Firstleaf Wine Club March 2019 Subscription Box Review + Coupon

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Firstleaf is a wine club subscription that aims to discover your exact wine preferences and ship you that wine. A member’s first shipment will be an introductory pack containing 6 bottles of wine. It will be curated based on a few simple questions that you will answer upon sign up. If you rate wines after you receive your box, they’ll use their proprietary algorithm to target your exact preferences, getting better and better with every box.

DEAL: The introductory order with 6 bottles of wine is priced at $39.95 + tax and has free shipping, while future boxes will contain 6 bottles for $79.98 + $9.95 shipping and tax. No coupon needed, just use this link to subscribe.

Once you receive your first shipment, you can log into your account and rate the wines in the Previous Boxes section. The more wines you rate, the more closely they can match future shipments to your tastes. Instead of sorting you into broad categories, Firstleaf performs a chemical analysis of all their wines, and uses your ratings to narrow down your predicted reactions to each flavor component.

The wines are placed in a molded pulp tray to fully protect them during transit.

The wine bottles arrived in perfect condition! They were placed in the box horizontally, but there was no leakage whatsoever!

On this card, we are reminded to check our email for any updates from Firstleaf!

There’s a letter from Firstleaf’s Founder and CEO.

This month’s box also includes an exclusive booklet from Firstleaf.

The first part of the booklet introduces us to the Firstleaf master winemaker, Olga Karapanou Crawford.

There’s also an article about the famous wine grape, the Vitis Vinifera.

Another feature is about Firstleaf’s four award-winning wines. These four garnered a total of 681 awards!

This booklet is truly informative, I’ve learned a lot of things about the subscription and the makers behind it.

Each bottle of wine has a corresponding information card.

Everything in my box!

I have 3 red wines and 3 white wines!

The first three bottles are red wines from Mendocino County and California, respectively!

2013 Red Blend Vintage Wine Works ($17.60)

Welcome the Vintage Wine Works Red to Firstleaf. The Vintage Wine Works Red is a great new addition to the club. With smooth cherry, plum, and raspberry notes, this fruit-forward wine is a delicious option if you are feeling a Red. It has medium body and approachable silky tannins with a good balancing dose of acidity. Our experts think this is a well-balanced, smoothly polished wine. They love the secondary notes of black plum, light sage, and olives that play off the light hint of oak. We suggest pairing it with meats smoked or grilled. We recently tried it with a charcuterie board and thought it was a great addition!

It’s a medium-bodied wine with low-acidity level and sweet fruity flavor. This wine is dominated with the taste of cherry and raspberry notes with a little kick of light sage and olives. Simply a classic!

According to the card, this luscious wine is best paired with flank steak, roasted chicken, or even goat meat. It’s a wine that totally holds its own!

2016 Saturn’s Rings Cabernet Sauvignon ($19.99)

For an out of this world discovery, raise a glass of the Saturn’s Rings Cabernet Sauvignon. Greatness isn’t always appreciated right away, sometimes it can take years or even centuries to receive credit. Thankfully judges have seen the light and awarded it a Gold medal at the 2019 Texas International Wine Competition and Silver at the 2019 Winemaker Challenge. Saturn’s Rings is all about acknowledging the journey along the way, and this wine is a discovery all its own. We love the dark cherry flavors that play off of hints of licorice and mint. The color is a beautiful, deep ruby that shines in a glass. We think that the texture and tannins can complement mildly acidic tomato-based dishes, as well pair exceptionally well with roast duck or wild game. For once greatness is discovered and appreciated in this Cabernet Sauvignon.

Saturn’s Rings Cabernet Sauvignon is a full-bodied dark wine that features a complex taste of black cherry, licorice, and mint that probably comes from the time it spent in oak.

The tannins and hints of spice make it a great pairing with roasted duck, wild game, and even tomato-based pasta.

2013 Counter Cut Syrah Mendocino County ($17.60)

A Mendocino Syrah that pairs beautifully with the best cuts your butcher has to offer. Wine and food are so intertwined that to try and separate them would be a mistake. They play off of one another in ways that highlight and elevate both at the same time. The Counter Cut Syrah is a complex wine that shines with anything that can match its nuanced flavors. Notes of blackberries and bay leaf pair with a tapenade, and the black pepper and earth notes are fantastic with any meat you might want to try. Since Mendocino is a cooler region the acids in the grapes are higher than many California Syrahs, resulting in a wine that is even better at pairing than a normal Syrah. We recommend trying it with the best cut of meat your butcher has on offer!

