Having been a wine connoisseur and consumer for nearly 20 years, I would like to think of my wine knowledge as being good, but even so I continue to look for ways to expand my wine intelligence.

Every season there is a new vintage with new wines coming onto the market from all over the globe which creates a major challenge for wine consumers such as myself. The obvious answer to this problem is of course that you cannot keep up with every wine as there are just so many wines being produced.

However once you have partially ascended the ladder of wine knowledge you can through a process of elimination get to taste a percentage of premium wines and thus selectively enhance your palates wine knowledge.

Given that a significant number of wines produced each season are not that good or are of only average quality, these quaffing wines should be eliminated from your wine tasting schedule completely thus minimizing the field down to the top 10-15% of wines for consideration. That still leaves a very high number of wines that would be classified as high-quality premium wines, which leads us to ask what the next step is in making the number of wines to taste a more manageable number?

How about exclusively tasting wines that have been recommended by prominent wine experts such as Robert Parker? I was not surprised when I recently discovered a premium wine club of gold medal wines whose wines are selected by wine masters and all wines score 90 points and above. All wines are effectively of Gold medal wine quality. The wines are chosen by the likes of Robert Parker, Stephen Tanzar, and Wine Enthusiast magazine – I mean these guys all know their stuff. What better way to assure yourself of the premium quality of the wines you are tasting?

Have you thought about expanding your wine expertise and palate by trying international wines this year?. Wines such as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, Australian Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, and South African Pinotage are shaking the wine world with their quality. Add in old world wines such as Tempranillo and Montepulciano and you have the foundations for rapidly growing your wine knowledge.

An introduction to premium international wines can be gained by joining this international wine club. Once again, the selection process is carried out by leading wine masters and you can decide when and how frequently you wish to receive shipments.

If you only have a small amount of time for experiencing wine over the next year then there is an ultimate premium wine club that only has the very best premium wine on offer and in small quantities for their limited wine club membership. This premium wine club has only the best wines – yes that also equates to being more expensive – but when selected  for you by wine experts, there is no guesswork regarding the wine quality. You will receive the very best wines exclusively so you are achieving fantastic value for your money with the wine you buy and consume.

One of the great ways to improve your knowledge of wine and get awesome wine deals is to join a wine appreciation club,  wine tasting club, or a wine club that is specific to the types of wine you are interested in.

There are many advantages in membership of a wine club - generally there will be great wine deals on offer ranging from cheaper wines through to more expensive high quality wines. You get the advantage of having real wine expert select wines and make them up into packs of 6 bottles or 12 bottles. These wine experts take into consideration value for money in terms of the cost or the wine versus the quality of the wine. For beginning wine tasters, this is a huge advantage as you will seldom, if ever,  get a poor quality wine. In essence it takes a lot of the guess work out of buying wine while your wine knowledge is still growing.

Wine appreciation clubs will generally provide some guarantees in terms of the quality of the wines you are purchasing, providing new wine drinkers with the confidence that whatever they will receive from the wine club is worth well in excess of the price they are paying. Special introductory offers also assist in bringing down the price on a bottle of wine. as you get the advantage of the wine appreciation clubs bulk buying strategies.

Even today after 20 years of learning about and tasting wines I still take into account the advice of leading wine critics and value their opinions immensely. There are so many wines coming out every vintage it is impossible to know the qualities of an individual wine prior to purchasing, without first taking advice from a wine expert or the tasting panel of a wine club.

Joining a wine appreciation club is an important step on your wine journey. Not only does it assist you in gaining more wine knowledge, it also makes available wines at great prices and in many cases there are social gatherings or opportunities to achieve additional discounts on other associated wine products and functions.

There are wine clubs that suit your needs for either premium wine or entry level wines, champagne wine clubs, red wine clubs – there are many such clubs to choose from, however you can find a large variety of wine clubs on the Cellar Club and you are pretty much guaranteed that they will have a club that suits you perfectly.

I highly recommend joining a wine appreciation club early on in your journey towards expanding your wine knowledge. The more wines you taste improves your stored knowledge and helps gain an appreciation for higher quality wines and the complexities you will find in their flavors.