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Newsletter published by
Fine Vine Wines, LLC
"The Wine Maker's Toy Store™"
1300 N. Interstate 35-E, Suite 106
Carrollton, Texas 75006
August 2008
Volume 6, Issue 8
866-417-1114 (Long Distance)
972-323-7921 (Local)
972-323-7955 (Fax)
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I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to Fine Vine Wines, LLC, "The Wine Maker's Toy Store". Whether you need home wine making 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 needs. It continues to be my hope that every time you visit our web site or retail store, you will find something of value. |
WINESTOCK 2009
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We finally have a date for the next Winestock, April 10-12, 2009. It will be held once again at the Addison Conference Center. We have not worked out the schedule, but we do have 2 featured speakers. They are Nino Piazza and Matteo Meglioli, President and Technical Services Manager of Mosti Mondiale. If you want to learn more about making wine from a kit, this will be an outstanding opportunity. We are working on additional speakers and hope to have the complete schedule with sign up information by next month.
This will be our third Winestock and we plan to make it our best, yet! |
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CHANGES IN THE FVW GROWERS CLUB ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our pricing is built around our FVW Growers Club and we want to see all of our customers in this club. For those of you that have missed this feature of our store, the premise is quite simple. Once you spend $500 with us on products, you are automatically entitled to the benefits of this club. The most important aspect of this club is that you get a permanent lifetime discount. Currently the discount is 5% on all orders, but we raise the discount to 10% on all orders over $140.00. This discount is on top of any other promotional pricing in place when you place your order.
Over the last several weeks, I have spent a great deal of time comparing prices with my competition to make sure our prices are still competitive. What I discovered was that on the core products we sell, wine kits and bottles, our delivered prices to club members receiving the full 10% discount beat the competition over 90% of the time. Besides the discount, the other major factor is our shipping costs. We do not pad shipping costs, as such, we have some of the best shipping rates for companies charging for shipping. By the way, our sample included companies that offered free shipping and we still beat them most of the time.
In addition, we do listen to you as you are our most valuable asset and one of the comments I hear too often is that the $140.00 threshold is too high; therefore, we have decided to lower the 10% discount to orders over $100.00. The $100.00 only applies to products (shipping cost is not included in determing the $100.00.). Basically this means that every product we have that has a price of $100.00 or more qualifies for the 10% discount to members of our FVW Growers Club.
To all of you that are in the club already, I want to thank you for your continued support. For those of you not in the club, keep this club in mind when you order. It does not take long to get into the club. By the way, the $500.00 can be spent in one purchase or spread out over several years, we track your purchases and will send you an email when you qualify. |
Mosti Mondiale Price Increases
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R. J. Spagnols took a significant price increase last November, Winexpert took a 20% price increase in February and last month carboy prices went up 50%; consequently, I knew that at some time this year, we would get a price increase from Mosti Mondiale. The bad news is that now is that time. The good news is that it is only 5-15%, depending on the product line AND my increase does not go into effect until August 15th. As a result, I have decided to hold my prices for all of the Mosti wine kits at the current prices until August 31, 2008.
Any orders placed before September 1st will receive the current price. If we run out and have to back order any of your Mosti wine kits, you will still receive the current price when we ship. As time permits, I will be updating the web site to reflect the new prices in the regular price column so you can see what the new prices will be.
In addition, the new prices from Mosti for the Through the Grapevine (TG) 7 liter kits are not substantially different from the prices for the Vinifera Noble (VN)10 liter kits. Since the VN line has almost every wine that is currently available in the TG line and the wine kits in the VN line are so good and the difference in price would be less than $5, we have decided to discontinue the Mosti Mondiale Through the Grapevine 7 liter kits. We have marked them down for immediate sale and when they are gone, we will not be re-stocking.
In place of the Through the Grapevine 7 liter kits, we will be adding the complete line of products in the Riserva Mondiale line and Mosti line of wine coolers, Summer Breeze. The Riserva Mondiale line of wine kits are 16 liters and are less expensive than the Renaissance line. The Summer Breeze line is comparable to the Winexpert Island Mist and the Spagnols Orchard Breezin'.
Hopefully, this will be the last of the price increases for some time. With the dollar relatively stable and oil prices coming down, we can only hope! |
| RJ SPAGNOLS LIMITED RELEASES
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RJ Spagnols has announced they are bringing back the Award Winning - Orange Chocolate port, along with 3 additional wine kits for for a limited time and on a pre-order basis. The four wines are listed below:
Orange Chocolate Port
Orange Blossom Muscat
White Chocolate Port
CranApple Chardonnay
All are available for pre-order now with delivery in September 2008. In order to guarantee any of these excellent wine kits, you need to order by August 15, 2008. The Orange Chocolate Port was extremely popular last year and won numerous medals in this years and last years WineMaker Magazine's Annual Competition. In addition, last year I was unable to fulfill orders made after the pre-order date. As a result, if you do want one or more of these kits, your best bet is to pre-order before the deadline.
Please note that your credit card will not be charged until we either ship your order or you pick it up in the store.
