Flaviar – Spirits Membership Review

Flaviar

Price:  See Website (as of 1/20/2020: quarterly membership is $95, annual is $300)
Promotions and specials affect pricing

What Flaviar Says*

* as of 1/20/2020, benefits change from time to time!
Flaviar is a band of spirits enthusiasts, inspired by culture, rich history and the art of distillation. We forage the World of Spirits for the finest, rarest and most unique expressions out there and pack it all into a 21st century Members Club. You are what you drink, diversity and quality matter and all that should most certainly be enjoyed with style and in good company.

CLUB ETHOS
Times have changed since the dark era of 1920’s Prohibition, when the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages was outlawed. There are now over 15,000 different spirits on the market and each year hundreds of craft distilleries open their doors.

While not outlawed, 99% of these drinks are just as unreachable as they were 90 years ago. Most bars and liquor stores carry only 10 to 50 bottles on average, with Jack and Johnnie always in the forefront of the show.

We believe everyone deserves a place in the spotlight. We fight for equal opportunity for producers to reach individuals like you. We, ladies and gents, lead the speakeasy movement of the modern day.

Get amazing value every quarter
>Full member access
>1 Tasting Box per quarter
>1 full-size Bottle per quarter
>Free shipping every month
>Free live tasting events
>Member pricing in our shop
>Refer-a-friend program
>Cancel any time

What Gary Says

I signed up for Flaviar on March 29th 2019 with a promo for an annual membership at a cost of $189. Note that the benefits at that time did NOT include a full size bottle each quarter, and the first ‘free Tasting Box’ wasn’t of my choosing (the ‘Flaviar Welcome Box’; more on that later).  I had options for discounted events (none of which I attended, as I think all but one were outside of Atlanta), and I did get a free 375 mL bottle of WhistlePig 10 yr Rye as a ‘signing bonus’.  I had scoped out their site, and saw that they had some pretty compelling pricing on a couple bottles that I was interested in, which would offset the cost of the membership.  I liked the Tasting Box concept on paper and wanted to see how that would work out as well.  I decided I would make a spreadsheet with what I had paid for the membership and each purchase, what I WOULD have paid for the same purchases locally, and keep a running tally to determine the cost/benefit of the membership.  As time went on, I added a column for ‘acquisition expense’ (as some purchases I couldn’t get locally, and to acquire would have had to pay for shipping, or travel, etc).

Out of the gate, the 375 mL of Whistlepig 10 yr retails locally for about $42 w/ tax.  I’d never bought a bottle of Whistlepig 10 yr as I thought it was over-priced (although private selections are a different topic!)  I had tried it several times, but thought having a half-bottle would at least give me a chance to bump some other whiskies up against it for perspective.

My first two purchases were selected before I joined.  On March 30th, I started with a Lagavulin 16 yr which locally was running about $95 + tax (which put it just over $100).  Flaviar’s price at the time:  $82.99 (including tax – out the food with free shipping).  Nice savings of $18; added onto the $42 for the WP10 and by my sign-up and first order, I had recouped $60 of the $189!

Late on the evening of March 30th (10:30pm EST), I received an thanking me for signing up, and offering me $10 off any bottle purchased on my first day of membership!  That’s great!!  Except . . . I’d already made my purchase on my first day of membership, so the coupon code didn’t help.  I alerted them to this to see if I could retroactively get $10 refunded, pointing out that it had arrived more than 24 hours after I had signed up (and after I had made my first purchase).  They couldn’t do that, but they did put a $10 credit on my account that could apply to my next purchase.  Ultimately made me square, but a clunky customer experience for sure (and I brought this to their attention).

