Tuesday, September 1 2009
20 Years of Limited Edition
That's like 140 in wine kit years
Limited Edition time is nearly here! Varieties will be announced at the bottom of this blog entry!
"What's 'Limited Edition' " I hear you say? Not many of today's winemakers will remember, but the entire Selection brand of wine kits actually started as Selection Limited Edition. Winexpert (then called Brew King) revolutionized the home winemaking industry in the late 1980's with the introduction of bag-in-box packaging technology through its Vintners Reserve brand. The technology of bag-in-box packaging gave us the opportunity to use less concentrated and fresher grape juices, ensuring a superior finished wine. In 1989, through consultation with some key market retailers, a larger format package combining a higher ratio of juice to concentrate blend was test-launched in Canada, in a limited run under the new "Selection" brand. Selection Limited Edition was born! The response to the product was so overwhelming that Selection quickly became a regular brand offering year-round, the first large-format premium wine kit in the world.
20 years later, Selection Limited Edition has become a big part of many personal winemaker's year. We do tastings, consumer events, offer special incentives and suchlike, because we want people to try what we consider the best, most innovative kits on the market. This year we're going a couple of interesting things. First, because I can't be everywhere, I've made a DVD of my Limited Edition presentation for everyone to see! It will be released October 1st, and I'll put it on my Youtube Channel (yes, I'm Wizcheeze) split into each wine section, with a special bonus section, 'How To Taste Wine'.
Second, we just launched a new website with a cool contest and Valuable Prizes! If you can correctly guess the wine and food matching pairs, you could win wine kits and stuff! (contest not open to employees of Andrew Peller Limited, it's affiliates, or anyone named Tim Vandergrift or his affiliates or family members. Sorry sis). Check out Limited Edition 20 for your chance to win.
As usual I'll be promoting the Limited Edition season with some consumer and retailer events. The week of October 5th I'll be in the US midwest, Seeing the good folks at Norther Brewer. Minnesota: cold climate, warm people. The week of October 19th I'll be doing some touring in BC, places to be determined, but I'll give warning right here. The 26th I'm off to North Carolina and Georgia, talking about the Limiteds and scarfing down barbecue. The week of November 2nd I'll be down in Oregon visiting the folks at Steinbart retail (Hey John and Mary-Kay!) and the very next week I'll be in Brandon and Winnipeg doing the second-largest wine tasting in Manitoba for the boys at Winesense. Call 529, there's gonna be an emergency!
Pending some last minute changes, I hope to be in Texas after that (go Austin!) and then I'll collapse in a complete sweaty heap for about three calendar weeks. I love travelling and seeing all my old friends, and making new ones, and doing it with wine education and tasting events is so much fun it oughta be illegal or taxed or something. If you can't make it to one of the tastings, watch the DVD and follow along. You won't get to meet me in person, but that has advantages: you don't have to meet me in person, for one.
Now the moment you've all been waiting for: this year's Limited Edition varieties are: three reds and two whites!
Ah, that joke never gets old (for me). We'll publicly announce the varieties on October 1st, I'll personally put 'em here and even show off the labels and suchlike. Watch for it!
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