Reasons For And Against Joining Our Whisk(e)y Club
"What?! You have a whisky club?" someone asked me yesterday when I told them they could save four bucks a bottle on the K&L Buffalo Trace Single Barrel. "Yes," I said, "I've mainly been telling people on the whisk(e)y newsletter about it," I mentioned. "Well I'm on the newsletter and I haven't heard about it." Really? That explains why some of you out there are buying all of the club selections without joining the club: I haven't done a good enough job of explaining how this club works.
The Whisk(e)y Club is just an extention of our Personal Sommelier wine program, which, instead of forcing you to receive selections completely of our choosing, lets you decide how many bottles you want per month (with one being the minimum), what type of wine, from where, and at what cost. You could be in the club for $15 a month if you really wanted to be, or for $1000. It's entirely up to you. Signing up for the whisk(e)y club means you go online and sign up for the Personal Sommelier service, choose spirits as your selection, and click on me as your personal sommelier. You can then decide how much you would like to spend. There is no obligation to receive the whiskies I choose as part of the club. You could get a bottle of cheap rum every month, or the 1.75 bottle of gin you were going to purchase anyway. The difference is you would now be eligable for the discounts on whisk(e)y and wine.
Who should be in the club? If you bought the Springbank 9 Year, the Bowmore 13 year, and the Buffalo Trace Single Barrel are were not a club member, then you just gave us an extra $20. If you plan on buying the 1982 Clynelish we're getting, followed by the 1991 Aberlour, you're going to be handing us an extra $25. These whiskies are all discounted for club members and can count as your once-a-month selection. Even though the Bowmore was received weeks ago and is now sold out, I held bottles back to be included in the current May shipment at a $10 discount for club members. There is no need or pressure to purchase the discounted whiskies on top of a mandatory monthly shipment - they can be one in the same. If you join the club we can communicate every month about what you would like to have selected for you - it's very easy.
Who should not be in the club? Those of you who do not purchase more than one bottle of booze of any kind on a monthly basis should not be in the club. That wouldn't make sense. Those of you who do not like single malts or bourbon likely wouldn't be interested in the discounts. Also, people who already subscribe to any of our monthly wine clubs are already eligable for the discounts and possibly do not need the burden of an extra club. Otherwise, there really aren't any other reasons not to be a member.
I'm planning on having a monster cask of either bourbon or whisky instock all the time. If you plan on being a part of these barrels then you should sign up to save some cash. You do not have to purchase every club discounted whisk(e)y as part of your membership. If you want something else instead, that's fine too. It's totally flexible. Go to the link below to sign up or email me if you have further questions.
http://www.klwines.com/sommelier.asp
-David Driscoll ([email protected])