A Slew of Stackable Wine.com/Wine Spectator Deals (including a 95 point red you can buy now)
Monday, November 11, 2013
As a deal hound, one of the things I like most are deals that are stackable. By that I mean you can apply multiple methods of savings to get things you want rather than having to choose one discount over another.
If you're interested in an amazingly affordable highly rated red wine shipped directly to your doorstep, along with a Wine Spectator subscription (or extension) this set of deals might be for you. If you're into collecting airline points and miles this deal gets even sweeter.
Step 1: Get a Wine.com Steward Ship Subscription
Steward Ship is like Amazon Prime. For a flat rate you get free shipping for the whole year. What I like about it is that when I see a wine pop up that I'd like to try I can get it shipped out immediately without having to build towards a mixed case to reduce per-bottle shipping charges.
It's also great for gifting. With Steward Ship you can get free shipping orders sent to any address. So you could theoretically send a single bottle of wine to 30 colleagues, friends and family this holiday season with your Steward Ship membership.
Steward Ship costs $49 per year. This is an affiliate sign-up link. Feel free to use it if you'd like:
Steward Ship is like Amazon Prime. For a flat rate you get free shipping for the whole year. What I like about it is that when I see a wine pop up that I'd like to try I can get it shipped out immediately without having to build towards a mixed case to reduce per-bottle shipping charges.
It's also great for gifting. With Steward Ship you can get free shipping orders sent to any address. So you could theoretically send a single bottle of wine to 30 colleagues, friends and family this holiday season with your Steward Ship membership.
Steward Ship costs $49 per year. This is an affiliate sign-up link. Feel free to use it if you'd like:
Get FREE shipping on ANY order for 30 days with Stewardship trial. Sign up now!
Step 2: Shop Wine.com Through an Online Portal
You can get additional savings in the form of cashback, points & miles by shopping at Wine.com through an online portal. There are tons of online portals. To compare the best savings rates in your preferred currencies check a site like Cashback Monitor:
http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/Cashback-Rebates-Store/wine.com/
Step 3: Take Advantage of Portal Promotions
The United MileagePlus shopping portal is running a promotion whereby if you make 3 purchases of $25 you get an additional 1,500 miles. That's worth $15-$30 depending on how you value United miles. (ends 11/11/2013)
So break up your shopping into 3 separate $25 transactions to maximize this bonus. You'll get free shipping on all of them since you have Steward Ship. :)
https://www.mileageplusshopping.com/p/promo2.htm
Not to be outdone, the AAdvantage Shopping portal offers up to 750- 2,500 bonus miles for cumulative purchases of $75-$250. (runs 11/12/2013-12/02/2013)
https://www.aadvantageeshopping.com/p/promo1.htm
Step 4: Double Dip the Shopping Portal
If you're not sure which wines you want to buy but want to take advantage of a short-term shopping portal promotion you can sometimes get bonus points for buying gift cards through the portal. Although gift cards are said to be excluded you can try double dipping the portal by buying a gift card and then using that gift card to buy merchandise.
More on double dipping Wine.com here:
http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2013/02/saving-at-winecom-by-double-dipping.html
Step 5: Get a Free Six Month Wine Spectator Print Subscription with $50 Wine.com Purchase with Steward Ship
Want a Wine Spectator print subscription? Or an extension to your existing subscription? For Wine.com Steward Ship members, if you place a Wine.com order of $50 or more you can get a 6-month Wine Spectator print subscription:
http://www.wine.com/Content/magazine-offer.aspx
For comparison, the going rate for a one-year Wine Spectator subscription is around $49:
Wine Spectator (1-year auto-renewal)
Note: I've saw a half off voucher for a Wine Spectator print subscription that's intended to be used for gifting purposes that can also be used to renew your own subscription. Check for that if you're an existing subscriber.
