There’s no free lunch. Wine newsletters exist in order to encourage you to purchase services, such as wine reviews, wine education, and wine products and accessories. Having said that, the newsletter itself is usually free and often provide useful information via articles on wine, recipes, podcasts, video events such as experts chatting on a particular topic, and educational webinars.
Tim Atkin is an award-winning UK wine journalist with an international following and Master of Wine with 35 years’ experience. He writes for a number of publications, including Harpers and Decanter and is a co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge, the world’s most rigorously judged blind tasting competition. He also has a second career as a photographer whose photos have been published in a variety of sources. His email wine newsletter is free and features commentary on a variety of topics plus an article from a guest writer. Every now and then, he publishes a comprehensive review of the latest wines from a particular country or region for circa £20 a copy.
The Wine Sisters are a Toronto based sommelier services and wine events company. Their team of professionally certified sommeliers specialize in customizing wine experiences to their clients’ individual needs. They have a wine school which covers assorted topics including food and wine pairing, and provide tutored wine tastings for retail and corporate customers as well as wine tours. They provide a free wine newsletter weekly which includes recipes and wine recommendations. It also provides a link to their blog which has a variety of posts on wine, beer and food.
Natalie MacLean is an accredited Canadian sommelier, based in Ottawa, who has published three books on wine with Random House. Her major focus is the publication of wine reviews on a regular basis for her members. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial which gives you partial access to the reviews. After that, there is a yearly subscription. Once you have subscribed, you have the option of receiving additional emails which provide access to her podcast entitled Unreserved Wine Talk, wine videos and more. Natalie also offers a free food and wine pairing course, and her website has a food / wine matching tool under which you enter the food you are cooking and get a list of the wines she has reviewed that would work with it.
Michael Pinkus has a regular newsletter featuring wine reviews, video reviews and a podcast. You can also follow him via YouTube. He is a multi-award-winning journalist as well as a national and international wine judge. His articles have appeared in numerous publication both in Canada and internationally. He teaches classes through Ryerson and the Toronto District School Board, gives lectures, leads seminars, hosts parties (both corporate and private), sets up tours, consults, judges, gives interviews, broadcasts and podcasts. He is a past president and member of the Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada.
Quench describes itself as a magazine but the subscription offered is to their free newsletter which sends you links to articles on wine and food. Their website has more articles, recipes and videos.
If you are a Globe & Mail subscriber, you can sign up at no charge for their weekly Good Taste newsletter, which includes wine reviews from the Globe’s wine columnist, Christopher Waters. Scroll down to the Lifestyle & Arts Newsletters to find it.
Wine Enthusiast is USA based. It has a free email subscription service which provides one to three emails a day which try to sell you a variety of wine products and accessories from its catalogue. Some emails also include wine recommendations, a monthly advance buying guide covering wines around the world, free webinars, and a link to a regular podcast. You will also get a weekly “weekend reads” email with links to a variety of wine articles that I presume were published in its magazine. You can only subscribe to the magazine by calling them at 1-800-829-5901 since the online form is for USA subscribers only.
As well, it has a sister publication entitled Beverage Industry Enthusiast which is more business focused but also features breaking news reports from the world of wine, spirits and beer.
In addition to the above, there are a number of Agencies that provide a newsletter outlining their latest offerings.