Wine Sense - for the love of winemaking » Equipment

Some Gift Ideas!

WineSense — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 21:21:18 +0000

Don’t let the weather fool you! With only 3 weeks to Christmas now is the time to think of those little gifts for the home wine maker. There are many options. For under $20 you can get them an Avvinator/Sulphiter to sanitize your bottles, or a Bottle Tree to dry your bottles. Also, for stocking stuffers we have Siphon Clips, Bag Decappers or the incredibly popular Wine Sense Bottle Stoppers.

The Carboy Cleaner

Two of our most popular equipment pieces are the Wine Whip and the Carboy Cleaner. Both are great tools which will make your winemaking even easier. And of course the Buon Vino Mini Jet Filter is the ultimate gift for any wine maker- to put the finishing polish on your wine.

Click here to view some of our most popular Equipment.

Click here to view a video of the Carboy Cleaner.

If you are unsure what your wine maker needs- we also have Wine Sense Gift Cards that we can load with any dollar value you wish.

Have a great Christmas!

Cheers,

Bruce, Manager (Wine Sense- Pembina Hwy)

Avoid Work!

WineSense — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 19:20:38 +0000

It's just easier this way.

The most time consuming part of making wine is cleaning and sanitizing your bottles. In fact, most of my clients say it’s only part of winemaking that they would like to avoid. Well you can avoid it, minimize it and regardless of how you do it- make it easier on yourself.

Avoid It-

On bottling day simply bring your bottles to our Pembina Highway, Southdale Square, Brandon and now our (newly renovated) Portage Avenue locations to have them sanitized in our automatic bottle washer. The machine will sanitize 30 bottles in as little as 5 minutes. So you may as well grab your bottles and let our Washer do the work as you choose your next wine kit.

Minimize It-

If it’s not convenient to bring your bottles to be sterilized, invest in an Avvinator and Bottle Tree. The Avvinator (sulphiter) is a self contained pump and drain unit for sanitizing your bottles. It shoots a spray of aseptox or sulphite into your bottles and catches it as it drains back. The Bottle Tree allows you a place to drain your bottles and minimizes the amount of counter space needed. The bottles hang upside down from the branches and drain. You don’t have to worry about knocking your bottles over either. If you have some really dirty bottles the Jet Bottle Washer fits on your faucet and will blast away dried wine.

Make It Easier-

Regardless of how you clean your bottles always- ALWAYS rinse your bottles out with water whenever you’ve finished a bottle of wine. No matter how you clean your bottles it will always be easier if there is no dried wine residue.

Cheers,

Bruce, Manager (Wine Sense, Pembina Hwy)

Spring Forward- Check Your Equipment

WineSense — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 21:20:31 +0000

You know when they say that you should change the batteries in your fire alarms when we change our clocks each spring and fall, well I have another suggestion. It’s time to inspect some of your winemaking equipment. Example 1 would be that your Primary Pail is scratch free and stain free. Example 2 would be your Syphon Combo is nice and clear and the colour of clear plastic.

My neighbour was concerned about his recent wines- I gave him some advice and left it at that. He recently knocked on my door to borrow my Syphon Combo as his was broken. He had his in his hand and the plastic tubing was about the colour of an orange and you could see red wine staining on it.

Wine residue on your equipment is not your friend!

I explained to him that his wine never had a chance- his dirty Syphon was contaminating his wine. Syphons are very difficult to clean- if yours looks dirty it may be time to replace it.

Cheers,

Bob, Manager (Wine Sense- Springfield Road)

Another Happy Vinturi Owner!

Craig — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:41:00 +0000

I recently had a customer come in to purchase a Vinturi. He had previously purchased one as a gift for a friend for Christmas.

My customer had visited his friends during the holidays and naturally they shared some wine. Having opened a bottle of wine and pouring some glasses his friend suggested that they should try ‘that thing’ my customer had given him for Christmas.

They poured some of the same wine through the Vinturi and tried it. They thought ’I guess it did something’ finished the glass then went back to the original glasses that they had poured. It was at this point they realized the difference and were amazed at how much better the wine that went through the Vinturi was.

Needless to say that was the reason my customer came in… to buy a Vinturi for himself!

Cheers,

Brian, Manager (Wine Sense- Portage Avenue)

Time to Go Plastic!

Craig — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:03:52 +0000

I normally do most of my winemaking in the fall and winter months so last week after work I decided to prepare my winemaking work station. I had four empty glass carboys on the table and moved two to the floor and put two on my futon. I washed down the table and took inventory of my equipment and supplies. Quite pleased that everything was ready for production- I was ready for a break and turned on the TV and sat on the futon…

Oops!

Big mistake! As I sat down the weight change caused one carboy to fall and smash into the other and poof… two carboys lost. What a mess, thankfully I avoided any cuts. It was recycling day the next day so I put the carboy ‘shrapnel’ in the Blue Box and it was gone in the morning.

Plastic- Lighter and Safer than Glass!

The moral of this story is that I’m switching to Plastic Carboys, just as good as glass, about 14lbs lighter and a whole lot safer!

Cheers,

Bob, Manager (Wine Sense- Springfield Rd)