How Argaux makes wine catalogues their customers want to collect

Argaux is a fast-growing wine brand making it easier, and more fun, to drink good wine.

Co-founders Arden Montgomery and Margaux Reaume offer a personalised service their customers love, and through the brand's subscription option, Club Argaux, members receive a selection of wines tailored to their tastes each month. They also get a digital mini newspaper with the stories behind the wines, plus tasting notes and recipes.

"We wanted the newspaper to be something our clients would keep in their kitchens to reference and help them build their wine collection." Printed as a mini newspaper.

“The newspaper has become a huge part of our brand,” says Margaux. “Our clients absolutely love it. They’ll have a folder in their kitchen with every newspaper and notes about their favourites.”

Below, Margaux tells us why a personal touch is the secret to providing a one-of-a-kind experience, and how newspapers help keep their customers informed and excited about what they're drinking.

Margaux Reaume, co-founder of Argaux. Photo by Meilani Cottrell.

UNCORKING ARGAUX 

Arden and I met in college. The name of our business, Argaux, is a combination of our names and something our friends started calling us. We bonded over a love of food and wine — after classes, we would go to wine bars and share a bottle of wine and talk about starting something together. After college we both went to the International Culinary Center to study wine. We passed our first sommelier exams, and last year we passed our level 3.

"Our newspaper allows us to communicate with clients that we don’t see all of the time. " Printed as a mini newspaper.

Our business started because we made business cards that said “sommelier and at-home wine tasting.” That was it! We started with small at-home wine tastings that turned into pop-up dinners and collaborations with chefs.

"The whole point of our business is to make wine accessible and take the intimidation out of it."

The company has grown organically from there as we’ve responded to feedback from our clients. They wanted to be able to buy wine directly from us, so we got a retail license. Clients who had restaurants wanted us to find wine for them, so we became private buyers. We heard from people who wanted us to deliver new wines to them each month and that’s why we created our wine club, Club Argaux.

Every month, members of Club Argaux receive a box of carefully sourced wines tailored to their tastes. Photo by Meilani Cottrell.

MEET YOUR POCKET SOMMELIER

Every month we curate a selection of wines for Club Argaux members based on their preferences. The membership is really flexible, we don’t want our members to feel restricted. We have over 250 members in Club Argaux. Many of them are in Los Angeles (where Argaux is based), but we also have members in Chicago, NYC, Florida, Atlanta and all over.

Detail from Club Argaux's "Alpine Wines" edition. Printed as a mini newspaper.

We try to make Club Argaux as personalised and high-touch as possible. We love building relationships with our clients — our number one priority is to make sure our customers feel like they’re heard and that they can help us. Our clients will send photos of wines they’ve had for dinner and say, “This could be a fun thing for the club.” 

"We love building relationships with our clients. We try to make Club Argaux as personalised and high-touch as possible."

We reach out to every client who signs up to learn more about their wine preferences and to make sure they have our number in their phones as their “pocket sommelier.” They can call or text us any wine-related questions. More than half of our members are very active in communicating with us about what they’re drinking and enjoying or want to know more about.

CATALOGUES WORTH COLLECTING

It’s really important for our clients to fully understand the process that I go through to choose the wines and the theme for each month. We only represent small-production, sustainably farmed wines and want to make sure people know the story behind the wines – the family that’s behind the winery, the region where the wine is made, the tasting notes, what to eat with it.

"We always do fun designs with our newspapers — it’s a way to reiterate to our clients that Club Argaux is an interactive experience."

The toughest thing is when you can’t communicate that in person, like when someone signs up online. It can be really hard to make sure people understand what they have at their fingertips and how they can use our service.

"The newspaper is just cool — something unique that you’d want sitting on your coffee table even after you’ve flipped through it." Printed as a mini newspaper.

For the first year of Club Argaux we were printing tasting notes on an 8 x 11" sheet of paper. They were not very professionally looking.

We were really looking to start developing our brand and our designer, Meilani Cottrell, stumbled across Newspaper Club and suggested we make a newspaper. In the beginning we needed to figure out how we wanted to use it and what the point of it was. We didn’t want it to be something that was just thrown in every month. 

"I’ll go to a client’s house for a wine tasting and they’ll have a folder in their kitchen with every newspaper, with notes in them about their favourites."

We wanted the newspaper to be something our clients would keep in their kitchens to reference and help them build their wine collection. The whole point of our business is to make wine accessible and take the intimidation out of it. We always do very fun designs with our newspapers — it’s a way to reiterate to our clients that Club Argaux is an interactive experience.

Detail from Club Argaux's "Spring Showers" edition. Printed as a mini newspaper.

Today the newspaper has become a huge part of our brand. It allows us to communicate with clients that we don’t see all of the time. Our clients absolutely love it — I’ll go to a client’s house for a wine tasting and they’ll have a folder in their kitchen with every newspaper, with notes in them about their favourites. And they talk about them all the time. It’s just cool — something unique that you’d want sitting on your coffee table even after you’ve flipped through it. 

Photo at the top of this post via The Art of Being Female.

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