The Wine Maker's Toy Store™
Bringing family and friends together...One sip at a time!
Welcome to Pressing News, the monthly newsletter
published by Fine Vine Wines, LLC, designed exclusively to assist
the home vintner and home brewer in the pursuit of their hobby!
THIS MONTH ON THE VINE!
- Welcome
- Reduced Shipping Costs and New Shipper
- Customer Referral Program
- Customer Appreciation Program - FVW Growers Club
- Retail Store Information and Expansion!
- Registered Users Survey
- Online Discussion Forum
- Tim Vandergrift is coming to Dallas!
- Featured Article - Beer Tutorial
- Toy of the Month
- Free Wine Ingredients Kit
- New Products
- Call Us!
- Wine of the Month
- Customer Feedback
- Unsubscribe
WELCOME
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome to Fine Vine Wines, LLC, "The Wine Maker's Toy Store". Whether you need products or just need information, we are here to serve you.
I want to extend my thanks again for making
The Wine Maker's Toy Store your home for your wine making and
home brewing needs. It continues to be my hope is that everytime
you visit our web site or retail store, you find something of
value.
As a reminder, we continue to add products and content to the web site; therefore, if you have any special requests, please let us know. We like to hear what you have to say about our site, our products and/or our customer service, good or bad. Please send your comments and/or suggestions to winemaster@finevinewines.com.
REDUCED SHIPPING COSTS AND NEW SHIPPER
We now offer UPS shipping, as well as, FedEx Ground. Over the next month, we will be modifying the ordering process to allow you to choose your preferred provider or leave it up to us.
In addition, as we have promised since the day
we opened the online store, any discounts that we receive from
our shippers will be passed on to you, the customer. We have
now reached the point where we are receiving significant discounts
from both FedEx and UPS. As a result, you should see your shipping
costs drop on your next order. Please note that I receive more
discount with heavier shipments, so you will notice more of a
savings with wine kits, bottles and carboys than you will with
small shipments.
CUSTOMER REFFERAL PROGRAM
Did you know we have a customer referral program
that provides for additional discounts to registered users? We
will give you a coupon worth 10% of the first order placed by
any person that you refer to our web site. The stipulations are
as follows:
- You must be a registered user of finevinewines.com,
- The person placing the order must register and provide your name in the appropriate field on the registration screen, and
- The discount is only good for future orders with finevinewines.com and is not redeemable for cash.
That's all you have to do to get another discount from finevinewines.com.
CUSTOMER APPRECIATION PROGRAM - FVW GROWERS CLUB
Please check out our FVW Growers Club. You can get all of the details on our web site, but the bottom line is we want to buy your loyalty! Once you spend $500 with us, you get a 5% discount on everything you buy from us. Find out more on the web site.
RETAIL
STORE INFORMATION - WE ARE EXPANDING
We are happy to annouce that we are going to double our retail store floor space and add additional signage. For those of you that have visited our store, you know how badly this needs to be done! Not only will this give us more room to display our products, it will also allow us to offer home wine making and beer making classes, as well as, tasting parties. We hope to complete our expansion by Labor Day 2005. Watch the web site and listen to WBAP in Dallas to learn more.
We have also moved back closing time on Fridays and Saturdays to 6pm. More information about our retail store, including
hours, location and maps can be found on our Retail
Store Information page.
REGISTERED USER SURVEY
As I indicated in last month's newsletter, I have now posted some of the comments from the May survey. You can view these comments at Survey Comments. I had so many comments that is was difficult to choose which ones to include, but I tried to pick a relative sample. To all of you that took time to participate in my survey and provide all of the wonderful comments, I extend my thanks. I will do my best to continue to measure up to your expectations.
FORUM
The discussion forum continues to grow. We
have over 185 registered users, including some extremely knowledgable
wine makers and loads of valuable information, that have contributed
almost 6,000 posts. Whether you are an expert or a novice, it
is an excellent place to ask questions, exchange ideas and meet
other home wine makers. It is rumored that even Tim Vandergrift
makes an occassional post!
If you haven't logged into the forum, try it sometime. I think you will find it most informative and enjoyable, as well as, a great place to meet fellow wine makers.
TIM VANDERGRIFT IS COMING TO DALLAS!
We still do not have a date for Tim's visit,
but I will finally get a chance to meet him in July and hopefully,
at that time, I will get a firm date. Please note this event
will probably occur during the week as he reserves his weekends
for his family. During this event, Tim will make a presentation
of the Limited Edition series for 2006. We will also try to work
in a question and answer session, as well as, a wine tasting.
For those of you that do not know, Tim is the
Technical Services Manager for Winexpert and his job is to design
and test all of the wine kits made by Winexpert. Before joining
Winexpert, Tim held a comparable position with RJ Spagnols for
10 years. In addition, if you have ever picked up an issue of
WineMaker Magazine, you will have normally found an article by
him. He is one of the home wine making gurus!
As soon as I have more information, I will post in on the web site and in the monthly newsletter.
FEATURED
ARTICLE - BEER MAKING TUTORIAL
Thanks to Scott Irwin, we now have a home brew tutorial to
go alone with our wine making tutorial. In many ways, home
brewing is very similar to home wine making and a lot of the
same equipment is used for both. In this newsletter, I am going
to address similarities and difference between two, along with
specific equipment needed for home brews. If you are interested
in the full tutorial, you can find it at Home
Brew Tutorial.
