Naked Wines review: We used the $100 voucher and loved our case of easy-drinking, indie wines

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If buying unique wines at wholesale prices and having them delivered to your doorstep sounds ideal, you should check out Nakedwines.com. The company invests in over 150 indie winemakers around the world and uses a lean business model to bring unique, high-end wines to market for cheap.

For shoppers, Nakedwines.com is a relatively inexpensive way to get good, unique wines sent to their door and be part of the wine community. For winemakers, it's kind of like a "Shark Tank" for their industry: They propose a wine, it gets approved, and Naked Wines gives them an advance to make it happen. This is possible thanks to the Angel memberships. Angel members pay $40 a month (that they can use to buy wine at any time) and receive perks like free samples, invites to wine events, discounts on shipments, and more.

How it works

It's not a wine subscription in the traditional sense. You can just buy wine directly from the site as you would anywhere else (minimum six bottles), but the site's Angel members get special perks. They save 40-60% on all their orders and get a ton of perks like samples of other wines included in their deliveries, a bottle of Angel-funded wine worth $20 or more each month they order a case of wine, access to Angel-only wines, invites to wine tastings to meet the winemakers, and access to an exclusive priority hotline for any needed support.

Angel members invest $40 every month into their Naked Wine piggy bank. This pool of crowdfunded money helps Naked Wine invest in its winemakers, but it's also never lost to Angel members; the $40 in the virtual piggy bank can be used on their individual wine orders whenever they like — in other words, it's pretty much like a wine bank account.

If all goes to plan, it's good for the company, the consumers, and the winemakers — like Carmen Stevens, reportedly South Africa's first black woman to graduate in wine-making (funded by 2,000 Angel members and $200,000 in eight hours).

Naked Wines voucher

I'd wager most people wind up on the site thanks to a suspiciously generous $100 voucher for new customers — I received mine inside the box of a Bloomingdale's purchase. Using the voucher, I got a Discovery Case with 12 bottles of wine across a wide spectrum of offerings from the site. With the $100 voucher — which you can also get by clicking the top right-hand button that says "voucher" and entering your email — the case was $79.99, instead of its current sale price of $179.99 (its traditional cost is listed at $264). This promo varies a bit depending on how many bottles are in the box — my colleague redeemed a $50 voucher for six bottles of wine.

In-person and in the best wine glass, the wines are good. I was satisfied and even a little surprised by their quality given the fact that I received $100 off lots of wine. The affordable bottles were what you'd call "easy drinking" wines — none that were bold and weird and revelatory — but perfect for casual drinking. Naked Wines hit the "weekday wine" niche perfectly, like this smooth red (a Shiraz Viognier) from South Africa.

One thing I would stress is that if you have any difficulty with your shipment, or you don't like a wine, you should contact Nakedwines.com for help. My experiences with them were as a consumer rather than a reporter, and I was impressed by their easygoing willingness to make sure I had a positive experience. This means that if you really hated a wine, they'll refund you. The site has a "cast-iron, no questions asked, 100% guarantee."

Wine community

What makes Naked Wines even more appealing is that it's also pretty social. Winemakers and members interact with each other. Winemakers get feedback directly from customers, and customers can ask them questions. Indirectly, members can rate and recommend wines to each other or join discussion groups like "Wine 'n Dine," a food pairing message board.

This communication creates an optional whirlpool of discovery and self-improvement, which is baked into the business from the top down to the granular level of your account; if you don't like a wine, give it a thumbs down in your Naked Me account. From then on, they'll help steer you away from wines that taste similar to the ones you didn't enjoy. Naked Wines also uses this as an indirect polling system, helping them determine which winemakers are doing the best job of making wines people really love.

The bottom line

All in all, Naked Wines has good wine for an accessible price, with the opportunity to be as involved as you want to be. It's also easy to cancel right in your online account if you change your mind as opposed to calling or emailing customer service.

If you use Naked as a casual wine drinker, you'll discover great and affordable wines (even if you don't take advantage of the $100 off coupon) through an interesting system that makes you feel more involved than just ordering another case of wine online.