If you enjoy wine with dinner a couple of times a week (or more), you will quickly realize the savings that can be yours by making your own wine -- purchase 3 selections (90 bottles) in a year and you will save from $300 to $800 (or more) for similar wines purchased from the LCBO or retail wine store.
Most people start making wine for the money they will save, but they continue to make their own wine not merely for the savings but for the quality they receive as well. Many customers have told me that they prefer "their wine" over commercial wines each and every time.
We have customers who make once or twice a year and others who have 400-bottle wine cellars. But, every customer started with the same question: How do I decide which wine to make first?
UNDERSTANDING YOUR OPTIONS
Like most products that you can buy, the wine you make comes in different quality levels...and "quality" is measured two ways -- Format and Origin.
"Format" refers to the size and composition of the wine kits. For instance, our basic 4-week wine kit is a 7.5L format. You can also choose 9L, 15L, 16L and 18L format kits. Each of these produces 23L of finished wine (or approximately 30 750mL bottles) so the main difference is the ratio of juice to concentrate. As a general rule, the more fresh juice in your wine kit, the more body in your finished wine.
"Origin" refers to the environment in which the grapes were grown -- the location, soil type, rainfall, hours of sunshine and so on. Since the environment contributes greatly to the grape, it is also significant to the wine that is made from that grape.
Even though the wine is made from the same grape variety, a Chardonnay from Australia will taste much different than a Chardonnay from France -- we stock both of these and 4 more Chardonnays for you to choose from.
We buy our kits from the consumer- and on-premise wine divisions of Vincor (RJ Spagnols www.rjspagnols.com), Andrew Peller Limited (Winexpert www.winexpert.com) and CellarCraft International (www.cellarcraftwine.com).
You probably know these companies by their commercial wine brands (Inniskillin, Jackson Triggs, Hillebrand, Peller Estates and others) and you can be confident that the on-premise divisions place the same quality emphasis on their wine kits. Both Andrew Peller (formerly known as Andres) Vincor are primarily commercial wine producers, and we benefit in two important ways:
1. Developing trends in commercial wines can be tracked and wine kits developed which reflect these trends -- the growing popularity of varietal blends is one example of this; in essence, you can make wines that are quickly growing in popularity through retail stores, and
2. Shared grape crops -- imagine a single vine being harvested, with some grapes going into commercial wines and others going into wine kits. That is precisely what happens with some higher-end wine kits.
WHERE TO START
Tell us what style of wine you like and we will do our best to match it to one of our in-stock or special order wine kits.
THE WINEMAKING PROCESS
With your wine selected, you start your wine and pay for your selection; we look after all the heavy lifting, racking and filtering of your wine, and you return 4-8 weeks later to bottle your wine with our easy-to-use equipment.
(Or, you can purchase the kit and take it home to make.)
The main difference between a bottle of wine you make and a similar bottle that you might purchase at retail (other than the price) is aging time.
A commercial winery produces its wines, ages them in a warehouse and then ships them to the retail store. The wine you make is not aged when you bottle it and, while some wines are meant to be enjoyed young, most benefit greatly from bottle aging. Bottle aging doesn't cost you a cent, but you need to plan your winemaking schedule to accomodate it. For instance, many customers make their Christmas and winter entertaining season wines in June.
If you need more information, drop in to the winery and see for yourself how the whole process works. Your on-premise winemaking orders are protected by my 100% Satisfaction Guarantee: if you do not like the wine at bottling time, you do not keep it -- I will either make you another same-price selection at no charge or refund every penny you paid. Since September 7, 2001 (when I purchased this business), I have refunded one customer's order and replaced perhaps two more -- I have confidence in my products and you can have confidence in them as well.
You will find me at
Bloor West Winery
2869 Bloor Street West
Etobicoke, ON M8X 1B3
(We are located at the SW corner of Bloor Street and Prince Edward Drive)
Tel: 416-604-8463
E-mail: judy@bloorwestwinery.com
Cheers!
Judy McFarlane
Owner/Operator
Bottle Deposit/Refund Update Starting February 5, 2007, a deposit of 20 cents per 750mL bottle of wine (or spirits) is added to the price you pay at the LCBO or winery retail store. You can get this money back, if you schlep the empties to a Brewers Retail location. BUT, bottles you purchase from me are exempt from this deposit. Why? Simply because you re-fill your empty bottles over and over again. Re-filling trumps recycling anyday which is why the bottle deposit fee is waived for on premise winemakers.
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