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 The Brew Crew
Winning Wines Plus has long been a staple in the Edmonton small-business community,
with over twenty-four 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 24 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.” The
Brew Crew 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
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 Brew Crew’s 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 Brew Crews’ 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 Brew Crew 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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