I have never been a fan of Ice Wines or wines with sweetness levels above 1. However, when I tried the Selection Speciale Okanakgan Peach Ice Wine from a few years ago, it was love at first taste.

If you like peaches you will love Okanagan Peach Icewine!

I recently removed a carboy of the 2008 release of the Selection Speciale Peach Icewine  from my cellar which has been bulk aging for 2 years. I was shocked by its deep, amber, peach colour and even more delighted by its sensuous mouth feel and its lingering taste of peach pie. If you like peaches, peach desserts or peach pie, give this kit a try.

I’m very pleased that it has been released again this year (it was not available in 2009). This Gold Medal winning treat will not disappoint.

Cheers,

Blaine (Wine Sense- Southdale Square)

-Contact your favourite Wine Sense location to reserve your Selection Speciale Okanagan Peach Icewine.

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.)

This year we have a Meritage blend which is a combination of two or more “noble” Bordeaux varieties. Our Meritage 3 Continents is a blend of Petit Verdot from Australia, Cabernet Sauvignon from California, and Merlot from Chile. Meritage wines historically are prized for their smooth, silky texture and robust structure. The ‘Small Lots’ Meritage 3 Continents has flavours of blackfruit, soft notes of licorice, and hints of cedar and chocolate. I’m tasting it already!

Chardonnay is becoming one of the most popular grapes in BC, and has become a sought after wine. The ‘Small Lots’ BC Chardonnay provides us with the unique opportunity to choose the style of Chardonnay we wish to have. Keep the oak out to create an un-oaked ‘New-World’ style- crisper and more fruit forward. Alternatel you can add the oak creating a more traditional style bringing out some of the vanilla notes and extending the finish. I’m going to add the oak!

I’ll be making one of each as I don’t want to miss this opportunity.

If you buy yours before May 22^nd you’ll receive a FREE $15 Wine Sense Gift Card!

We only have a few left and once they are gone that’s it- thus the name ‘Small Lots’…

Cheers,

Victor- Manager (McPhillips)

Twisted Mist is back in stock at Winexpert and more is being shipped to Wine Sense right now. Although some Wine Sense locations may be low or out of stock right now- all should be back to normal by Thursday or Friday of this week.

The sales of Twisted Mit have been simply amazing. For those of you who don’t know you what Twisted Mist is- you can now make your own Mojito and Strawberry Margaritas! Click here for more details.

Many of you must be close to bottling at this time, and it would be to your best interest to review the instructions. The one big difference is that the fruit pack is added at bottling time. Also, the finished product will have a cloudy appearance. The final product should look this way- so do not worry. 

One other interesting note in the instructions concerns degassing. They suggest that after you have completed the degassing phase that you siphon some wine into your test jar- halfway is good. Insert a solid bung or cover with your clean hand and give a good shake. If you hear a pop or puff of gas then you should continue degassing. If the wine foams up but no pop of gas then you have completed the task. I think this is a great idea and should be applied to all wine kits.

Cheers

Bob- Manager (Wine Sense- Springfield Rd)

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)

The filtering went well, and the bottling was an enjoyable event as the aroma coming up out of the bottles was fantastic.

Following the instructions, Stage One was very simple. The starting SG was 1.090 with a temperature of 24 C.

I arrived at Stage Two in 6 days, on Oct 16th, 2009. The fermentation was steady and slow, which I prefer. My SG reading was .998.

Stage Three took a little longer than usual due to the slow fermentation. After 13 days I finally got to two stable SG readings of .994 and moved on to the degassing. Using the wine whip, I degassed the wine in the instructed 3 minutes – but that whip is so much fun I kept going for a few more minutes!

On Nov 12th, 2009 I racked the wine over to a clean carboy and topped up with water.

I bottled the wine on Dec 4th 2009. I filtered the wine so we can taste the wine and pass our opinions on to our customers… Ok, Ok, I just wanted to drink it early…

The Aussie GSM on first tasting after bottling had an interesting aroma and the colour was a nice medium red. The taste was very young (I would give it at least 3-6 months of aging). I was surprised by the taste of the wine because the Shiraz was obvious, but it was not the predominate taste – the Grenache and Mourvedre were also very evident.

On first tasting it’s evident this will smooth out with aging. I would personally age this wine for one year and enjoy all the proper flavors that this will develop. If you can’t wait a year at least make sure you can enjoy a bottle or two after 6 months. Your patience will pay off.

Because I plan my cellar needs in advance and have patience, I am actually able to wait about a year to drink my wines – my definition of patience is “enough wine to drink until the next kit is aged”.

Here is Winexpert’s description of the wine:

The blending of these three grapes is a classic, originating in the South of France where Côtes du Rhone and Chateauneuf du Pape concentrate on these varieties. The small, thick skinned berries are deep blue-black in colour, high in extract, flavour, aroma and tannin.

 Grenache also thrives in hot climates and warm soils, producing deep purple, sugar-rich, burly ripe fruit, it offers a cornucopia of dense, lusty aromas and flavours of black cherry, blackcurrant, jam, pepper and liquorice with an explosively mouth filling texture and deceptively heady alcohol.

Enjoy!

Jim

Manager (Wine Sense- Springfield)

If you recall, our hero Navin starts jumping around exclaiming his excitement to see his name in the new phonebook. This is pretty much how we react at Wine Sense when the Limited Edition wines start arriving! That is of course after we’ve recovered from unloading them.

You think he's excited? You should see the Wine Sense folks when the Limited Edition wines arrive!

Why are we so excited? Because the Selection Limited Edition wines are always great wines. Better yet- this year we are re-releasing the top five wines of the last 20 years of the Selection Limited Edition program. All five wines are proven winners in taste and in competition!

If you are a veteran of the Limited Edition program you get to remake some of your favourites. If you’re new to the Limited Edition Program you’ve picked a great time to try some of our most popular wines ever!

If you did not reserve any of the wines this year and you are thinking about trying a Limited Edition wine- do not delay. Our pre-orders were way up this year and as a result we have a very small quantity of extra kits available. On average less than 25 kits per style per store.

The South African Shiraz and the California Lake County Trio Blanca are now in stock. If you pre-ordered these wines you can now come down to your favourite Wine Sense location and pick up your kit(s). If you didn’t pre-order you will want to get to your favourite Wine Sense store as soon as possible and get one of these great wines before they’re all gone!

Craig

Wine Sense

In the first stage the fermentation started almost immediately with pressure on the plastic cover within a couple of hours. My room temperature was consistent at 22C throughout the full time period.

By stage two in 5 days the SG was 1.004, which is consistent with the instructions.

Stage three took a little longer than the instructions, 14 days before I got 2 consecutive SG readings of .992. Stabilizing went well, the wine degassed properly and once again I got to play with my Wine Whip .

By bottling day the wine had cleared to a beautiful ruby red. After racking it to another carboy I decided I would filter this wine. I don’t filter all of my wines but because I want to drink this wine early, I did.

My bottling is finished and I totally enjoyed the aroma of this wine while I was leaning over the bottles as they filled. Believe it or not there was a glass of wine left over for me to analyze. This time my planning was perfect, just before supper. So I tested the wine by it’s self and found it enjoyable but young, I would give it a month or two to age. But with supper I found it superb very robust and the tannins where perfect. So either way it’s good out of the carboy or with aging.

Remember your best 2 bottles of wine will be your last 2 bottles of wine. So don’t wait, put another kit on.

Jim Everton
Manager (Wine Sense – Southdale)