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 in the pursuit of their hobby!

THIS MONTH ON THE VINE!

WELCOME

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you 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 beer brewing needs. It continues to be my hope that every time 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.

WINEXPERT LIMITED EDITION 2006 AND RJ SPAGNOLS RESTRICTED QUANTITIES 2006

Winexpert and RJ Spagnols have released their Limited Edition and Restricted Quantites, respectively for 2006. Over the last several years, these kits have produced some of the best kit wines available and are produced on a limited basis. To assure yourself of receiving these kits, it is strongly recommended that you pre-order them. The cut-off date for pre-orders is December 11, 2005.

To see our special promotion regarding these kits, follow these links:

Winexpert Limited Edition 2006

RJ Spagnols Restricted Quantities 2006

CUSTOMER REFFERAL PROGRAM

In case you missed it, we have a customer referral program that provides 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:

That's all you have to do to get another discount from finevinewines.com.

TIP - A GREAT RECYCLING IDEA

I recycle corks by incorporating them in our gardening; both container and in ground. I soak used wine corks in water and incorporate the corks in the potting mix for our tropical orchids as well as our container herbs and hanging baskets.  As our plants are watered the corks absorb a significant amount of the moisture and slowly release the moisture between watering.  During the dry season, I also bury water soaked corks around the herbs in our in-ground herb garden and then generously water the herb garden.  Instead of watering every evening the herbs can go two to three days without wilting in the heat and dryness.

Kimber received a $5.00 off coupon for her tip and you can get one, as well. Just send your tip to geocorn@finevinewines.com and if I use your tip in a future newsletter, I will send you a coupon for $5.00 off.

NEWSLETTER SPECIALS

To reward those of you that take the time to read our newsletter every month, we are adding a newsletter special. We promise to offer an outstanding value each month via this feature and this special pricing will only be available through a link from the current month's newsletter. Click here to see this month's NEWSLETTER SPECIAL.

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.

THE FIRST ANNUAL WINE MAKER'S TOY STORE CONFERENCE

Based on feedback from our customers, we are going to "finally" have a conference for home wine makers. We are in the process of finalizing the details and the guest speakers, but we can tell you the following about this event:

1. We are planning on having this at the end of April or the first of May, depending upon the availability of the wine judges and presentors.
2. It will start with an informal mixer on a Friday night and we will have judging and presentations on Saturday with a dinner on Saturday night.
3. We will have a contest for those that would like to enter their wines.

We have a thread in the forum asking for your ideas and suggestions. If you have any that you would like to share, please post them on this thread.

FORUM

When you have a question or just want to learn more about wine making, don't forget our forum! We have almost 300 registered users, including some extremely knowledgable wine makers with loads of valuable information and willing to assist you in your wine making needs. As of the printing of this newsletter, we have over 10,000 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.

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.

REDUCED PRICES ON MOST BOTTLES

We have reduced our prices on almost every bottle in stock. This is a direct result of the Company's increased sales that has reduced our cost. As we have promised, any cost savings will be passed on to you, our most valued customer.

FEATURED ARTICLE - A HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF FINE VINE WINES

When talking with my customers, many of you want to know about Fine Vine Wines. I decided now would be a great time to give you a short of history of Fine Vine Wines, LLC, The Wine Maker's Toy Store and our philosophy. Before I start, I should tell you that my name is George Cornelius and I am the owner, the janitor and everything in between. When things get really busy, my wonderful wife, Janna and my brother, Mark come in to help me, but most of the time, it is just me.

This venture started on September 27, 2001 when I had a heart attack at the ripe old age of 46. It was the result of bad genes, not taking care of myself and working way too many hours. I am a CPA by trade and at the time of the heart attack, I was the Vice-President of Finance and Information Systems for a small company, working 60-80 hours per week and going nowhere! After the attack, my doctor suggested I drink 1-2 glasses of red wine per day. My wife wanted to help me stay well, so we started sharing a bottle of wine each night. At $10-15 per bottle, the cost started to add up. As a result, I went on the Internet looking for ways to save money on my wine consumption. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled onto home wine making, but I wound up at grapestompers.com. After a lot of reading and looking at other sites, I went back to grapestompers and purchased my starter kit.

