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 The Winning Wines
Plus has long been a staple in the Edmonton small-business community, with
over twenty-five years of experience in the home wine and beer making
industry. While starting small, they’ve grown their company into a
successful specialty retailer, selling the best possible wine and beer
making products, at very affordable prices.
“We’ve seen many competitors come and go in the 25 years that we’ve been in
business,” noted Andrew Stephenson, owner and manager of the Lendrum Place
Shopping Centre location. “Our customers learn to depend on us when they
need help, and we gladly provide any assistance that we can. We’re all wine
and beer makers ourselves, and we’ve learned many of the answers to
questions that our customers ask from our own brewing experiences.” Winning
Wines Plus also offers free winemaking classes, where staff share some of
their own secrets to making the perfect batch of wine.
One of the biggest changes in the home-winemaking field since the first
Winning Wines Plus (Brew Crew) opened its doors in 1985, is in the overall
increase in quality of premium home wine and beer making products. In the
not too distant past, the only way to make a decent wine at home was to
stem and crush fresh, volatile grapes, all from scratch, which was far
beyond the reach of the average hobbyist. And even then, the results were
often far from pleasing. During the past decade, the quality of the
products available to the average home-winemaker has increased
dramatically, allowing an amateur to produce high quality wines, with a
delicate bouquet and rich, full body, all without resorting to the mess and
trouble of dealing with the unpredictable quality of fresh grapes.
Winemaking has become something that can be done by almost anyone willing
to follow a short list of simple directions.
The Winning Wines Plus wine concentrates, all carefully tested by staff to
ensure that the quality meets the company’s high standards, are known by
local winemakers to be amongst the best products in the industry. “We find
that one of the most effective ways of drawing new customers into our
stores is through word of mouth,” says Stephenson, “and, more precisely,
word of taste. People often pay us a visit after discovering that the wine
a friend was serving was made from one of our kits.”
The Winning Wines Plus management continues to stress product quality in
everything that their stores carry, taking particular pride in their wine
concentrates. “Our wines have been consistently winning awards at the
international Intervin wine competition, beating out wines that have been
made from scratch,” says Stephenson. “We’re confident that our product is
the best available.”
And the combination seems to be working. The Winning Wines Plus continues
to grow, thriving in an industry that sees more and more people wanting to
produce premium, quality wines, valuing customer service and support, and
appreciating the friendly advice of knowledgeable staff.
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