How does the allocation system work?

At The Wine Society, our aim is to spread the stock of highly sought-after wines across the membership as much as possible.

Therefore, we do not operate a "First-come, First-Served system (like many other merchants) and instead use an automated allocation system. 

The timeliness of placing one's order has no bearing on the final allocation, and in instances when a wine is or a number of wines are oversubscribed, as a final resort we divide members into groups depending on their level of support for The Society (quantity of wine bought, spend, orders placed etc). 

Members who have given greater support to The Society will have a better chance (but no certainty) of being allocated wine, and those who have given less support will have a lesser chance (but still a chance).

A member is placed into one of four groups for each offer based on their sales activity.

This is a rolling two year process and members with the highest chance to receive any wines that are oversubscribed (irrespective of which wine) will have given greater support to The Society over this period.

If you happen to be in the last group, you will have the least (though still some) chance of being allocated the wine.

If you are in the top group you will have no guarantee of being allocated the wine.

Ticking the box to accept substitutes (where offered) does not affect your chances of being allocated your chosen wines, but helps to ensure that you definitely receive something.