In this day and age where you can order something and think nothing of having it arrive the next day (certainly in 2 days), I was disappointed with the first email about my first order.  March 30th was a Saturday, and on Monday, April 1st (2 days later) I was informed that my order was sent to their ‘sorting facility’ and that “Your delivery might take up to 14-21 days, but it is usually much quicker. ”  Wow . . . 14-21 days??  That was a big disappointment to think that it would take weeks to get something I could drive to most respectable stores locally and pick up immediately (although at a higher price).  Good news:  it didn’t take that long – it was delivered on Wednesday, April 3rd.  Granted – I’d rather have them ‘under promise’ and ‘over deliver’ , but it seemed there was definitely a disconnect in terms of what I should expect and what I would get.

I also made some mistakes.  I thought that the ‘free shipping’ was for one bottle per month (it is ‘one order of any size’ per month, or was as of December 2019), so I waited until April to make my second bottle purchase, which was a Redbreast 12 yr Cask Strength.  It was priced in the high $60s (when locally it was going for $95), but with my $10 credit, it cost me $62 out the door – a complete steal for one of my favorite Irish whiskies.

After my 2nd bottle order was placed, I received the first Tasting Box (and the 375 of Whistlepig 10 yr) on April 11th.  Let’s talk about that.

Tasting Box

The Flaviar Welcome Box included 50 mL samples of Breckenridge Bourbon Whiskey, Few Rye Whiskey, and Wolfburn Northland Single Malt Scotch Whisky.  None of these were whiskies I was particularly seeking out, but we hadn’t reviewed any of them before – so I was happy about that.  I had tried Few Rye Whiskey before but didn’t recall any impressions (which typically means it didn’t leave one).  While the whiskey didn’t blow my hair back, the setup was quite impressive!

First – the container is very sturdy; no concerns about any samples inside being damaged. There is a coaster and some cards in the lid (more on those in a bit).  There a small red piece of string near the label that you pull to tear through the front label (and it actually worked as intended!)

It took some twisting to open, but I managed, and was delighted to see very nicely designed foam inserts that snugly held the samples in place, and apart from one another.

Note that the sample vials aren’t labeled with the contents, but with minimal information to allow you to perform a ‘blind tasting’ . . . . maybe.  In this case, unfortunately the ‘Product of Scotland’ immediately gave away the contents of C as only 1 of the 3 samples was a product of Scotland.  The ABV is also listed.  I’m sure both the country of origin and ABV are labeling requirements that by law they’ve got to include on the sample itself (so this isn’t a poor design by them; not sure if they could put that on the back of the vial or not, but it has to be on the sample vial.  So if you really want to do a true blind tasting, have someone help you with opening the tasting box and setting it up (although they should use the same A/B/C labels).

The top part of the container has a coaster with their logo on it. It held down the cards, so not without purpose (and if you need a coaster set that you get 1 at a time, there you go).  There was a pair of cards for each sample (one really containing the label so if you wanted to peel that off and apply it, you could).  One containing simply vial letter, name, type and ABV.  At the bottom was a card with a pull tag (well thought out, as even with this it took some wriggling to get the cards out).  This provided some URLs for details on tasting spirits and organizing a tasting.  I thought these might provide the novice with instructions on setting up a blind tasting, but alas they are now redirected to a blog entry on their site (“6 Golden Rules to Enjoy and Survive a Whisky Event”).  Not sure if these kits evolved so the content changed, or what happened there.

Now having the name and the character for the sample creates a bit of a challenge if you’re using these to setup a blind tasting, eh?  I lined up my three vials on their respective cards (as fine print states “Sample Here”, with glasses at the ready.  Um . . . yeah, so much for blind.  To be fair, no where in their description does it say ‘blind tasting’, but this felt like a fumbled opportunity to me (why go through the trouble with the A/B/C to just blow it on the cards? Could have just said “Flip To Reveal A” on the top of that card!)

On the underside of these cards is a visualization of their tasting notes (their ‘Flavor Spiral’), which is consistent with what they put on their website.  Below is an example (not from the above set but a subsequent Tasting Box). These are easy to understand – the bigger the picture, the more prominent that flavor is likely to be.

