The best wine subscriptions you can buy

The wines from HelloFresh are approachable and easy to drink, making them an excellent option for folks who are just beginning to explore wine.

HelloFresh is one of the biggest names in the meal kit industry, which makes its jump over to wine boxes pretty seamless. Like its meal kits, which are unfussy and dependable, so too, is its wine.

Lot 18 serves as HelloFresh's partner in the wine-sourcing enterprise. The online retailer promises to provide "access to high-quality, hard-to-find wines from around the globe," and it certainly makes good on its promise.

The wines from HelloFresh hail from several different countries. In my box, there was actually only one wine from the U.S. (it hailed from California). Otherwise, bottles came from France, Germany, and Argentina. That said, all wines are bottled at Lot 18's California winery, so even though it's a "product of France," it's imported and shipped from the West Coast.

HelloFresh seeks to be as nonintimidating as possible, both in terms of its meal kit recipes, packaging, and its wines, too. Each delivery comes with six standard-sized bottles. If you go with the Mixed Wine plan, you'll normally end up with four reds and two whites.

All wines are meant to pair with a HelloFresh recipe, but they're also perfectly fine with the cheese plate you threw together as a quick appetizer for your dinner party. HelloFresh sends along an info sheet featuring tasting notes, as well as an email that makes fun suggestions around your wine and potential snack accompaniments.

I was particularly fond of the Chasseur de Cailloux blend of 70% Syrah, 15% Grenache, and 15% Carignan. Fruit-forward and easy to drink, HelloFresh's online tasting notes suggest that this "food-friendly wine should be matched with spice-rubbed pork chops."

Also popular among reviewers and customers alike is the Lustra Pinot Blanc from Monterey County. Elin McCoy of Bloomberg called this white wine "rich and lush," while users on wine review app Delectable called it "very smooth," "light," and "buttery."

My Insider Picks colleague, Connie Chen, said, "HelloFresh is better suited toward someone who likes wine but doesn't need to know everything about it."

At $89 a month including shipping, the bottles work out to about $15 each, which is comparable to what you might expect at your local wine store.

Pros: Easy to drink, unassuming wines for everyday enjoyment, global selection, reasonable cost

Cons: For those who are more experienced wine drinkers, this may not be the most exciting of subscriptions to receive

Sign up for a HelloFresh plan for $89 a month

If you want to taste your wine before you buy it, Vinebox is for you.

Unlike other wine subscriptions that send you multiple bottles of wine to enjoy, Vinebox hopes to introduce you to new wines with just a small sample. Think of it as a way to test drive your wines before you commit to buying them. Vinebox doesn't send you a 750 mL bottle, but rather 10 centiliters in a rather attractive vial. It's enough for a glass, and enough to help you determine whether or not it's something you want more of.

To ensure that you're getting wines that you'll probably like, Vinebox has you take a quiz before sending you your vino. It's not quite as detailed as the quizzes some other services offer. Rather than telling Vinebox how you take your coffee or what your favorite juice is, you'll simply say whether or not you're an adventurous wine drinker, or if you're new to the wine game.

All wines come with tasting notes, recommendations, and pairings. And once you've finished tasting, if any particular wine stood out, you're welcome to buy the full-sized bottle.

The wines that Vinebox sends are certainly already at the top of their game. The company notes that it taste tests 11,358 wines and only allows 1% of those to be sent to its customers, so rest assured that you're already testing the cream of the crop.

We've been fans of for quite some time. In 2016, Insider Picks noted that the Marc Francais Rhone he received was "bright and so juicy that it felt as if you were biting into a cheery." Wine Club Reviews also gave Vinebox a thumbs up, noting that while they "reserve superlatives for very-high-end wine ... these are just shy of superlative-worthy."

Vinebox also publishes its own customers' reviews on its website, and all but one of the 22 reviews rate the service either 4 or 5 stars. "Novel take on the wine delivery," Chuck M. wrote in January 2018. "Wines have been quite good since I started, no crazy Cheval Blancs, but good all the same. Clever info cards too."

Pros: Healthy glass-sized pours, great wine selection, ability to buy full-size bottle

Cons: Glass-sized pours (if you're hoping for more)

Sign up for Vinebox subscription, starting at $72

Blue Apron's 500 mL wines are just the right size to split with your partner over dinner.

With bottles that are bigger than Vinebox's 10 cL pours and smaller than your standard 750 mL, Blue Apron offers just enough wine for you to split with your dinner partner. Like HelloFresh, Blue Apron started as a meal kit service, which means that its wines are meant to pair with its recipes.

Unlike HelloFresh, however, Blue Apron actually holds its own winery license, which means that it can cut out many of the middlemen that make the wine-buying process more expensive. In fact, six bottles will set you back $66 a month, including shipping, which means that each bottle works out to $11. The company also works alongside other winemakers, including Napa's Steve Matthiasson and Helen Keplinger, to bring a greater selection of wines to customers.

All of the wines come complete with pairing suggestions and flavor profiles, as well as labels that have flavor symbols. If you're a Blue Apron meal kit subscriber, you'll recognize those symbols as the same ones that come on meal cards, so you can pair your wine with your recipe.

Some of the wines included in the Blue Apron box have received rave reviews from the real wine experts of the world. Wine Spectator, for example, gives the 2016 Le P'tit Paysan that Blue Apron sent in 2017 90 points, calling it a "charmer." Of course, Blue Apron switches out the wines that it sends on a regular basis, so don't expect to always receive the same bottles. After all, you have to keep things interesting for yourself.

