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Tom

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Cellar Craft Purchased by Vineco
By Brant Burgiss
In case you haven't heard, Vineco recently bought out Cellar Craft.
The good news is that the great wine kits you've come to appreciate will
still be offered, but there will be a transitional period when some kits are
not available due to either a lack of raw material or the time needed to
move their wine kit production machinery from the west coast of Canada to
Ontario. There will be some product delays while the machinery is set up
and the kits are transported to the manufacturer's warehouse in St.
Catharines, Ontario.
 
Cellar Craft makes some great kits. I sure hope the quality is not lost in the transition.
 
Better the move, than Cellar Craft shut down. Apparently Nestle is closing the facility in BC where Cellar Craft was made. And not being a wine company didn't want to move the wine making operation.

Fortunately, Vineco has a nice (relatively new) warehouse in St Catharines Ont, and I guess lots of room.

At least one Vineco only store has started carrying the Cellar Craft products.

For the previous discussion, see
http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16064

Steve
 
I could be wrong but this is just a case of consolidation in the industry and should not affect the quality of Cellar Craft.
I think it is a fair concern. The product manufacturing is being moved from BC to Ontario (equivalent to Seattle WA to Buffalo NY). I doubt that all the staff will be moving. Will the kit formulation and grape sourcing people be moving? That may be the important question. My biggest concern is that Cellar Craft seemed to have excellent sources for Washington and Oregon grapes. Will that continue?

I think Vineco products are excellent, but that doesn't mean that products made at the new location will be exactly the same.

When Wine Kitz was brought into the Vineco manufacturing plant three years ago, a WK store manager expressed the same concern. Unfortunately, I haven't visited Regina SK since then to see what he thought of the changeover.

Steve
 
I think Vineco does pretty well in some of the competitions. I have never tried to buy one of their kits, so I don't know if they include grape packs or not. I don't think some of the CC kits would be nearly as good, if they didn't include grape packs. So, I sure hope they don't do what WE did awhile back and stop including grape packs. I think WE learned the hard way that they needed to start including grape packs again, as they recently have done.
 
robie...

The Ken Ridge Founders Series red kits include grape packs. I think Vineco was the last of the major vendors (WE, RJS, CC, MM) to start doing grape packs.

Tim V from Winexpert mentioned on Winepress
The grape pack programs don't really cross over--some very different winemaking choices between the companies.

One reason I'm concerned about where the kit formulation staff ends up.

PS..it wasn't so much that they stopped including grape packs, which sounds like they just stopped shipping grape packs with those kits. They discontinued that line.

Steve
 
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I guess we will just have to wait to see if the wine kits we have grown to appreciate from CC will continue at Vineco.

I hope George at finevinewines will still handle their kits under the Vineco kit maker name. He doesn't currently carry Vineco kits. I am sure he sells lots of CC kits.
 
It is good new for my buddy who lives 2 blocks from Vineco plant. He will get a larger selection of returns to buy cheap. He is cheap and he loves cheap
 
I think Vineco will do a fine job at manufacturing and distribution; it will just take time to get it organized and up and running. It will be great to see more retailers handling the product. Maybe we'll get some lower pricing as a result of the competition or lower shipping if there are more outlets closer to me to buy from.
 
It is good new for my buddy who lives 2 blocks from Vineco plant. He will get a larger selection of returns to buy cheap. He is cheap and he loves cheap
The Vineco factory store in St Catharines Ont is not currently carrying the Cellar Craft kits. The main reason is lack of space for the 80 different kits. They are expecting to get some tall shelving to accomodate the growth. Apparently Global Vintners is quite tight for space at their locations in the neighbourhood and can't expand the store's floor space.

Steve
 
Will this Cellar Craft subforum get merged into the Vineco subforum?

When companies merge and the buyer continues the old brand name, how likely is it that the product will remain unchanged?

I'm about to start my first Cellar Craft Red Mountain Cab tomorrow. By all accounts, it's an outstanding wine. How likely is it that a Vineco version of it will be equally outstanding?

I need to stop by FVW and pick up another fermenter tomorrow to get my CC Red Mountain Cab started. Maybe I will buy two fermenters and another kit, just to make sure I get to enjoy plenty of this highly-regarded wine.
 
Will this Cellar Craft subforum get merged into the Vineco subforum?

When companies merge and the buyer continues the old brand name, how likely is it that the product will remain unchanged?

I'm about to start my first Cellar Craft Red Mountain Cab tomorrow. By all accounts, it's an outstanding wine. How likely is it that a Vineco version of it will be equally outstanding?

While I don't know about the future of the Cellar Craft subforum (that's up to the moderators of this site), you ask a very good question about the future of Cellar Craft kits. The short answer is that the kit formulas / recipes will stay the same! Here is a somewhat longer explanation:

I put your question to the manufacturer and got a couple of responses. Here is a quote from a recent Vineco newsletter: "Maintaining the Cellar Craft formulas is paramount to us. We are not willing comprise the integrity of the product with alternative raw materials. Thank you for your understanding and support."

And here is a quote from Tom Natale of Vineco: "We have all of Cellar Crafts formulas as they were part of the acquisition. [A coworker] has assured us the formulas will remain intact - we bought them for their great quality so it would not be smart of us to change them. We will continue to buy from the suppliers they use and in fact currently share many of those same suppliers."

So - it's apparent that Vineco is aware of the importance of keeping everything the same - right down to even moving the manufacturing machinery to the St. Catharines plant.

Like you, I'm very glad things will stay the same with their kits. Hope that answers your question.
 
Brant, that was very good of you to check with Vineco on that. It is reassuring news, indeed. There were several other CC kits I wanted to try, and it's nice to know I'll still have the chance to do so.
 

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