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NPR has launched its own wine club

NPR wants to be in your ear and in your wineglass. 

National Public Radio has launched its own wine club with three red varietals inspired by its programming: an All Grapes Considered malbec, a Weekend Edition cabernet sauvignon and an NPR Uncorked merlot.

The public media organization is offering all three as a one-time bonus to listeners and oenophiles who place an order for customizable cases of 12 wines delivered every three months. One shipment costs $79.99.

NPR supporters who like to sip vino while listening to Robert Siegel’s soothingly authoritative voice can also buy individual bottles on the NPR Wine Club’s website.

A portion of proceeds will go directly to the news organization, according a news release published Tuesday morning.

Tasting notes for the club’s first three NPR-inspired wines suggest that the All Grapes Considered will introduce drinkers to “must-try” malbec grape varieties “in the spirit of NPR’s flagship afternoon news program”; the Weekend Edition, “serious, authoritative, but capable of providing moments of pure delight,” should be enjoyed “with good friends, rich foods and a lively discussion of the week’s events”; and the Uncorked merlot, a grape “unfairly maligned in the 2004 movie ‘Sideways,’” is as much an underdog as public radio.

NPR isn’t the first media business to get into the grape game: In 2009, The New York Times announced a similar wine club initiative, offering members six-bottle shipments every one, two or three months.