Compared to the first two wines, this is a little less sweet and has a stronger alcoholic taste. It’s a full-bodied wine with deep and spicy dark fruit flavor coming from blackberry, bay leaf, tapenade, and black pepper spice flavors.

It’s so strong, it makes a perfect pair with huge cut meats such as beef stew, roast leg of lamb, and flank steak.

The next three bottles are white wines from Chile, California, and Argentina, respectively!

2017 Literaria ’42 Sauvignon Blanc Chile ($17.10)

A truly Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. One idea central to Chilean artistic identity is originality. Starting in 1842 a group of artists banded together to bolster a growing cultural movement that heralded a new era of uniquely Chilean art. They rejected foreign models and drew on their own rich history to produce works of lasting importance with extraordinary reach. In the Literaria ‘42 Sauvignon Blanc winemaking joins in with the other mediums integral to the movement. The wine is crisp and acidic. It ’s incredibly refreshing and vibrant. It is uniquely Chilean and full of South American fruit perfect for pairing with fresh vegetables and food that has just come off the grill. Judges enjoyed it too! It took home a Silver Medal at this year’s Critics Challenge.

The nose of the wine is strongly dominated by fresh fruit notes of lemon and tropical fruit with a high level of acidity that keeps it from being gooey. It’s a refreshing white wine perfect for spring and summer.

The high-level acidity coming from this wine makes it a perfect pair with grilled octopus, ceviche, sushi, and fishes.

2017 Trailstone White Wine Blend ($19.99)

Find your way home with the Trailstone White Wine Blend. Stacks of stones litter the fringes of trails all over the world and are used by hikers as a means of trail marking and memorial. We can’t think of a better metaphor for our feelings about this white blend from Trailstone. This is a balanced wine and is one that we use as a measuring stick for other youthful white wines. It exhibits a complexity beyond its years: clover honey, ripe pear, nectarine, and the curious note of orange pith. We believe it is an iconic take on a young Paso Robles white blend. The nuances of the wine make it fantastic for pairing, and we’ve been loving it with duck confit, fresh salads, and even fried seafood. Judges love it too! It took home 93 Points and a Gold medal from the 2019 West Coast Wine Competition!

This is definitely one of the best wines in this month’s box, as it features a smooth texture and perfectly balanced notes of orange, pear, and clover honey that swirls around the nose and the mouth of the wine.

The taste was bright with a little kick of sweetness. According to Firstleaf, this white wine goes well with salad, fried calamari, and duck confit. I think it goes with a beach vacation!

2018 Old Quarter Torrontes ($16.99)

Taste the first fruits of 2018 in the Old Quarter Torrontes. Every year we get excited to try the new wines from the Southern hemisphere. While vines across the United States and Europe are just waking up after a dormant winter, the farmers of South America are preparing for harvest. This means that now, we are getting to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Torrontés has an incomparable flavor and is produced almost exclusively in Argentina. The Old Quarter is a fantastic take on this new world favorite, with strong notes of white flowers, jasmine, and tropical fruit that are balanced out by a notable minerality. The finish is elegant and lingering and makes it an excellent match for spicy Asian foods. We’ve been loving it with coconut curries, teriyaki, and pad thai. Judges love it too! They gave it 90 Points and a Gold medal at the 2019 Winemaker Challenge!

This white wine has notes of white flowers and jasmine with a lingering and elegant finish of tropical fruit that makes it an excellent pair for Asian food.

According to the card, this wine is best paired with Pad Thai, Teriyaki, and coconut curry. This was definitely responsive to my notes on the last box and how much I love wines like this.

Our Firstleaf Wine Club experience has been fantastic so far! They have premium quality and award-winning wines, so what’s not to love? This month’s mix of reds and whites is just fantastic. I’m happy I’ve got wines that I can pair with various meals and enjoy on various occasions. I’m also impressed by how well the bottles are packed. They really make sure that all the wines arrive in great condition. I’m definitely looking forward to discovering more wine varieties in future boxes and I’m loving the way the wines were matched to my profile!

What do you think of Firstleaf Wine Club subscription?

Visit Firstleaf to subscribe or find out more!

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