Goccino's Unique Wine Club

Often a sommelier's description of a wine entices us to order it.

This is why we've never found wine clubs as compelling as trying an unfamiliar bottle in a restaurant. Until now, that is.

Goccino, the wine-club offshoot of Napa's Oenotri, does what most other wine clubs do: It sends a couple of bottles a month ($39, plus shipping and tax), along with tasting notes and recipes.

But Goccino has added a new, arresting component. Each month, the restaurant team is making a video to accompany the shipment. In it, chefs Tyler Rodde and Curtis Di Fede, along with beverage director Sur Lucero, talk about the wines and the recipes they've selected. It's a fitting substitute for actually conversing with a knowledgeable sommelier.

Bucking Napa tradition, the majority of the wines on the restaurant's list are Italian, and the monthly wine-club shipments are all Italian, all the time, with a different region celebrated each month. This April, members received two Tuscan wines: a Castello di Ama rosato and TorCalvano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. In May, the shipment will include two wines from Lombardy.

With the wines, the recipes and now the video, you can replicate the Oenotri experience at home. We'll drink to that.

Oenotri, 1425 First St., Napa; 707-252-1022 or oenotri.com