollocks or advancing toward genuine expertise, Ourglass maps your discovery journey:

LEVEL 1 | BUILD FOUNDATION Master understanding wine styles, varieties and unlock discovering your palate systematically. Essential skills before venturing further.

LEVEL 2 | REGIONAL EXPLORATION Venture into Italian terroir exploration, discover Beaujolais beyond the basics, Spanish hidden gems and beyond. Each region unlocks new frontiers in flavour.

LEVEL 3 | EXPERTISE APPLIED Professional matching techniques and label reading mastery. Advanced skills for true wine mastery.

Members who engage with our expert videos and structured learning resources build wine knowledge that lasts beyond the bottle.

Ready to start your adventure? Read why we started this journey and whether wine education subscriptions deliver real value.

WINE WITHOUT DOGMA

"Wine is living. It's food. Someone put a lot of effort into it. We're just lucky to drink it before it turns to vinegar." – Michael Sager, Sager + Wilde.

Watch wine without dogma interview:

CURATION MEETS CULTURE

Former The Wine Show host Amelia Singer brings her perspective on subscription curation, but her standards are uncompromising. "There are so many wine clubs out there, but I only mention wines I like – I want to sleep at night," she explains in our conversation.

What drew her to Ourglass? "How you link wine to music, art, the zeitgeist. It's fresh, relatable, not patronising. I thought – these are the kind of people I'd actually want to drink with."

WINE IS CHANGING

Financial Times food writer Tim Hayward understands how wine learning is evolving. In our conversation at Noble Rot, he explores what happens when we taste together, noting how "the next generation are gonna be drinking wine" differently – fewer magnums, more by-the-glass experimentation. Less prestige, more permission.

HOW TASTE DEVELOPS

For Michael Sager, understanding wine means understanding its foundation. As he notes in our conversation about natural wine and classical training, "The best natural wine people I know all have a classic background. It all came from a classically trained palate. And maybe that's what lets you taste differently. Not better. Just with perspective."

Curious about our approach? Read the Ourglass founder Ben's journey and discover why we believe wine subscriptions should entertain and educate, not just ship.