Also popular is the Uvaggio Vermentino from California, which Bloomberg described as "zingy," and whose 2012 vintage received 4 out of 5 stars on wine.com.

My colleague Connie Chen described Blue Apron's wine club experience as just a little more involved than HelloFresh — both popular meal kit delivery services — but HelloFresh's bottles are larger, even if Blue Apron may be cheaper.

Pros: Great packaging, complementary to meal kits, cute 2/3rd bottle size makes them easy to finish

Cons: Since you can buy a lot of these bottles (full size) for around the same price, some folks may prefer to just drive over to the liquor shop

Sign up for Blue Apron for $65.99 a month

Bright Cellars relies on algorithms to match you to your favorite wines, which means that the longer you subscribe, the better suited your wines are to your palate.

Bright Cellars has long pushed the fact that it was founded by two MIT graduates, and despite its relatively new entrance into the wine subscription industry (it's only been around since 2015), it's already made quite a name for itself.

The company gives you a fun but slightly more detailed quiz about preferences — what kind of chocolate you like, how you take your tea — to determine what wine suits you best.

Then, after you've received your four bottles a month, rate them online, and Bright Cellars will use your feedback to determine what wines to send you next month. The more you rate and the more you subscribe, the more likely it is that you'll be paired with a wine that's exactly up your alley.

Back in 2016, Bright Cellars began "matching the wine to our members," as co-founder and CEO Richard Yau said. Basically, that means that Bright Cellars began making its own wine known as Bright Cellars exclusives, which are meant to reflect customers' tastes.

Yau notes that most of Bright Cellars' drinkers are "moving up from Barefoot and Yellow Tail," which is to say that more veteran wine drinkers may not be thrilled by the options provided by Bright Cellars. While I wasn't disappointed by any of the wines I tried, I wasn't exactly thrilled by any of them, either. They were, however, easy to drink, and would've made great party favors that could be roundly enjoyed by a diverse group of folks.

Moreover, Wine Club Reviews noted that, as Bright Cellars promised, each subsequent shipment contained better and better wines (or at least, wines that matched their drinkers' tastes).

One of the winningest aspects of Bright Cellars is its Delight Guarantee. The company promises that if you're matched with a bottle you don't love, a Bright Cellars Wine Concierge will help you select a free replacement bottle in your next box.

If you're going with Bright Cellars, you might also consider a subscription to its sister company, The Tasting Board. This monthly cheese club also leverages a quiz to help determine what dairy products you'll like best, because what's a bottle of wine without a cheese plate? For $55, you'll get four cheese selections a month, and like the Bright Cellars guarantee, any cheese that doesn't match your palate will be replaced for free in next month's box.

Pros: Helpful wine concierge, algorithm-based wine selection, unique wines you can't find elsewhere

Cons: You may have to stick with Bright Cellars for a bit longer to really get the payoff

Check out Bright Cellars for $80 a month

Firstleaf asks you to review the wines you've already tried so that it can keep improving its recommendations and evolve with your tastes.

Both you and wine get better with age, and so, too, does Firstleaf, a bargain wine club that truly wants to cater its selection of wines to your taste. The expert curators behind the company choose from a wide selection of red, white, and sparkling wines that are matched to your taste profile.

But don't worry — your taste profile isn't contingent upon a bunch of questions about whether you prefer corn flakes to bran flakes or how you take your coffee. Instead, the quiz asks simply if you'd rather go for red, white, or a mix and if you'd like a sparkling or rose thrown in, how many bottles you drink a month, and where you prefer your wine to come from.

Firstleaf then sends an introductory box of three wines for the truly unbeatable price of $15 plus $5 for shipping. After the first shipment, each six-bottle box costs $79 plus shipping.

Delivery was fast, and upon trying my first three wines, I was able to then review the options and have my taste profile updated. This way, you're actually able to give real-time feedback and ensure that each subsequent box is better.

To be fair, while the wines included in Firstleaf boxes are, as the company says, award-winning, these awards aren't necessarily agreed upon by the entirety of the wine community. That doesn't mean that the wines you're receiving are bad by any stretch of the imagination, but you won't necessarily want to invite your sommelier friends over to critique.

That said, many wine clubs tend to privilege value over taste, and given that these subscription services often cater to folks who are either just beginning to drink wine or looking for a hassle-free way to get a few bottles every month, they serve their purposes well. I enjoyed my three introductory wines (one white and two reds), and certainly would not object to getting a few more that are a bit more catered to my palette.

Pros: Each box gets better, good value, great customer service

Cons: No gifting option, some wines leave a bit to be desired

Subscribe to Firstleaf for $79 (plus shipping)

The best wine glasses you can buy

The size, shape, construction, and style of a wine glass can dramatically alter how the wine will taste. The best overall wine glass for everyday use is the Libbey 4 Piece Signature Kentfield Grande Wine Set.

You should also consider the Riedel Vivant 4 Piece White Wine Glass Set, the 2 Piece Riedel Veritas Cabernet/Merlot Glass Set, and the 4 Piece Royal Stemless Wine Glass Set.

The best wine openers and corkscrews you can buy

There's nothing like a glass of wine after a long day, but getting into the bottle can be a hassle without a good wine opener or corkscrew. To get that cork out as easily as possible, you should get the best one around — the Pulltap's Double-Hinged Waiters Corkscrew.

You should also consider the Laguiole En Aubrac Olivewood Waiters Corkscrew, the Oster Cordless Electric Wine Bottle Opener with Foil Cutter, the Wing Corkscrew Wine Opener by HiCoup with Bonus Wine Stopper, and the Rabbit Vertical Corkscrew with Foil Cutter and Extra Spiral.