It’s always nice when new gadgets come along and the Auto-Syphon Clamp is long overdue. I’m sure most winemakers are aware of the Siphon Clip- the little red clip that attaches to your siphon combo and secures it to your pail or carboy. It allows you to ‘hover’ the end of your syphon over the sediment bed so you don’t pull in any sediment while syphoning.

The Clamp- holding the Auto-Syphon to a Primary Fermenter

The Auto-Syphon Clamp works exactly the same in that it clips onto pails and carboys. The bonus is that it is designed specifically to fit the Auto-Syphon – something the red Syphon Clip could never do. You can now use your Auto-Syphon when filtering and bottling or filling your Wine-On-Tap system (which are on sale until July 24th!) 

I’ve had an Auto-Syphon for years but have never used it to bottle because it stirs up the sediment too much- which ends up in the bottle or plugs your filter pads. Now that problem has been solved and for the low price of $3.99 you can have one too.

If you don’t have an Auto-Syphon pop on down to your favourite Wine Sense location and we’ll be happy to show you how it operates… no more having to suck on your syphon to get it started!

Cheers,

Bob, Manager (Wine Sense- Springfield Rd.)

Wine Sense Nomacorcs!

For those of you who have not used Nomacorcs, you should give them a try. They never break apart when you pull them out of the bottle and they have a zero failure rate due to cork taint. Most importantly Nomacorcs are a great improvement on the 400 year old technology of natural corks and are the best option available for the home winemaker. Let’s face it, if winemaking was invented today we would not be running into forests and digging into tree bark to seal our bottles!

 Nomacorc is an impressive company that looks beyond their corks and are considered an industry leader in all facets of storing wine including how oxygen affects wine, bottle shape and optimum cork insertion. I use Nomacorcs for all of my wines and recommend them to my customers. Click here to read an impressive Wall Street Jounal article about Nomacorc.

Wine Sense currently has all of our corks on sale for 20%off so it’s a great time to give Nomacorcs a try or to stock up on your cork needs. (offer ends July 3rd, 2010)

Cheers,

Bruce, Manager (Wine Sense- Pembina Hwy)

Last week when the Carboy Cleaners arrived- I had to try one. I had two carboys to clean and the Carboy Cleaner not only did a great job but it was fun to use. Think of a ‘car-wash’ inside your carboy.

No more having to scrub with a Carboy Brush while trying to get into the shoulders of the carboy. No more trying to carefuly ‘aim’ the tip of the brush to get that tough spot on the bottom of the carboy. 

It took only 1 litre of water and 1 tbsp of Sparklebrite to clean the carboy (not counting the rinse water). This significantly cuts down on the cost of cleaning by using less Sparklebrite and as a result less water.

The best part was that I finished with the cleaning and put the carboy away in 10 minutes (yes- I did play longer than necessary).

Make life easier- get a Carboy Cleaner!

In the past, my problem with cleaning carboys was filling them up to soak and forgetting to come back and finish. Now everything is cleaned up and put away before I leave the room… my wife likes this.

Click here to view a brief video and see why the Carboy Cleaner (exclusive to Wine Sense)  is the fastest, easiest and best way to clean your carboys!

Cheers,

Jim- Manager (Southdale)

When you’re cleaning your Better Bottle, they are light and easy to grip. They don’t get slippery like glass carboys.

I have a converted closet turned into a carboy storage area. It is quite elaborate with separate shelves for each carboy and a cloth cover to stop any breakage due to inadvertent collisions. I’m thinking to myself, that if all my carboys were plastic all I would have to do is stack in there without the high tech storage structure.

I have had far too many conversations with customers about the clean up after a carboy breakage. With the Better Bottle there’s no need to worry about that.

As the Better Bottles are on sale at the moment, I would give them a big thumbs up and would highly recommend this product.

Cheers,

Bob

Manager- Wine Sense (Springfield Rd.)

The Wine Whip- a wine makes best friend!

During the first stage, when you are finished adding the required amount of water to your juice/concentrate, you will read the direction “stir vigorously for 30 seconds”. When that direction is given, it means that you have to blend two liquids with different viscosities together so that they are well mixed. If you don’t stir vigorously, then you could find that the wine in your primary may be layered and will not have the correct specific gravity stated in the directions. Your solution is to stir the water/wine mixture with your wine whip for the next 30 seconds and achieve the correct specific gravity easily. There will be a layer of bubbles on your must, so use your thief to collect a sample of wine to measure your specific gravity with your hydrometer.

You can also use the wine whip during Stage 1 to mix the oak chips contained in the kit. Turn the whip on an angle, resting it on the rim of the primary and mix. This ensures that the oak chips are swept under the surface of the must to help make them more waterlogged (winelogged?).

Hopefully these two Wine Whip tips will help make your winemaking easier for you!

Cheers,

Brian

Wine Sense Portage Avenue

It’s time to make life easier (and safer) for yourself. Stop using a flathead screwdriver, scissors, lock grips or anything else you can get your hands on to remove those pesky caps from wine kit bags.

The Bag De-Capper is a handy tool that safely and easily removes the yellow caps from the juice bags in all major wine kits. Simply slide the Bag De-Capper across the cap so it locks on the ridge- and pry off.

Simply slide the Bag De-Capper across the yellow cap and it easily lifts off!

Ask your Wine Sense staff about the Bag De-capper, those that have tried it say “why didn’t I think of it”. No more struggling and spilling when opening the wine kit bag and no-more cuts or scrapes on your hands!

The Bag De-Capper also makes a great Stocking Stuffer!

 Victor

Manager- Wine Sense (McPhillips Street)