http://www.clickabrew.com

May 2003

A Big Thank You!
We would like to thank everyone who helped make our 10th Anniversary celebration a smashing success.

Over the past ten years we have kept our commitment to quality. We have consistently offered you only the best products on the market such as our industry leading RJ Spagnols wine and beer kits. This has allowed us to grow rapidly and become one of the largest home wine and beer making specialty stores in Canada. We promise to keep this commitment of quality and will be offering you some new and exciting products during this, our tenth anniversary year. You have told us time and again that you are interested in only quality products and we plan to deliver. Watch our for some new product announcements beginning in our next newsletter.

Once again, thanks for a fabulous ten years as we look forward to the next decade of serving you!

Best regards,
Bill Reddy
President, Brewery Lane Ltd.

Wine Kit Special of the Month
Every month we feature two Grand Cru wine kits at a fantastic price. This is a great way to try new varieties and to stock up your cellar with a cross-section of interesting wines. Grand Cru are our most popular and best-selling wine kits. Manufactured by RJ Spagnol's, one of the world's leading wine kit producers, you are guaranteed exceptional quality.

This month's featured kits:

Merlot - A smooth rich wine, medium dark in colour, tasting of blackberry and currants. You’ll note a hint of green olive in the nose.

Sauvignon Blanc -A clean, refreshing wine offering a light, fruity aroma with green, herbal flavours and a touch of mint. A unique French-style wine that ages well.

Regular Price $59.95 CAD $43.70 USD     Sale Price $51.99 CAD ($37.90 USD)

Please visit Clickabrew to order online.

Orchard Breezin' Sale Held Over!
We have extended our Orchard Breezin' sale until June 15th. A great summer drink at a great price.

BONUS! While supplies last receive a six pack of reusable decorative ice cubes with every purchase.

Special New Release Offer!
Until June 15 save 15% off all Orchard Breezin' Mist Wine Kits.

Shop for Orchard Breezin' Online.

Closing Your Wine.

Cork is manufactured from the bark of the cork oak tree indigenous to Portugal and Spain. It takes many years for cork oak trees to yield quality cork. This is the reason why good cork is so expensive. When it was first discovered that cork could be used as a closure for wine bottles it was a boon for the industry. Vintners could now bottle their wine and store it over long periods of time without fear of spoilage.

Cork is the traditional closure for wine, but experts will tell you that it may not be the best closure available. Modern synthetic corks and stoppers may make a better seal and virtually eliminate the off-flavours sometimes associated with natural cork but they may not stand up to long term storage. There is a major thrust by commercial wineries to find a suitable replacement for cork. Bad cork is costing them millions of dollars a year in spoilage. You can expect to see more wineries using synthetic corks in the near future as high grade cork becomes harder to find. There is also now a move towards screw-caps. Once considered appropriate for cheaper wines only, screw-caps are now being used by some wineries on their premium wines. The verdict is still not out on screw-caps for long term storage so I recommend sticking with the tried and true natural corks for your best wines until more information is available.

Unlike commercial wineries, the cost of using cork is not a big factor for us. If we get a couple of “corky” wines we are only out a couple of bucks or so. It is also possible that as commercial wineries move to alternative closures there will be more reasonably priced quality cork available to amateur wine makers. So home vintners can still partake in the pleasure of pulling a real cork from their bottle of wine without much trepidation.

At Brewery Lane we carry two types of cork–agglomerate and solid. The agglomerate cork is composed of granules of cork glued together. There are two grades available. Regular agglomerate corks are inexpensive and intended for short storage of less than on year. Winery agglomerate corks have been designed for commercial wineries and can be used for storage of up to two years. Solid corks come in two types; collimated and natural. Collimated corks are solid corks that have been filled and polished to cover defects. These are intended for short term storage of three years or less. Natural cork is solid cork without any cosmetic finishes. Natural cork can be found in several grades and can be used for storage of up to ten years or more depending on the grade you choose. So the decision is really yours. If you intend to keep your wine for only short periods of time, say six months or less, then it really doesn’t matter which type of closure you use. The type of closure becomes more important if you intend to age your wines.

Over the past two years I have been conducting an experiment. I bottled a batch of wine using different corks. The results have been quite revealing. I found that all the wine bottled using lower grade agglomerate and collimated corks to be inferior and sometimes undrinkable after two years. The same wine sealed with winery agglomerate corks was quite good. The wine sealed with high quality natural solid cork was the best and seemed to have a smoother character. My advice is to use the best cork available if you intend to age your wine for extended periods.

Last Month:

Last month we had an interesting article on water and a great tip on preserving the freshness of your beer. If you missed these or other interesting articles you can view our back issues at http://www.clickabrew.com/newsletters.html.