I started my first batch, a Cab/Merlot blend on December 16, 2001 and bottled it on January 13, 2002. I was so impressed that by April, I had 8 carboys going and in desperate need of a wine cellar. In May, I took 45 sqaure feet from the garage and built my wine cellar. Later that month, we also traveled to North Carolina to personally meet Tom Burgess the owner of grapestompers to talk about opening a home wine making store in Dallas. At that time, there were only 3 home wine making stores in the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex of 5,000,000 people and all three were focused almost entirely on home beer making, not wine making. With this information, I decided Dallas needed another home winemaking store and one dedicated to wine making only.

My wife and I incorporated the business in July of 2002 and started putting together the business plan. As an aside, Janna is a CPA, as well. We decided to start with an internet only business to build a clientel that could support the business while it grew. Therefore, in the spring of 2003, I started building the web site (Yes, I am the webmaster, as well.). With the help of grapestompers, we went live on the internet on Memorial Day 2003 working out of our home. The wine kits were stored in the home office and the garage became the warehouse.

On June 6, 2003, I was laid off from the job that contributed to my heart attack. The plan had been for me to stay employed until such time Fine Vine Wines could replace my income. Obviously, that did not happen! I spent the next 6 months trying to grow the store while looking for another job. On December 13, 2003, I started working as a Controller for another small company in Dallas.

As the Toy Store continued to grow, we decided it was time to open the retail store and in July of 2004, we started construction and opened the doors on October 9. I steadily grew disenchanted with my job as Contoller and; consequently, resigned on October 31, 2004. At that time, I decided to work contract while the Toy Store continued to grow. On April 4, 2005, I left my contract job and started devoting my full time to the business. If the current growth pattern continues through the rest of the year, I will be able to bring my brother on full time, so there will finally be another employee.

As to our philosophy, it is quite simple. I want to prove that you can give excellent customer service, take excellent care of your employees and still make money. It seems that so many companies these days don't care about their customers or their employees. All they care about is making as much money as fast as they can. I want to disprove their philosphy. In that end, I am not trying to be another Neiman-Marcus, but I definitely do not want to be the Wal-Mart of the home wine making stores. My objective is to be the store that you can count on to give you a fair price with unsurpassed customer service.

Being the only employee has led to shipping mistakes. For that I offer my most sincere apologies and hope that ALL mistakes were satisfactorily resolved. If they were not, please let me know. I also expect to hear from you, anytime you have any issues with me or the store.

The second facet of our philosophy is our 100% money back guarantee. Besides the fact that this is the correct approach, I do this because I believe in what I sell and I want you to get involved and stay involved in the hobby. Obviously, I make more money if you keep buying from me, DUH!!! But that being said, whether you continue to buy from me or not, I want you to walk away (surf away!) from Fine Vine Wines with a good taste in your mouth (pardon the pun) and I want you to tell your friends that you did business with at least one store that treated you like you were important. That is why my beginners starter package is so complete. Unlike other home wine making stores that do not sell you the correct equipment, i.e., a 5-gallon carboy when the wine kits specifically say to make the wine in a 6-gallon carboy or they include a cheap plastic corker that is junk, when they could include a nice metal corker for just a few dollars more, a starter package from Fine Vine Wines will give you the best opportunity to make a quality wine.

