St. Clement Winery Closes Tasting Room

What an abrupt announcement! As a wine club member at St. Clement Winery in St. Helena, I was shocked to receive this e-mail yesterday announcing the closure of their gorgeous tasting room. St. Clement had a great tasting experience, with a pretty outoor patio next to a historic house with sweeping vineyard views, and there’s no explanation as to why it’s shutting the doors to visitors.

Let’s get down to the wine club aspect of this whole thing. It’s interesting that St. Clement is going to continue with its wine club (how long they’ll keep it up is another mystery). One of the greatest benefits awarded to club members is was the ability to enjoy complimentary VIP tastings for 4 whenever visiting the winery. While I applaud the decision to honor a once per year visit (for two) to their sister wineries (as well as a 10% discount), there’s no way I’m going to remain in a wine club where I’m required to purchase wine that I can’t taste first. This is bonkers to me and I’ve promptly cancelled.

Read the entire e-mail below, and please leave your thoughts on this unexpected closure.

As a respected member of our Wine Club, we would like to thank you for your ongoing support of St. Clement Vineyards and share important news with you. We have made the decision to close the tasting room in St. Helena; yesterday was our final day hosting guests on property. Our wines will continue to be available to our valued members through wine club shipments, as well as on our website and by phone. It has been our great pleasure to have hosted our members at the winery over the years. As we go through this transition, please be advised that there will be an evolution in your club member benefits:

• Tasting benefits will now be honored via a sister winery club benefit program – members will be able to visit six of our sister wineries for a complimentary tasting for two annually. Membership cards will be mailed out shortly for you to use with each visit, properties include Beringer, Beaulieu Vineyard, Sterling, Etude, Provenance, and Chateau St. Jean.
• Invitations to club events at sister wineries.
• 10% wine discount at sister wineries when you present your St. Clement membership card.
• 20% club member discount will continue to be honored on St. Clement club shipments and on St. Clement orders online and by phone.
• Will call will no longer be an available shipping method for club members, all club packs will need to ship to members.
  
• We will continue to ship club shipments quarterly. We will be sending your notification later this week with October’s exciting club selections.

If you have any questions or if you need to change your information, you may continue to contact our Wine Club Customer Service team at (707) 257-5783.

Everyone here at St. Clement would like you to know how much we appreciate your patronage and we look forward to continuing to provide you with the highest level of customer service. Thank you for allowing us to share our wines with you.

Sincerely,
The St. Clement Wine Club Team

By: Louisa