Spagnols is also re-releasing their 2 seasonal Brew House Beer Kits.
Octoberfest
Winterfest
All of these wine and beer kits have limited availability, and when they are gone, there will be no more, this year. Depending on the popularity, they may be available next year.
You can order one or all of these special wine and beer kits by clicking on the link below:
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Winexpert Limited Releases
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Only 7 days left to order these limited release wine kits from Winexpert.
Chocolate Raspberry Port
Okanagan Peach Icewine
Both are available for pre-order now with delivery in September 2008. In order to guarantee one of these excellent wine kits, you need to order by August 7, 2008. The Chocolate Raspberry Port was extremely popular last year and I was unable to fulfill orders made after the pre-order date. As a result, if you do want one or more of these kits, your best bet is to pre-order before the deadline. As an aside, we tasted ours at the June 21st bottling party and everybody raved about it.
In addition, we are giving away a 3-gallon plastic Better-Bottle with every purchase of the Okanagan Peach Icewine. When you order this wine kit, we will automatically add 1 3-gallon plastic Better-Bottle to your order and ship it along with your wine kit in September. This offer does not include a stopper or an airlock, so if you need either or both, you will need to add them to your order. The stopper is the #10 Drilled Rubber Gum Stopper, part number 4629.
For those of you that have already ordered the Peach Icewine, we will add this 3-gallon plastic Better-Bottle to your order. If you need the stopper or airlock, please let us know and we will add it to your order, as well.
In addition, Winexpert is adding a new product to their Selection International Line. It is the
Spanish Rosé
This is a limited availability wine kit. It is available now, but it is not a permanent addition to the line, so when the stock is gone, there will not be any more.
You can order one or all of these special wine kits by clicking on the following link:
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| Online Videos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Based on the huge amount of positive feedback on our first video, we are shooting our next videos this Sunday. Our first video was how to make wine using a Mosti Mondiale wine kit. Hopefully, at this session, we will be able to make videos for Winexpert, Spagnols and Cellar Craft, so we will have all of our manufacturers covered. All of the video's will be divided into segments so you don't have to watch the whole thing to learn about any particular area.
We have also copied the videos to DVD's that will work on your computer or television if you have a DVD player. A DVD will be included free with every equipment starter kit. In addition, we will make them available for purchase for $9.99. The DVD's will also be free with the purchase of any wine kit. Just request one and we will include it with your order.
It is our intention to keep the videos free on the Internet for all to learn. If you have missed the online videos, use the following link to view them:
Once we have completed the wine kit manufacturer videos, we will start adding videos on how to make a fresh fruit wine. We will also be adding videos on how to use most, if not all, of the equipment. Some of the first videos will feature stainless steel tanks, bottle fillers and filters.
We hope you enjoy this new feature of our store and if you have any suggestions or requests, please let us know. | |
| WineMaker Magazine Awards
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Each month, we will remind you about these awards because we want to be the "Retailer of the Year". This is based on the total scores of the wines entered for each retailer. Last year, we finished 6th in the U.S. and 13th overall and I would like to be #1.
When you win an award with a wine kit, the manufacturer will normally give you a free wine kit from the same brand. This is offered as an inducement for you to win awards with their products. If you submit a Mosti Mondiale Original All Juice wine and win an award with it, Mosti will give you a free Mosti Mondiale Original All Juice wine kit as their thanks. At this time, only Winexpert limits the number of free kits to 2. All of the other manufacturer's will reward each winning kit.
Since we want you to enter and WIN, we are going give you a $100 store gift certificate for every award you receive. Win with a wine kit and get a free wine kit and $100 from us. Win with a fresh fruit wine, you don't get a free wine kit, but you do still get the $100. In addition, we will throw in free shipping for each of the free wine kits you receive.
One last note, due to the limitations on shipping wines, sometimes it can be difficult just getting your wine delivered. I have heard that FedEx Ground flagged the WineMaker Magazine address as a "do not deliver" and a lot of the entries were returned to the wine makers. To make this easier on you, feel free to bring your wine to the store or ship them to us and we will send all of them, en masse, to WineMaker Magazine. If we have enough, we will use a pallet, which should not be a problem getting delivered.
The due date of next year's competition will be sometime in March 2009, so start thinking about which wines you want to enter. |
| Wine of the Month
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This month, we are featuring substantial savings on our remaining limited releases from the first of the year. We only have a few left, but we need to make room for more new products.
In addition, as mentioned previously, we are discontinuing the Through the Grapevine 7 liter kits; therefore, we have them reduced to under $50.00 per kit.
Please note that all of these kits are reduced to sell and we will not be ordering any more. If you are interested, you may want to order sooner, rather than later. When they are gone, I will not have any more.
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| DFW AREA HOME WINE MAKING CLUB
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The next meeting will be a social at the McDaniels' home on August 9, 2008 at 6:00 pm. If you would like to attend, but are not on our regular club mailing list, please call us at the store and we will provide details.
We also have a name and a web site! We decided to keep it simple and since the URL was available for homewinemakersclub.com, we chose The Home Winemakers' Club. The website can be found at http://www.homewinemakersclub.com or http://www.homewinemakersclub.org.