Step 6: Consider Using Points & Miles to Renew Your Wine Spectator Print Subscription
Last I checked you could use United and US Airways miles at a very favorable rate for a Wine Spectator print subscription. More on that here:
http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2010/02/wine-spectator-subscriptions-via.html
Step 7: Get a Free 3 Month Subscription to Wine Spectator Online
As part of Wine Spectator's Top 100 reveal they're offering a free 3-Month online subscription. Can't beat that:
http://winespectator.com/3monthsfree
Step 8: Buy the 95-Point 2009 Muga Rioja Seleccion Especial for $34.99
Step 2: Shop Wine.com Through an Online Portal
You can get additional savings in the form of cashback, points & miles by shopping at Wine.com through an online portal. There are tons of online portals. To compare the best savings rates in your preferred currencies check a site like Cashback Monitor:
http://www.cashbackmonitor.com/Cashback-Rebates-Store/wine.com/
Step 3: Take Advantage of Portal Promotions
The United MileagePlus shopping portal is running a promotion whereby if you make 3 purchases of $25 you get an additional 1,500 miles. That's worth $15-$30 depending on how you value United miles. (ends 11/11/2013)
So break up your shopping into 3 separate $25 transactions to maximize this bonus. You'll get free shipping on all of them since you have Steward Ship. :)
https://www.mileageplusshopping.com/p/promo2.htm
Not to be outdone, the AAdvantage Shopping portal offers up to 750- 2,500 bonus miles for cumulative purchases of $75-$250. (runs 11/12/2013-12/02/2013)
Step 4: Double Dip the Shopping Portal
If you're not sure which wines you want to buy but want to take advantage of a short-term shopping portal promotion you can sometimes get bonus points for buying gift cards through the portal. Although gift cards are said to be excluded you can try double dipping the portal by buying a gift card and then using that gift card to buy merchandise.
More on double dipping Wine.com here:
http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2013/02/saving-at-winecom-by-double-dipping.html
Step 5: Get a Free Six Month Wine Spectator Print Subscription with $50 Wine.com Purchase with Steward Ship
Want a Wine Spectator print subscription? Or an extension to your existing subscription? For Wine.com Steward Ship members, if you place a Wine.com order of $50 or more you can get a 6-month Wine Spectator print subscription:
http://www.wine.com/Content/magazine-offer.aspx
For comparison, the going rate for a one-year Wine Spectator subscription is around $49:
Wine Spectator (1-year auto-renewal)
Note: I've saw a half off voucher for a Wine Spectator print subscription that's intended to be used for gifting purposes that can also be used to renew your own subscription. Check for that if you're an existing subscriber.
Step 6: Consider Using Points & Miles to Renew Your Wine Spectator Print Subscription
Last I checked you could use United and US Airways miles at a very favorable rate for a Wine Spectator print subscription. More on that here:
http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2010/02/wine-spectator-subscriptions-via.html
Step 7: Get a Free 3 Month Subscription to Wine Spectator Online
As part of Wine Spectator's Top 100 reveal they're offering a free 3-Month online subscription. Can't beat that:
http://winespectator.com/3monthsfree
Step 8: Buy the 95-Point 2009 Muga Rioja Seleccion Especial for $34.99
Now that you have an online subscription to Wine Spectator you can log in and search their ratings database. You'll find things like this candidate for Wine Spectator Wine of the Year:
http://www.winespectator.com/wine/detail/source/search/note_id/347623
This is a terrific price for a 95-point red wine, and if you live in Massachusetts like I do you can buy it for $34.99 fully loaded (no tax and free shipping with Steward Ship or $0.01 on your first Wine.com order):
Buy Bodegas Muga Seleccion Especial Reserva 2009 on Wine.com
Wine Spectator tends to be more conservative than The Wine Advocate with the big numbers. More on that here:
http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2010/09/who-tosses-around-90-point-ratings-more.html
Accepting that Wine Spectator is more conservative with the big scores, 100 points is 100 points. Check out this deal from over the weekend if you missed it:
http://www.wellesleywinepress.com/2013/11/amazing-deal-alert-parker-goes-100.html
Step 9: Get 10% off 6 bottles of Rioja wines with code RIOJA
A nice thing about having Steward Ship is that you can enter a promo code on top of your free shipping that's automatically included. Luckily that 95-point Muga is a wine from RIOJA and Wine.com is running 10% off 6 bottle or more through 11/17/2013.
Step 10: Round out your Wine.com Orders with Inexpensive Wines
With Steward Ship you can ship out even a single bottle of Wine.com's cheapest wine for free. But you can also use less expensive wines to reach price points like $25 or $50 to trigger portal/subscription bonuses.
Shop around. By sorting on "Savings" I found they had a terrific deal on this wine (for orders that ship to MA) that I've previously really enjoyed:
2007 Sanford Pinot Noir on Wine.com
Summary
By stacking some or all of these deals together you can get some terrific wines shipping directly to your home or office without having to battle holiday traffic. I ordered a bottle of Muga on Friday morning and it showed up on Saturday.
And it's nice to access to Wine Spectator print and online subscriptions - especially when you can catch them on a deal.
The Wine.com and Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. Just FYI and thanks if you choose to use them.