My latest Tasting Box labeled the samples directly (so no cards with stickers).  As a blind setup would require assistance based on the initial setup, I prefer them simply labeling the tasting box vials.  For purposes of assessing the cost-benefit, I figured that I would pay $3 for a 50 mL bottle of each of these three at a store just for the sake of reviewing them on the site, so I counted this as $9 worth of benefit.

I had hoped I could ‘assemble’ my own tasting box (pick three spirits), but that isn’t how it works.  They have pre-selected boxes, so choose wisely.  Some have two whiskies I wanted to try, and one I couldn’t care less about.  Or one I REALLY wanted to try before buying a whole bottle of, and two that I don’t anticipate liking (or have tried and know I didn’t care for).  You can buy these tasting boxes at prices that range from $36.99 to $44.99.  Depending upon the spirits contained, this can still be a good deal even if you don’t like one of the three (think about what you’d spend for a 50 mL pour in a bar; plus you have the luxury of choosing your environment, etc).

By the end of April, I had bought two bottles, received both (and the free ‘Welcome Tasting Box’ and 375 mL of WP).  For those three bottles, I had received for free or saved $93.  Throw in my valuation for the ‘Welcome Tasting Box’ at $9 and I was up to $102 recovered from my $189 investment!  I wasn’t only shopping for deals – I wanted to get some bottles that I thought I would enjoy but couldn’t buy locally.  I won’t go blow by blow with every other purchase.  Some I bought because I wanted to try them and couldn’t get them locally (such as Armorik Double Maturation Breton Single Malt or Two James Spirits Catcher’s Rye).  Others I bought because I wanted to try them AND they were priced lower than local retail (like Bruichladdich Port Charlotte 10 Year Old Heavily Peated which was $69 on-line while closer to $89 locally).  With other Tasting Boxes that I had selected (and being whiskies I was more interested in, I assigned a valuation of $15 per box, even though some were only 45 mL samples rather than 50), and savings from other bottles, as of this writing in January 2020, I calculate that I not only exceeded the annual membership cost in benefit, but probably got $50 in upside due to some really attractive prices.

I have a couple more months on my membership before it renews, although as they’ve changed the membership structures, it would renew under a different structure.  Below is what it shows me as the comparison of the ‘current plan’ vs the ‘new plan’.  Note that the ‘Price per quarter’ of $60 (or $240 per year) is more than I had paid when I signed up (and this doesn’t show the free 375 mL bottle).  But . . . if I upgrade myself now manually . . . they’ll move me to the ‘New Plan’ for the annual price of $210 vs the $300 tag (if you renew for the year).  With existing tariffs on single malt Scotch whisky (which as I’m writing this are in danger of increasing again) – not sure I’ll be buying a ton from anyone for a while.  Some of the great deals I scored seem to have been re-priced since so that they are in-line with local retail, or in some cases even a bit higher.  Granted, even today there are some good prices (I may grab a Caol Ila 12 yr for $72 + tax w/ free shipping, which is a few bucks cheaper than the better priced local retailers, even before this tariff nonsense).

Now there are other perks of membership.  They have a team that offers private selections (labeled under ‘Deer, Bear & Moose’), which are typically single casks of single malt scotch whisky (although not exclusively).  They disclose the distillery, age, and most are bottled non-chill filtered with no colorant added.  Due to the limited number of bottles, these can sell quickly, so I’m not sure what the going rate is.

In fact on Monday, January 13th 2020 they emailed me (and I assume all members) that they would have their next release go ‘live’ on January 15th 2020 at 1pm EST.  The only details pre-sale are that there are 420 bottles available (and once gone, they’re gone), the name (‘The Gentlemen), the distillery (Glentauchers), the age (23 yrs), and the distilled date (1996).  Some of those you have to scan the partial label image of (which I’ve seen label pictures change, but assuming that wouldn’t be the case).  It is hard to tell but it looks like the ABV may be 52.x%, but can’t quite make that out.  What is not displayed – is the price.  So, while an exclusive bottling – I’m not particularly motivated to arrange my schedule simply because it is ‘exclusive’ without having any idea of what the price is.

