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HAPPY 2010!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Newsletter published by
Fine Vine Wines, LLC
"The Wine Maker's Toy Store™"
1300 N. Interstate 35-E, Suite 106
Carrollton, Texas 75006
January 2010
Volume 8, Issue 11
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. |
| FIRST AID KIT FOR WINE MAKING AND BEER BREWING
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It's Saturday night and you are checking the specific gravity of your wine or beer to determine if you are ready to go to the next step. You reach for your sanitized hydrometer and it slips out of your hand, it does not bounce, and you spend the next few minutes cleaning up small pieces of glass. Now what? Hopefully, you reach for your Toy Store First Aid Kit and continue making your wine or brewing your beer.
Having a Toy Store First Aid Kit can save you the frustration of waiting until the supply store opens so you can finish the task at hand. It can also save the time and money of a trip to the supply store or shipping costs. A first aid kit can be assembled with a few very valuable but low cost items and everything should fit in a shoebox.
Here is our recommended list:
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Spare Hydrometer - A wet hydrometer is a very slippery thing and it will likely break if dropped or jostled about. Someday they may be made from a less fragile material but until then, having a spare in the first aid kit is a good idea.
- Spare Thermometer - There is nothing worse than going to check the temperature of your grains or your must and dropping, breaking, or just misplacing your thermometer. Once again, an additional $6.00 item will save you a lot of frustration and may save your batch.
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Extra Yeast - A real source of frustration and apprehension is watching your latest blackberry wine or India Pale Ale beer do nothing for the last three days. It could be that the yeast was out of date and weak, died from exposure to high temperature before you received it or it was re-hydrated at too high of a temperature. Instead of a fermentation that won't start maybe it's a fermentation that has stuck and it needs to be restarted. No matter the reason, the nearest pack of yeast is three days away. Lalvin EC-1118 and Red Star Premier Cuvee are great choices for wine in your first aid kit, while Safale SO5 is a great all-purpose yeast for your beer. Remember to periodically rotate your inventory and keep a fresh pack in the first aid kit. If possible, store this component of the first aid kit in the refrigerator.
- Yeast Nutrient - If you have a stuck fermentation and you are going to restart it, having some yeast nutrient to add will help the yeast deal with the alcohol environment. A little nutrient will help ensure there is a viable yeast population to complete the fermentation.
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Extra Corks and/or Caps - From personal experience, there is nothing like preparing for bottling just to find out you have no corks or caps. An extra bag will get that batch bottled.
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Drilled Stoppers - It's a good idea to have various size stoppers and bottles available for saving the extra wine from racking. You can use splits, wine bottles, half-gallon and one gallon jugs to store small amounts of wine which can be used for future topping off. We recommend having several sizes of drilled stoppers on hand: #2, #3, #6 and the small multi-fit stopper.
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Airlocks - The stoppers won't do you any good without some spare airlocks. |
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EMAIL ISSUE
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It appears we have finally solved our email issue. The bottom line is that ATT does not use the industry standards for identifying potential SPAM IP address. They are smarter than everyone else, so they use their own tools to identify and block IP addresses. Once we discovered the problem, we had to dig through ATT's web site to find out how to get off the list. We now have reporting installed on our web server to alert us when this happens again.
I apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. |
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LET'S WIN SOME AWARDS
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Every year, WineMaker Magazine sponsors a wine competition and the Home Winemaking Retail Store that has the most winners is proclaimed as "Retailer of the Year". Last year, we finished 2nd and I would like to be #1. As such, we would like to encourage each of you to enter your best wines.
When you win an award with a wine kit, the manufacturer will normally give you an award for your winning wine. Sometimes, it is a free kit, sometimes it is a discount. As soon as I get the details from each manufacturer, I will pass on the info. The manufacturers do not reimburse for shipping, as such, if we ship your award, you will be charged for the shipping cost.
Since we want you to enter and WIN, we are going give you a store gift certificate for every award you receive. This year we have a sliding scale for your winning wines:
- Gold Medal - $100.00 Store Gift Certificate
- Silver Medal - $75.00 Store Gift Certificate
- Bronze Medal - $50.00 Store Gift Certificate
In addition, if we win the Retailer of the Year competition, we will add $25.00 to each award. In order to recieve a gift certificate from us, you must indicate that "The Wine Maker's Toy Store" is your winemaking retailer in the appropriate box on the form.
The due date of this year's competition is March 15, 2010, so start thinking about which wines you want to enter.
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. Please have your wines to us no later than February 27th if you want us to ship your wine.
Good luck to all that enter. |
| CELLAR CRAFT RESTRICTED QUANTITY UPDATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We just received this information from Cellar Craft
RE: 2010 March & April Release Date Change
TWO HEMISPHERE RIESLING: Release date delayed to April
This blend of Northern and Southern Hemisphere Rieslings is looking terrific. A subtle mineral character in the Australian juice is particularly interesting. In fact, with so much going on in both the Washington and Australian juices we have decided to release the kit as our first 18 Litre white wine. This will better accommodate the very high juice content that will be going into this release.
This change will require new packaging and filling components. Getting everything in place for this new configuration will take time and, as a result, we will have to delay the Riesling Release until April. Trio Tinto will be advanced to the March release date.
TRIO TINTO: NEW - Release date advanced to March.
We evaluated this classic blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha and Carinena fermented on Tempranillo crushed grapes and also on Garnacha crushed grapes. Both versions had great appeal and split our taste panel. The wines, with the only difference being the crushed grape varieties used, were dramatically different! The Tempranillo crushed grapes contributed cherry, raspberry and floral character to the well structured wine which had a nicely defined oak note. Some tasters said this was Spanish Red at its best
The Garnacha crushed grapes took the base blend and made it into an absolute fruit bomb. Loads of red fruit outshone the oak and created an almost sweet impression. Impressive to say the least but some tasters felt this to be not particularly typical of traditional Spanish reds. |
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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. Their are on 2 requirements:
- You must place an order during the month, AND
- You must be a registered user.
These gift certificates can be redeemed 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. Any registered user 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 December 2009 were:
Jesse Bruton from Abilene, TX
and
Jerry Pennington from Mount Hermon, KY
Congratulations to both. Maybe next month you will be the winner. | |
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WINES OF THE MONTH
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Burgundy region of France is known primarily for 2 grapes, the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. They are used in making their great still wines and they are also used in the world famous Champagne regions of France. This month, we are putting all of our wine kits that contain either of these grapes on sale for 10% off. To see these specials, click on the following link.
Wines of the Month |
| Toys of the Month
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As a result of our Christmas sale, we now have a lot of new wine makers. Most of you received our Beginners package that does not include any of the bottle cleaning equipment. To help you update your wine making toys, we have put all of the cleaning supplies included in the deluxe kit on special for 10% off. In addition, we also have the triple scale hydrometer and floating thermometer on sale for 10% off. To see the complete list of this months "Toys", click on the following link:
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| NEW PRODUCTS
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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 Crosby & Baker, Ltd and LD Carlson. 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. |
| LABELS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As a result of the 3-4 hours a day being spent on making wine labels, we are reviewing our pricing of such. There is a good possibility that prices of our labels, especially those not related to the purchase of a wine kit will increase. As soon as we have finalized our new policy, we will let you know. | |
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Now with over 120,000 posts!
When you have a question or just want to learn more about wine making or beer brewing, don't forget our forum! We have over 1,600 registered members with over 120,000 posts! We have some extremely knowledgeable wine makers and brewers 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 and brewers. 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 and home brewers.
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 or home brewing, 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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