Non-Alcoholic Wine Club vs Buying Bottles: What a Monthly Box Actually Costs
Agatha Atom
Trudy's Monthly Wine Club costs $49.99 a month for two bottles or $124.99 for six, shipping included. That breaks down to $25.00 or $20.83 a bottle.
Buying the same kind of bottles yourself costs $13 to $25 a bottle plus shipping on any order under $125. The club wins outright in one case, draws two and loses one, and the case it wins is the one most people who ask this question are actually in.
Here is the math, so you can decide with the numbers rather than the marketing.
What the club is
Two bottles a month, usually one red and one white, sometimes a sparkling or a rosé in season. These are chosen by us from the range and from bottles that are only available to members. Or you can opt for six bottles, three of each.
It can be pre-paid for three, six or twelve months, or ongoing with no minimum, canceled from your account whenever you like. The first box ships as soon as you order and the rest arrive on the same date each month. Shipping is included everywhere in the US except Alaska and Hawaii.
All of it is under 0.5% alcohol by volume, which is the threshold in the FDA's policy on dealcoholized wine, with the occasional 0.0% bottle.
It is named after Trudy Becker, who helped start Better Rhodes, and it was the fifth best-selling product in the shop by revenue over the last twelve months, behind the Insider Monthly Beer Box and three wines. That does not make it the right choice for you, which is what the rest of this page is about.
The four cases
For the bottle prices we used the wines that most often go into the box and that are on the site at the moment: Kolonne Null Non-Alcoholic Riesling ($19.99), Luminara Non-Alcoholic Chardonnay ($24.99), Giesen Non-Alcoholic Pinot Grigio ($16.99), Kolonne Null Non-Alcoholic Cuvée Rouge ($19.99) and Hand on Heart Cabernet Sauvignon ($16.99).
Average full price: $19.79 a bottle. Shipping on an order under $125 is the live UPS rate at checkout. For two bottles from our Connecticut warehouse it is rarely under $10 and can be over $15 to the West Coast.
|
Case |
Buying bottles |
The club |
Who wins |
|
1. Two bottles a month, bought in a sale week |
Two bottles at October's 15 to 20% off, about $32, plus $10 to $15 UPS: $42 to $47 |
$49.99, shipping included |
Bottles, by a few dollars, but only in the four weeks a year the sale is on |
|
2. Two bottles a month at full price |
Two bottles at $39.98 plus $10 to $15 UPS: $50 to $55 |
$49.99, shipping included |
Draw. The club edges it once shipping is counted, and the members' bottles are not on the site at any price |
|
3. Six bottles a month |
Better Non-Alcoholic Wines Variety 6-bottle Collection at $121.99 plus UPS shipping (it sits $3 under the free-shipping line; add anything and it ships free); $103.49 in a sale week |
$124.99, shipping included |
Draw. At full price the club edges it once shipping is counted; in a sale week the collection wins, and you choose it |
|
4. You would not otherwise buy wine every month |
Nothing, because the order does not get placed |
$49.99 arrives on the same date every month with two bottles you did not have to think about |
The club. This is the case most people asking are in |
So, if you are already buying two bottles a month at full price, the club costs about the same and chooses for you, with bottles you cannot otherwise get. If you buy in the sale weeks, keep doing that; the club is not cheaper and we are not going to pretend it is.
And if the honest answer is that you would like to drink better non-alcoholic wine but never get round to ordering it, the club is the mechanism, and the price is the price of not thinking about it.
What a club is really for
Three things, and price is not one of them.
The habit.
The month after Sober October is the month the fridge goes empty and the reset quietly ends. The change that lasts, in Alcohol Change UK's research on Dry January participants, is the one that survives the month after. A box on the 20th of every month is the difference between a good October and a good year.
The choosing.
Non-alcoholic wine is a category where the gap between a good bottle and a bad one is enormous and the label does not always tell you which is which. We wrote about why in Does Non-Alcoholic Wine Actually Taste Good?. The club is the range with the bad ones already taken out.
The bottles you cannot buy.
Some of what goes in the box is bought in for members only. That is the part of the value that does not show up in a per-bottle sum.
When a club is the wrong choice
-
You drink one style. If it is Pinot Grigio every night, buy Pinot Grigio; a red-and-white club will leave you with reds.
-
You buy by the case in the sale weeks. A case over $125 ships free and carries the sale price; the club cannot beat that.
-
You are in Alaska or Hawaii, where shipping is not included.
-
You want to try the category first. Start with the Non-Alcoholic Wine Bundle Under $15 ($69.99 for six) or the 3-bottle red collection ($53.99) and join the club when you know what you like.
How it compares with other non-alcoholic wine clubs
The best-known competing non-alcoholic wine club in the US charges $90 a month for four bottles, which is $22.50 a bottle, with a sommelier's name on the selection.
Trudy's six-bottle option is $20.83 a bottle and the two-bottle option is $25.00. Neither has a sommelier and both have shipping included. On price they are close.
The difference is the range behind them. The Better Rhodes shop carries over a hundred non-alcoholic wines, so the club draws from a wider cellar than a club built on one importer's list. We would still say: try a case first.