wine of the month club type private founded california 1972 1972 headquarters monrovia california u.s. products discount wine gift baskets and wine accessories website wineofthemonthclub.com wine of the month club is the oldest sustained mail order wine club in the united states 1 2 3 4 5 having been founded in 1972 6 by paul kalemkiarian sr. and succeeded in ownership by his son paul kalemkiarian jr. in 1989 . 2 located in monrovia california the club delivers two bottles of wine one domestic one international to the doors of members nationwide every month every other month or every quarter . 3 the club aims to expose members to a broad range of grape varieties and wine regions . those wines that are featured have had to endure a series of appraisals by the owner and cellarmaster paul jr. based on both their quality and their price . ultimately only twelve of 300 400 or so wines that are evaluated each month are selected . 4 the club also offers wine gifts and made to order food and wine gift baskets . along with wine shipments customers are sent the wine of the month club s monthly newsletter which provides extensive background information for each of the featured wines . history edit wine of the month club s founder paul kalemkiarian sr. arrived in the united states in 1949 in pursuit of a master s degree at the university of southern california after having earned a bachelor s degree in pharmacognosy the study of plant based medicines at the university of cairo egypt . soon after completing his degree he began working for a pharmaceutical firm in the product development department where he concocted new cough medicines antifungals etc. kalemkiarian sr. opened his first prescription shop in inglewood california in 1955 . the company eventually grew to a point where he had bought and sold over 12 pharmacies having five open at any one time . while running the prescription shop in palos verdes estates california located in the malaga cove kalemkiarian sr. set out to purchase palos verdes drugstore from its owner walter reese . kalemkiarian sr. offered to buy the pharmacy only if it included the adjoining liquor store . 1 walter reese s motivation to sell the pharmacy was greater than his desire to keep the liquor store and palos verdes wines and spirits was born . kalemkiarian sr. soon transformed palos verdes liquor which up until this point had sold mostly ice cigarettes and liquor with very little wine 4 into a fine wine shop 5 which he renamed palos verdes wines and spirits . by the mid 1970s palos verdes wines and spirits was one of the most prominent wine shops in the los angeles area . 5 kalemkiarian sr. s son paul kalemkiarian jr. who was a teenager at that time helped to stock the shop . at some point in 1973 kalemkiarian sr. began to select monthly wine selections one red and one white 1 to aid the patron who would walk in asking for a nice wine on a budget of 5.00 or so . 6 weekly tastings meanwhile were held in a precarious homemade loft in the back of the wine shop . kalemkiarian jr. would set up brown bagging all the wines and laying out glasses ; kalemkiarian sr. would invite knowledgeable customers and physicians he knew through his pharmacies and together they would select the wines of the month . these selections were the impetus for the wine of the month club as it exists today . eventually store customers requested that their monthly selections be delivered to them . 4 5 the day kalemkiarian jr. received his driver s license he delivered his first round of wine of the month club packages to local customers . 6 father and son continued to hand deliver the selections until the number of customers requesting this service grew too numerous at which point they moved to deliveries by the united parcel service ups . 1 by 1979 paul kalemkiarian sr. grew weary of retail and began the process of selling his pharmacies . palos verdes wines and spirits was sold the same year but due to mismanagement on the part of the new owners was closed soon thereafter . paul kalemkiarian sr. however had retained the mail order rights and trademarked the name wine of the month club which he soon operated as a freestanding entity . in 1989 paul kalemkiarian sr. offered to sell the wine of the month club to his son paul kalemkiarian jr. after a six month trial period . at the time kalemkiarian jr. was a partner in a stable and growing software company . in 1990 and after the six month trial period had elapsed kalemkiarian jr. was ready to make a career change and purchased the business from his father . 2 see also edit wine clubs wine tasting references edit a b c d vara orta francisco los angeles business journal november 23 2009 . the time was ripe for a wine club pdf . a b c smith kevin pasadena star news november 21 2009 . di vine inspiration wine of the month club run by monrovia businessman pdf . a b zimmerman martin los angeles times august 23 2009 . the time was ripe for a wine club . a b c d barge evelyn pasadena star news august 19 2010 . wine podcasts a fun venture . a b c d hodgins paul the orange county register november 10 2009 . booze on a budget two great wines guaranteed for 19.95 a month . a b c garbee jenn la weekly september 3 2009 . the original wine of the month club only a bottle away in monrovia . drink portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wine of the month club & oldid 733087205 categories wine tastinghidden categories use mdy dates from june 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 august 2016 at 08 25 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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