The chapter name is the Corks Crew.
If you would like to be added to the club mailing, please give me a call.
Hope to see you there. |
| Toy of the Month - Bottles
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When we moved last year, I thought we would have plenty of room for several years. As it turns out, I was wrong and we don't have enough room for the stock we need. As a result, I have decided to discontinue items that do not move quickly. We currently stock 31 different bottles, but less than 20 of the styles make up 95% of the sales, so we are going to discontinue 9 of the styles to make room for more products. Our loss is your gain. If you like any of the bottles we are discontinuing, order them now because when they are gone, I will not be purchasing any more. To see which bottles we are discontinuing click here. |
| NEW PRODUCTS
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We are very excited about the 2 new products this month. First, on our visit to Mosti last month, we discovered they make an outstanding Balsamic Vinegar. It comes in an 8.5 ounce bottle and retails for $21.99, but it is on introductory pricing of $19.99 for the month of August. If you like Balsamic Vinegar, you will love this product.
In addition, while in Ohio at the LD Carlson retailer conference, my wife become infatuated with a label printer. This particular model produces commercial quality labels at a reasonable price. The labels are peel and stick and made by MacDay. Initially, we only brought in 11 of their standard labels, but will be adding more each month. Included in the initial order were 2 Christmas labels and one label just for weddings.
To learn about each of these exciting products, click on the following links:
To see all of the products added during the last 60 days, visit our New Products Page whenever you visit the web site.
If you are looking for a product that I do not carry, my distributors are LD Carlson and Crosby & Baker, Ltd. You can see their complete product list at their public catalogs. If you find anything you would like me to add, please let me know. |
| Saturday Afternoon Tastings!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Starting on August 1st, we are going to have Saturday afternoon wine tastings. For those of you wondering what we were going to do with all of the wine we made recently, now you know! Each Saturday until Christmas, we will be tasting a red, a white and a fruit wine. On our Local Events page, we will list which wines we will be tasting each week. The tasting will be free and no purchase will be required. This is an opportunity for you to try more wines. You might find one you really like!
In addition, we will be advertising these tastings to try to increase interest in home wine making and we will be having classes on wine making for anyone interested. Classes will be posted on the web and the frequency will be determined by the amount of interest.
Please come and join us for a free taste of our wines!
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When you have a question or just want to learn more about wine making, don't forget our forum! We have 1,147 registered members with almost 80,000 posts! We have some extremely knowledgeable wine makers with loads of valuable information willing to assist you in your wine making needs. Responses to most posts are made within minutes. We are also known to have an occasional contest available to forum member only with valuable gifts, savings and coupons!
I would also like to take a moment to thank Scott Irwin for all of the time and effort he invested in the forum over the last 4 year. He has served as the Forum Administrator since the day we set it up and I don't know what I would have done without him. Unfortunately, Scott has decided to step down as the Administrator and Steve Baumgartner has graciously offered to take over this poorly compensated position. Please take a moment to visit the forum and thank Scott for all of his effort. On the forum, he is known as Masta.
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.
DISCOUNTS
The most common discounts are listed below:
CUSTOMER REFERRAL PROGRAM
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:
- You must be a registered user of finevinewines.com,
- The person placing the order must register and provide your full 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.
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 at least 5% discount on everything you buy from us (10% on orders over $100.00). Find out more on the web site.
REGISTRATION DISCOUNT (FIRST TIME ORDERS)
To receive this 5% off, all you have to do is register with us and place an order for $50.00, or more (excluding shipping and taxes). If your first order is for more than $140.00, we will give you 10% off. When you register, you will also be given the opportunity to sign up for our monthly newsletter, which is the only recurring email we send. We will not blast you with email after email touting our current specials. We encourage you to register to make the ordering process easier on you.
BIRTHDAY CLUB
If you are a registered user and have provided your birth day and month, every year you will receive a coupon good for $5.00 off any order over $25.00. This coupon is in addition to any other discounts in which you may be entitled. These coupons are emailed on the first of the month and are good for your birth month only. To join up, register, go to the My Account section and provide your birth day and month.
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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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.
Don't forget we like you to CALL!
If you have any questions about our products, our service and/or wine making, please call us. We are here to serve you and enjoying assisting you in any way we can. We have an international toll-free line so you WILL call us. Someone is usually at the store between 9 am and 7 pm, Monday through Saturday. We always try to answer the phone when you call; however, sometimes, we are unable to answer the phone as we are on the other lines or we have customers in the store. If you get the voice mail, please leave your name, number, brief message and a best time to call. We will return your call just as soon as we can. If you don't want to call, just send us an email. We usually answer our emails daily. Please remember, we are a resource and we are here to serve you.
We don't want to be the biggest store, just the BEST!
Cheers!
George Cornelius, President
Fine Vine Wines, LLC, The Wine Maker's Toy Store
Contact Information
George Cornelius - President
Mark Cornelius - Shipping Manager
Joseph Schuitema - Resident Wine Maker and Technical Creator
phone: 1-866-417-1114 |
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