The evening of Wednesday, January 15th 2020 I checked in, and additional details disclosed include the ABV is 47.2%, and the price is $220 + shipping (unless you have a ‘free shipping credit’ that month still).  Additional description includes:

The wonderful juice comes from the Glentauchers distillery, established way back in 1897. We cherry-picked a very special expression to honor this London crime story: a 23-year-old Scotch that was aged in ex-Bourbon hogshead and finished in first-fill Bourbon casks from Koval.

At this point, you can’t buy a bottle but can pre-order it – and they’ll do a lottery on on Friday, January 29th 2020.  Honestly, that’s a fair system – although the earlier expectations made it sound like there would be some benefit to ‘jumping in’ the minute they made the information available.  If I had made arrangements to block my calendar to join right as the clock struck 1pm EST . . . I’d wonder what in the hell I had done all of that for.  Full disclosure – I didn’t pre-order (so won’t be able to share further details of the process, sorry).

Another perk is having the opportunity from time to time to buy some highly sought after whiskies without seeking secondary markets.  When these do come about, they are priced at or above those secondary markets though.  They accumulate these and save them in their ‘vault’ and will announce to members when the ‘vault’ will be opened so you can plan if you’re keen to shop for some harder to find stuff.  Even at the inflated prices, they move (and the vault is only open to members to buy, so a smaller subset of folks at least).

Beyond the vault, they also do have some harder to find products periodically for sale – but again, at prices that would make the secondary market cringe.  For example, if I wanted to be the first kid on my block with one of the newly released Weller Full Proof, for just $887.99 (including FREE shipping!) it could be mine!  No, I’m not making that up.  Below is a screenshot from their site on January 12th 2020 (although as I’ve updated this post through January 20th 2020, the price has remained the same).  I’m not posting this to pick on them – someone out there may want to buy a bottle of this right now badly enough to pay that price, and depending upon their market – getting a bottle of this faster may be so difficult that they’re ok with the cost.

So . . . knowing what I know now . . . would I join?

I’d shop around on their site and see what I would want to buy.  If I were just starting off on my whisk(e)y journey and acquiring more bottles, this type of program would be enticing to me.  Even being at a more mature stage on my journey, I still managed to more than pay for the membership with sales (and I still have one more free tasting box before the year is up). So I certainly have no regrets about this purchase (which I made without any recommendations from friends or Flaviar, other than their advertisement on some social media platform).  But I don’t know that I would buy into it now for myself only because I’m not a ‘buy a bottle every month’ kinda guy anymore.  The tasting boxes are well done, and if I could customize those (even at a premium), I’d be more interested.  But I recognize that I’m not the average whisk(e)y consumer.

My recommendation is to look at what they have (and remember, prices can change – so if you see a great deal, don’t be afraid to fill up the card when you have free shipping!) and if you see enough that you’d buy, and are comfortable with the price you’re paying for the privilege and other benefits, go for it.

Another note I’ll add is that when there was a problem with an order (as there was – twice), they made it right.  One of those was a mis-shipment, where I had to return the mistakenly shipped bottle and then they shipped the correct one (which delayed my receipt of what I wanted by two weeks, and was a bit inconvenient).  The other, they shipped me two bottles (of the same product) instead of one.  When I reported this issue, they thanked me for my honesty, and told me to keep the 2nd as a holiday miracle.  That was quite generous of them, so I will say that they take care of their customers.  And my latest order hasn’t had the same 14-21 day shipping expectation.  When was that latest order you ask?  Oh, I pulled the trigger on that Caol Ila 12 yr before I finished with this post ($77 out the door with free shipping on Sunday, 1/12/2020 – arrived Friday, 1/17/2020, thanks Flaviar!)

Cheers!

Gary