Down the Rabbit Hole: A Founder’s Wine Club Journey
It all began on a miserable Friday in March – the kind of London afternoon when drizzle seeps into your bones and even the pigeons give off an air of indifference. I was staring hopelessly at a wine shelf, simultaneously overwhelmed and underwhelmed by choice. That moment crystallised a problem I'd experienced countless times: despite a genuine interest in wine, I still couldn't reliably discover bottles that would genuinely excite me.
That's when the idea for Ourglass Wine Club took root. What if we could create a wine service that felt like falling through Alice's looking glass into a parallel universe – one where extraordinary wines simply materialised at your door, each bottle whispering, 'DRINK ME'? "Curiouser and curiouser," as Alice would say.
THE BROKEN PATH TO WINE DISCOVERY
Let's be frank: wine shopping is a psychological minefield designed to reduce grown adults to quivering messes. I've watched countless people (myself included) staring at shelves of bottles, eventually grabbing something based on:
- An attractive label (we've all been there)
- Half-remembered recommendations from people whose taste buds might not align with ours
- That one wine from a dinner party which might have been Portuguese or possibly Spanish
- Blind panic because the shop closes in four minutes
Even with years of wine experience, I found myself falling into these well worn traps. I knew there had to be a better way to connect curious drinkers with remarkable wines.
BUILDING A DIFFERENT KIND OF WINE CLUB
Creating Ourglass meant reimagining what a wine club could be for people who love good wine. Not an algorithm spitting out suggestions based on sterile data points, but a genuinely human connection between experts and would be wine lovers.
We've seen the transformation firsthand. Last week I heard my friend Peter* – a dyed in the wool Bordeaux fan – confidently select a red Burgundy by Sylvain Pataille at Noble Rot for his birthday dinner. He mentioned how Ourglass had expanded his horizons beyond his usual safe Bordeaux or Californian choices. Six months earlier, he categorised all wine as either Bordeaux, California or 'here be dragons' These moments of transformation are why we built this service. (*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.)
FINDING YOUR PERFECT WINE MATCH
Through building Ourglass Wine Club, I've sought to identify what truly matters in a subscription:
Value Beyond Price
We've structured our monthly wine boxes to deliver exceptional quality at multiple price points, from our £50 Discovery Club to our £180 Collector's selections. Each bottle is worth every penny, whether it's a Tuesday night Burgundy or a weekend-worthy Barolo.
The Human Element
While many wine clubs rely on algorithms, we believe technology can't replace the human touch. Our sommeliers taste hundreds of wines to select the handful worthy of your glass. We've rejected the artificial intelligence approach after witnessing too many mismatches between technology and taste.
Flexibility Without Friction
Life happens. Your wine club should accommodate it. We've built Ourglass with painless delivery management – skip months, adjust preferences or pause entirely without navigating a labyrinth of passive-aggressive emails or hidden cancellation buttons.
Education Through Experience
We don't just deliver bottles; we deliver understanding. Each wine arrives with context about why this particular corner of a particular hillside produces wine that tastes of sunshine and stone. This transforms drinking into something approaching enlightenment.
THE MOMENT EVERYTHING CLICKS
The most rewarding part of creating this wine subscription has been witnessing those transcendent moments when members discover something extraordinary.
Last summer, we included a Godello from Raúl Pérez in our monthly selection – one of those fresh but complex whites that tastes like licking a salted lemon while standing on a windswept Atlantic cliff. A member wrote to tell us how one sip transported her back to a holiday in San Sebastián years before – a vinous equivalent of Proust's madeleine.
Our team lives for these connections. We hunt for wines with authentic stories – not manufactured marketing about "passion for excellence" that makes your eyes roll, but stories of real people doing interesting things with grapes. In a world where everything feels mass-produced and mediated by an algorithm, there's profound satisfaction in sharing something made by actual humans with soil under their fingernails.
Winning Decanter's Best Wine Subscription award validated our approach, but the real measure of success comes from the messages we receive. Like the member who hosted a dinner party with our monthly selection and found guests photographing bottles rather than their food. Or the couple who turned their Ourglass delivery days into at-home date nights complete with the cheeses we suggest in our pairing guides.
THE GOLDILOCKS ZONE OF WINE DISCOVERY
We focus a lot on mastering what I call the 'Goldilocks Zone' of wine selection – not so safe that you're bored, not so challenging that you're confused, but just right. Our curation balances boundary-pushing with comfort, creating a journey that evolves with your palate.
This extends to our membership experience. When life forces members to pause deliveries, the process is blessedly simple – no guilt-tripping, no complications. Just a simple "see you when you're back" that reflects our belief that great relationships should feel easy, not extractive.
Most telling is how members refer to "my Ourglass wines" when friends spot interesting bottles in their collections. There's a pride in being associated with our selections that goes beyond the usual transaction – like being part of a community of people who know their Morgon from their Moulis.
FINDING YOUR PATH THROUGH WINE WONDERLAND
If you're considering diving into the world of wine subscriptions, start by asking yourself:
1. What do you actually want? Reliable everyday drinking? Wine education? The thrill of discovery?
2. How much guidance do you need? Some clubs assume you know your acidity from your elbow; others provide comprehensive education.
3. What's the right balance between adventure and comfort? Every worthwhile wine journey occasionally introduces something that challenges your preconceptions.
Our monthly wine club subscription (from £50 for three bottles) is designed to hit the sweet spot of quality and discovery. The wines arrive with enough supporting information to enhance your appreciation without overwhelming you. Our retention rate suggests we've struck the right balance – 87% of members stay with us beyond their first six months.
The greatest gift a proper wine subscription should give isn't purely the bottles themselves, but a map of your own preferences – clearer with each delivery. Through Ourglass, members have discovered unexpected loves: Austrian Grüner Veltliner, Portuguese Baga, and obscure Italian varieties that rarely make it to UK shelves.
We built Ourglass Wine Club to ensure you never face that moment of panic in the wine aisle again. No more hastily peeling "3 for £12" stickers off bottles before dinner guests arrive. Instead, you'll have a collection of wines worth talking about, each with a story, each selected with purpose.
Your journey down the wine rabbit hole awaits. As the White Rabbit would say, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" – for your appointment with the extraordinary bottles that will expand your horizons this month.
EXPLORE MORE?
Experience our hand picked selections firsthand and become part of the story.