Sip and Read

Meet the father and son duo behind SA’s oldest wine club

Wine of-the-Month Club is South Africa’s oldest and biggest direct to customer wine club, offering the best wines online with something for everyone and at every budget. This family-run business was conceived by Colin Collard in 1986 and proudly celebrates its 35th anniversary next year. It is now headed up by Collard’s son Cliff... _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This Heritage Month father and son sit down over a glass of wine to reminisce and answer some questions:

*How did you get the idea for the Wine-of-the-Month Club?

Colin: My background is in advertising. Back in the ‘70s I ran an agency in Johannesburg called Collard & Leisegang. After experiencing the type of enthusiasm for wine that most people discover at one time or another in their lives, and not finding any way to learn more about the subject, I founded the Wine-of-the-Month Club in Cape Town in 1986. I modelled the club along the lines of the Book-of-the-Month Club in America, whose success I had read about. But instead of books chosen by a panel of literary experts, wine club members would receive a selection of wines chosen by wine connoisseurs, as well as a newsletter telling them about the wines, tasting notes, when best to enjoy them and what foods to pair them with. Importantly, the wines had to be selected by independent panellists who had no interest in promoting one wine over another and, very unlike the case of selecting books, the panel had to choose the wines blind.

*What did you want members to get out of it?

Colin: My wish was for members to not only learn about wine, but also enjoy the competitive prices that come from bulk purchases and of course the convenience of a door-to-door delivery.

*What did you do to make the club stand out from the competition?

Colin: There are a number of online distributors of wine but none of them have a panel of judges to assess wines before they buy them. In fact, the Wine-of-the-Month Club has always had the largest judging panel of its kind in South Africa and having so many panellists means the wine selections are the product of a broad consensus and not just the whim or fancy of one person. Also, by tasting wines blind, our panel can assess wines without being influenced by the label, the packaging or even the producer’s past reputation. The judges assess wines simply on the basis of what they taste in the glass.