Our friendly neighborhood brewer's supplier has raised its prices, supposedly because the weak dollar is making it more expensive to buy wine kits from Canada. That got me wondering why the wine kit industry seems to be almost entirely based in Canada. Wine is one of the larger industries in California. You'd think that some of the vineyards in Napa or the central valley would try marketing grapes in the form of wine kits. (Sounds like a natural for Bronco - How do you follow two buck chuck?)
Is there some regulation that makes it difficult for American vineyards to produce wine kits?
No regulations, I doubt that has anything to do with it. The US dollar has been falling compared to Canada for a few years, I bet it's on the order of 15% right now. I used to travel a lot to Toronto and the rate was 1.47 for a long time, now it's around $1.30.
As to California, they are big into home winemaking from Modesto to Lodi, not to mention Brehm. The Central Valley grows and sells a lot of wine grapes; they are used throughout California and elsewhere as an adjunct to local grapes and in jug wines.
They do sell a lot of wine and kits. Most of the stuff that is available from the Central Valley is sold fresh to home winemakers in boxes or 6 gallon pails. California Concentrate owns Alexanders Sun Country and Home Wines, they are a concentrator. If grapes did not ripen in California it is illegal to use sugar so they would add a concentrate. (It doesn't happen much, it's not hard to get grapes to cooperate in California.)
Pailed juice is pretty economical too, we get 6 gallon pails in Pittsburgh for $30 to $40 here because so much comes our way. That's really cheap considering pailing costs. It makes good wine too. If well made it's comparable to most $10 bottles.
Canada is big on the 'brew on premises' process too and it really makes it easy for someone to get into making wine. You have a built in expert at your side the whole time. That lends itself to winemaking year round.
I'm not saying your price increases are justified, just that it makes some sense to me. When I traveled in Canada the thing that struck me was that only food was a little more costly, compared to home, a dollar in Canada got me about the same as a dollar in the US. That made it go way further at $1.47. It's not like I was buying houses or cars though, just stuff you buy in a week or so.
I can probably give you a knowledgeable answer to your query.
I believe the "wine kit" industry was literally started in Vancouver, B.C. by a gentleman by the name of Stanley Anderson in the late 60's through a company called WineArt. My wife opened his second store (New Westminster, B.C.), his original store I think was on West 10th Avenue in Vancouver. He was an interesting and enterprising man who made more than a few Canadian shekels on the whole operation.
The popularity of making wine from kits boomed, especially across Canada. It was of course, a simple, recipe approach that simplified the whole process of winemaking but was really driven by the fact that wine and all booze was, and still is, extremely expensive due to our high taxes on all alcoholic beverages (and anything else the bureaucracy here can get there hands on). Once established the kits in Canada improved from the original concentrating process as the first ones tasted quite cooked. Also, the original grapes used were not always the best but soon the process and the grapes improved through California and european sources as well as greatly improved vinifera grapes available in the Okanagan valley of B.C. and the Niagara penninsula in Ontario.
It was very interesting times as the methods used by the large immigrant population in Canada that brought traditional european winemaking, especially the Italian community, was somewhat frowned upon as they had the audacity to begin by crushing grapes, using barrels and other non-conventional means (at least according to the recipe approach)!!!
I think we've now learned that everything they did was not so stupid.
I can probably give you a knowledgeable answer to your query.
I believe the "wine kit" industry was literally started in Vancouver, B.C. by a gentleman by the name of Stanley Anderson in the late 60's through a company called WineArt. My wife opened his second store (New Westminster, B.C.), his original store I think was on West 10th Avenue in Vancouver. He was an interesting and enterprising man who made more than a few Canadian shekels on the whole operation.
The popularity of making wine from kits boomed, especially across Canada. It was of course, a simple, recipe approach that simplified the whole process of winemaking but was really driven by the fact that wine and all booze was, and still is, extremely expensive due to our high taxes on all alcoholic beverages (and anything else the bureaucracy here can get there hands on). Once established the kits in Canada improved from the original concentrating process as the first ones tasted quite cooked. Also, the original grapes used were not always the best but soon the process and the grapes improved through California and european sources as well as greatly improved vinifera grapes available in the Okanagan valley of B.C. and the Niagara penninsula in Ontario.
It was very interesting times as the methods used by the large immigrant population in Canada that brought traditional european winemaking, especially the Italian community, was somewhat frowned upon as they had the audacity to begin by crushing grapes, using barrels and other non-conventional means (at least according to the recipe approach)!!!
I think we've now learned that everything they did was not so stupid.
I can probably give you a knowledgeable answer to your query.
I believe the "wine kit" industry was literally started in Vancouver, B.C. by a gentleman by the name of Stanley Anderson in the late 60's through a company called WineArt. My wife opened his second store (New Westminster, B.C.), his original store I think was on West 10th Avenue in Vancouver. He was an interesting and enterprising man who made more than a few Canadian shekels on the whole operation.
The popularity of making wine from kits boomed, especially across Canada. It was of course, a simple, recipe approach that simplified the whole process of winemaking but was really driven by the fact that wine and all booze was, and still is, extremely expensive due to our high taxes on all alcoholic beverages (and anything else the bureaucracy here can get there hands on). Once established the kits in Canada improved from the original concentrating process as the first ones tasted quite cooked. Also, the original grapes used were not always the best but soon the process and the grapes improved through California and european sources as well as greatly improved vinifera grapes available in the Okanagan valley of B.C. and the Niagara penninsula in Ontario.
It was very interesting times as the methods used by the large immigrant population in Canada that brought traditional european winemaking, especially the Italian community, was somewhat frowned upon as they had the audacity to begin by crushing grapes, using barrels and other non-conventional means (at least according to the recipe approach)!!!
I think we've now learned that everything they did was not so stupid.
Strangely enough, wine kit prices here in Canada remain the same. And Joe, while in Canada maybe you didn't see the price of gas compared to the good old US of A? We pay over $3 a gallon for gas here these days.
Lol! I reckon on averaging about 80 kms/day on my long touring Holidays. The most I have done in a day is about 105 kms.
So to collect your packages, on my velo, would take me 2 days with an overnight stop somewhere-- and that is assuming I could get them on my velo!
I have my (newly arrived in UK) next Crushendo kit (Corvina Classico Di Veneto) waiting to be picked up and that's a round trip of about 10 miles ( 16 kms) -- but I would struggle with balancing the box on my rear pannier rack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Trevor - Sounds pretty dangerous to me. I think in the interest of safety, you'd best buy another kit. If you strap one on either side of the rear wheel, you should have a lower center of gravity and improved stability.
Well I think you must be lucky. Vineco increased wholesale prices earlier in the year (Feb 1 ?), and Spagnols just raised them March
28th. Advintage raised their prices Jan 1st.
I have no contact with the other kit manufacturers.
These increases would mostly affect the retail by $1 to $2, although in my store a couple of kits got hit by $5 because of a price increase last fall that I hadn't re-ordered those particular varieties.
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