This leads to the final facet of our philosphy, price. During the creation of our business plan, we identified 2 groups of potential customers. The first group is the customer that is only interested in the cheapest price while the second group consists of customers where price is a factor, but also consider other factors, as well. The first group is difficult to use as a solid base because, if you look hard enough, you can always find a cheaper price. Being the "price leader" requires one to spend an inordinate amount of time tracking everyone else's prices and can significantly impact one ability to be profitable. In addition, price leaders do not make enough money to offer customer service. It should also be pointed out that you rarely see value based companies in the bankruptcy court. On the other hand, "price leaders" are there all of the time. As a result of the above, we decided to offer competitive pricing and extra value for your money. So far, these philosophies have worked; therefore, there is little chance of us changing our ways anytime soon!

I would like to thank everyone of you that has supported us over the first 2 and 1/2 years. You are helping me to achieve my dream of being the best home wine making store, anywhere. We do not want to be the biggest store, just the BEST!

TOYS OF THE MONTH

To dress up your Christmas gifts, we are offering all of our PVC shrink wrap capsules on sale for over 16% off. Order them individually or in bags of 30. The perfect way to make that home make wine look like it came from the shelf.

In addition, we are offering our bar accessories at 10-20% reductions. These items make great stocking stuffers.

This month's special pricing is listed below:

Part Number	Image	Description	Regular Price	Current Price	Order
6624A		Black - Large Capsules, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4589		Red, Shiny Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4595		Silver, Shiny Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
6622A		White - Large Capsules, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
6628		Ivory w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.10	$0.10	Order
4586A		Burgundy Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4570A		Black w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4571A		Blue w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4587A		Green Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4588A		Gold Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4316		Tutto Aroma Vacuum Wine Saver Replacement Stoppers Package of 2	$8.99	$7.49	Order
6628A		Ivory w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4588		Gold Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4594		Burgundy w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4586		Burgundy Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4587		Green Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4592		Green w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4593		White w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4570		Black w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4317		Vacuum Wine Saver - by Vacu-Vin Comes with 1 stopper	$11.99	$9.99	Order
4598		Transparent Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4592A		Green w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4593A		White w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4594A		Burgundy w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4595A		Silver, Shiny Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4598A		Transparent Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
6605B		Black with silver stripes, Shiny Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
6620		Burgundy - Large Capsules, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
4571		Blue w/Gold Grapes Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC	$0.12	$0.10	Order
2901		Corkscrew - Waiters	$5.45	$4.99	Order
4318		Extra Vacu-Stoppers - for Vacuum Wine Saver Set of 2	$5.49	$4.49	Order
4589A		Red, Shiny Capsules - Hot Shrink, PVC (Bag of 30)	$3.00	$2.50	Order
4315		Tutto Aroma Vacuum Wine Saver	$18.99	$16.99	Order

NEW PRODUCTS

We have added more equipment, including funnels and replacement parts for the Buon Vino Filters. To see all of our new products added last month, go to our New Products Page.

If you are looking for a product that I do not carry, 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 the Pinot Noir grape as our wine of the month. The Pinot Noir has become a sort of Holy Grail for winemakers of late. It is a very difficult wine to get right and very tough to describe, but with an aroma of raspberries or strawberries, it can be full-bodied but is never heavy like Cabernet. Pinot Noir is an elegant grape that take a lifetime to make well.

Part Number	Image	Description	Brand	Regular Price	Current Price	Order
13111		Oregon Yamhill County Pinot Noir This remarkable wine creates a lasting impression on the palate & in memory. Intense ripe-grape, mint, raspberry & black cherry aromas, along with smoky, elusive oak make this a medium-bodied & rich wine.	Winexpert Selection Estate	$99.99	$89.99	Order
13202		Pinot Noir Has a velvety flavor that is met with a fullness of aroma resembling black currants.	Vintners Reserve	$54.99	$49.99	Order
3125A		Pinot Noir Concentrate only. equipment sold separately. Makes 2.5 gallons per can	Alexanders Sun Country	$20.99	$17.99	Order
13245		Pinot Noir Subtle, spicy fruit flavors are a delight to the palate.	Winexpert Selection Premium	$75.99	$68.99	Order

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.

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