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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
October 2009
Volume 7, Issue 10
866-417-1114 (Long Distance)
972-323-7921 (Local)
972-323-7955 (Fax)
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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 home wine making products, home brew 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 will find something of value. |
| BEER INGREDIENTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We are now in the beer brewing side of this hobby. After over 6 years focusing strickly on home wine making, I have decided to expand to serve the home brewers, as well. I looked at a lot of the home brew web sites and tried to price our beer ingredients in a very competitive manner. We are still not offering free shipping (see shipping article below), but I think you will find that prices after the Grower's Club discount are very good.
Since I am not very knowledgable about beer brewing, I hired Brian Beyer to be our onsite "Beer Meister". Brian received his beginner's home brew kit for Christmas in 1991, and brewed his first batch of beer in January of 1992. He stepped up to all grain brewing in 1996, but still does the occasional extract batch when time is short and the supply is running low.
His favorite styles to keep on draft are Hefeweizens, Bitters, IPA's with the occasional coffee porter thrown in. His latest interests have been with the sour beers of Belgian and Germany. He has belonged to two home brew clubs over his 17 years of brewing. The first was the Boneyard Union of Zymurgical Zealots in Champaign, Illinois, and he is currently a member of the North Texas Homebrewers Association, here in the Dallas Texas.
Brian's email address is brian@finevinewines.com and is in the store for your questions. You can also give him a call. Brian's day off is Tuesday.
Brian did an excellent job with our initial stocking but will be adding more and more products over time. The first items we will be adding is Weyermann's German grains and Wyeast Activator packs. We will also be expanding our list of liquid malts and creating our own recipe kits. If you have any special requests, please let Brian know.
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| SALES, SALES, SALES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From now through Christmas, we are going to have lots of sales! Each sale will include dozens of products and will last at least one week. We have created a special web page that will be updated as the sales change. The first sale will run from now until 5 pm, CST, Sunday, November 8, 2009. At that end of each sale, we send out an email of the new sale and will post the changes on our site.
The stipulations of these sales are as follows:
- Orders must be placed before the end of the sale period.
- If the order is for pickup, you must pick up the order within 7 days of the closing date of the sale.
- If we repeat an item at a lower price, we will either refund the difference or give you a store credit (your choice). I don't anticipate having different prices, but in case I make a mistake and it does, I want to assure you that you will receive the lowest price on orders placed.
This Week's Specials
Remember with all of our sales, we try to anticipate demand, but may not be 100% successful. If we run out of a special, we will advise you of such and an expected ship date. You can decide at that point if you still want the order or not. We appreciate your understanding. |
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WEB SITE MOVED
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Due to some continuing issues with our previous web host, I decided we needed to move the web site before making the changes to the ordering system. The move occured on Thursday, October 29th and we are addressing the one known remaining issue which is related to the forum. The main web site appears to be working correctly and you should notice a great improvement in speed. Hopefully, this will reduce the "page not found errors".
We also had an issue with the previous host regarding our automatic emails being blocked by Comcast, AOL and Yahoo. I won't bore you with the details, but this problem should go away with our new host. By the way, the new host is also the same company that will be maintaining our web site. The company is Consecan Technologies. We ran into a couple of issues during the move (which is to be expected), but they were on top of it every step of the way and significantly reduced the problems and down time during the move. I heartily recommend them!
As discussed previously, we are in the process of modifying the online ordering system to allow you to fill your cart anonymously. This has not been much of an issue with my existing customers, but has been a road block for new customers. In addition, we will be integrating with Google Checkout and PayPal. This will make placing your orders more secure and make sure your information is correct before the order is placed. This will also mean that we will no longer have access to any of your credit card information, so if you are calling your order in, you will need to have your credit card handy.
Over the next several months, we will be adding more and more features and information. With someone else managing the web site, I will have more time to find more products and use my "bean counter" hat to find ways to save money and keep our prices low. As the changes are made, I will send an email to let everyone know.
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ANNUAL LIMITED AVAILABILITY WINE KITS
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As with last year, we are going to offer the limited availability wine kits from four manufacturers. The specific brands are listed below along with the number of wine kits in each release:
- Mosti Mondiale Meglioli (10 kits)
- Winexpert Limited Edition (5 kits)
- RJ Spagnols (5 kits)
- Cellar Craft (4 Kits)
The web site has been updated with descriptions and pricing for all of the limited availability kits and I think you will find this year's prices are less than last year! We also have a very special promotion this year.
To see all of the kits, click on the following link:
To see each individual Brand, click on the links below:
Restricted Quantity from RJ
I cannot over stress the importance of pre-ordering these kits. I will order some extras, but I will not be able to guarantee availability of any of these kits after the pre-order date. I always have some disappointed customers who wanted one or more of these kits and there were just not any left.
Remember, you do not pay for any of these kits until they are shipped or picked up. If you have any questions, please give us a call or send us an email. |
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MONTHLY GIVE-A-WAYS
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Starting in July 2009, we began giving away two $50.00 gift certificates each month. These gift certificates will be redeemable for any product we carry, but can only be used for the cost of the product. Any sales tax and/or shipping cost will not be covered by the certificate. Anyone that places an order during the month will automatically be entered in the contest and we will announce the winners in the monthly newsletter and via email.
The winners for October 2009 were:
Terry Harper from South Lake, TX
and
Chuck Mcdevitt from Highland, CA
Congratulations to both. Maybe next month you will be the winner. | |
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WINES OF THE MONTH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Due to our Weekly Specials, there will not be a wine of the month for November or December 2009. |
REDUCED SHIPPING COSTS
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FedEx was in on Friday and has reduced our shipping rates for us. As I have always promised, if our rates go down, so do yours. They have also committed to look at an additional reduction in January. In the meantime, you should see around a 5-10% reduction in your shipping costs with us. Please note that change is more noticable with the larger packages as the shipping rates per pound are lower as the weight goes up.
I continue to resist the urge to offer free shipping as, in reality, there is no such thing. I guarantee that FedEx, UPS and the US Postage Service charge for every package that is shipped with them. The free shippers are just raising their base prices and charging everyone, including their in-store customers, the same price. I don't think it is the right thing to do to ask my in-store customers to subsidize my internet sales. In addition, I have performed extensive comparisons with my competition and for members of my Grower's Club, my delivered prices win 85% of the time when compared with the "Free Shippers". Just recently, I shipped 22 wine kits on one order and my cost including my charge for shipping was still less than a major free shipper.
When we get our new shopping cart completed, it will be much easier for you to compare our prices to see there really is no "Free Shipping". |
| DFW AREA HOME WINE MAKING CLUB
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The next Cork's Crew, the Home Winemaker's Club meeting will be on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at Vinnie's Italian Restaurant.
If you would like to be added to the club mailings, please give me a call.
Hope to see you there. |
| Toys of the Month
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Due to our Weekly Specials, there will not be a "Toy of the Month" for November or December 2009. |
| NEW PRODUCTS
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As you can see from the news above, we have been diligently adding more and more products to our web site. 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. | |
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Now with over 115,000 posts!
When you have a question or just want to learn more about wine making, don't forget our forum! We have over 1,600 registered members with over 110,000 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 members only with valuable gifts, savings and coupons!
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 5% 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 a 10% discount on all non-Winery Related Items. 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
phone: 1-866-417-1114 |
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