With home brewing, you have a choice as to whether to use
a concentrate kit or an ingredients kit. If you have made wine,
but never made beer, the concentrate is a great place to start
as you basically have most of the equipment you need and the
procedure is almost the same as using a wine kit. The only
additional equipment needed is a capper if you choose to use
normal beer bottles; however, if you use the Grolsch type
bottles, you don't even need a capper!
When using a beer concentrate kit, you start your primary fermentation just as you would a wine kit. After 6 days, the beer should be finished with fermentation. At that point rack your beer into your 6-gallon carboy and allow it to clear. After 2 weeks, boil your priming sugar in a pan of water. Rack your beer into your bottling bucket and when the sugar water has cooled, add it to your beer and stir gently to mix. Bottle your beer! With a beer concentrate, that is all there is to it.
If you decide to move up to the ingredients kit, you will
need a 5-gallon carboy and a large stainless
steel pot (20 quart minimum). It is also beneficial to
have a wort
chiller. With an ingredients kits, you have to mix the
ingredients and boil the wort for 60 minutes. Then you cool
the wort quickly to avoid having a "off-flavor".
This is where the wort chiller comes in handy as it will cool
your wort in 10-15 minutes. After the wort has cooled, you
pour it into your primary fermenting bucket and add the yeast.
The rest of the steps are just like the concentrate kit above.
Although I have simplified the steps above, making your own home brew can be just as much fun as making your own wine and just like your home made wines, the results will amaze you.
---If you would like to offer your comments
and/or suggestions, please send them to geocorn@finethevinewines.com.
TOY
OF THE MONTH
This month's toy is the Buon Vino Filter. This
filter is available in a table top model (Mini-Jet) or floor
model (Super-Jet). Given enough time, all wines should clear
without filtering, but if your wine is not clear and you need
to bottle it to make room for more wine or you are just ready
to bottle it, a filter is a great option. Depending upon how
badly you need to filter, each model has three different levels
of filtering, coarse, polishing and super sterile. You can choose
the machine that is right for you and the appropriate filter.
The most commonly used filter is the polishing pad. In addition,
please note filter pads do NOT come with either filter. The pads
are purchased separately.
This month's special pricing is listed below:
Part
Number |
Picture |
Description |
Regular
Price |
Current
Price |
Order |
<%
While ((Repeat1__numRows <> 0) AND (NOT rsJuice.EOF))
%>
|
|
Buon Vino Mini Jet Filter Wine filter designed for home vintners
|
$149.99 |
$134.99 |
|
|
|
Buon Vino Super Jet Filter Wine filter designed for home vintners
|
$299.99 |
$269.99 |
|
<%
Repeat1__index=Repeat1__index+1
Repeat1__numRows=Repeat1__numRows-1
rsJuice.MoveNext()
Wend
%>
FREE WINE INGREDIENTS
KIT
The winner for June was Teresa Schmit of Centennial, Colorado, who purchased 2 kits, including a Winexpert Selection International. For her free kit, she gets to choose any Vintner's Reserve, Winexpert Selection Premium or Winexpert Selection International Kit. Congratulations, Teresa!
NEW PRODUCTS
We have added loads of new products this month, including more starter packages for both scratch and kit wines, oak barrels, presses and crushers.
In addition, Winexpert has released another Crushendo kit and a new International kit. The Crushendo is the
Montagnac Vieux Chateau d’Oc #13116 and the International is the Italian Sangiovese #13262. I have the Sangiovese in stock now and should have the d'Oc the week of July 4th. To see a complete list of all our new products, click
here.
My primary distributor is LD
Carlson and you can see their complete product list at their public catalog. If
you find anything you would like me to add, please let me know.
CALL
US!
If you have any questions about our products,
our service and/or wine making, please call us. We are not Corporate
America! We are here to serve you. I bring this up, because a
number of my callers apologize for bothering me or using my toll-free
line. You are definitely not bothering me and I have a toll-free
line so you WILL call me.
Sometimes, I am unable to answer the phone.
If you get the voice mail, please leave your name, number, brief
message and a best time to call. I will return your call as soon
as I can. I now have the Company Line forwarded to my cell phone
when I am not in the store. As a result, I am now available almost
24-7. I do need to sleep!
If you don't want to call, just send me an email.
I usually answer my email daily. In addition, your emails and/or
calls do not have to relate to wine. I will discuss any topic
you like, so please remember, I am your resource and I am here
for you.
WINE
OF THE MONTH
This month we are featuring 2 Winexpert Selection Premiums as our "Wines of the Month." First, we have the Italian Pinot Grigio (Pinot Gris) which is a dry and crisp white wine with a heady feel and rich in spice flavors. Our second wine is the White Zinfandel which is fermented on the skins for 2 days giving it its rose' color. This wine is made in a sweet style to balance the acidity.
Click
here to find out more.
CUSTOMER
FEEDBACK
We appreciate all of your comments, whether
good or bad. To demonstrate our commitment to outstanding customer
service, I have created a web page with your feedback. As we
receive emails that comment about our service, I will post them
on this
page.
UNSUBSCRIBE
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Feel free to pass this newsletter on to any of
your friends and thank you for your continued support of Fine
Vine Wines.
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