Operating in southeastern Michigan, the Oakland Oenological Society, aka "The Wine Club," is a non-profit, co-operative wine purchasing organization through which members may purchase from the wines listed in our quarterly Newsletters. Minimum purchase is $25.00, and members must order at least once a year to maintain their status on our mailing list. There are no membership dues, but there is a service charge, figured as 3% of the dollar total of wines ordered, to defray the costs of the Club's operations.

The primary purposes of The Wine Club are to reduce a bit of the cost and, more importantly, the risks and uncertainties of wine buying by providing some honest, albeit inevitably subjective, guidance to the wines offered. Each quarterly newsletter lists approximately one hundred wines - typically some forty whites, fifty reds, and ten or so "miscellaneous" wines (sparklers, port, sherry, etc.), accompanied by a description of each. Each wine listed has been tasted by the Club managers along with a panel of tasters, and one manager takes responsibility for writing the description based upon the collective commentary on the wine. The initials following a particular description identify the manager who authored it, and members can develop a "feel" for how the tastes of each manager relate to their own. We recognize that the descriptive terminology employed in characterizing wines, appropriately dubbed "wine-speak," may frustrate many with its ambiguity, but when applied consistently it can be a real aid to communicating a sense for a wine. For our part, while we may find the task of searching for the "right" words to be an challenging one, and we recognize that the translation of taste and smell sensations into words is an inexact art, we nonetheless believe that it is worth the effort in providing the buyer with some information before purchasing and consuming the wine. After all is said and done, we do believe that we manage to cull out most of the real schlock and fairly often come up with some really excellent wine values. That is the real service that we offer our members.