This year Sandra and I have really tried to participate even more in our surrounding community. It is this surrounding community that drives our business in so many ways. Although we have always given back to the community regularly in the past, some of our focus got lured away from the local area by catchy sales pitches or grander ideas. Now don't get me wrong, most of these charities or fundraisers are for great causes but our involvement  in them really doesn't provide that much help to them or to us. This is mostly because most of you are local and your focus is also on your surroundings. 

So this December we tried something we had never done before teaming up with the local Share Foodbank to help those in need at this very needy time. We were blown away with reaction we received from all of you. We managed to donate 6 or 7 large boxes worth to the foodbank throughout the month. This far exceeded our expectations and hopes and really helped the Share Foodbank in a year when their overall donations were way down and their number of people that needed their assistance was way up. This was a great cause that unlike others didn't need large donations out of our pocket, just some time and effort. Overall we were so pleased with the event, we will run it again this December.

The great results of the foodbank event caused us to think how we could include other Charities and Foundations in other events we do throughout the year, next idea that came up was to do something with our annual anniversary sale. This sale happens the first weekend of March every year and is our biggest sale of the year. We normally have a few refreshments and food trays throughout the day for the open house part of the event. This year we have decided to do a pop and BBQ Hot Dog sale with all the money from the food and pop going to a charity. The Charity we teamed up with for this event is the local Kick for a Cure. Kick for a Cure is close to many of our customers as it was started by one of our neighbours in the Eagle Point Townhouse Complex. Because this complex is very child oriented we have a high number of children in the complex, with the higher number of kids we have had a couple of cases of pediatric cancer. This charity was created to help raise funds for pediatric cancer research in the name of these children. Luckily these kids have had their battles but are still with us and hopefully for many, many more years to come, but it did bring to light the need for more research and awareness in this area. So this year we will have a tent outside and some of the people from Kick for a Cure cooking up the hot dogs and smokies on the BBQ and they are thrilled we thought of them. So please come out  on March 5th and have a hot dog and pop for lunch and show how great our customers are. 

Beside these two big events we have been doing tons of great things for a lot of other local groups and in the end to be able to see the good we are doing has really been a great pleasure to us. More often than not those charities outside our community are not able to do that, it means so much more when you get to see the differences you are helping with around you. 

As most of you know I became a father in the spring and one of the best thing with this has been working for Sandra (my mother in-law), why you may ask. Well it happens to be when Grandma is the boss both Grandma and Dad get visits from Joseph. This has been fantastic for both Sandra and I as well as my wife, Priscilla, and Joseph. I cannot think of to many places to work that you get to see your son almost everyday at work.

Unfortunately there is also a down side to this, both Sandra and I get easily distracted by Joseph and have been known to procrastinate a few of the less interesting chores when he is around. With all of his visits to the store it has made the summer fly by at a record pace. Gone are the quite days of the summer and here come the busy days of the fall. This started a little early this year with the arrival of several Limited Release products that just arrived on the 7th of September. This is the most Limited Release products to come out at one time that was not the Selection Limited Edition Series. 

These wines are already going fast and are great for the fall and winter or gifts for the holiday season. The wines that came out are:

The Chocolate Raspberry Port is back for a short time and it has brought some friends in a Blackberry Port and an Okanagan Peach Icewine.  The juice is here which means they can be ready for the Holiday season. They come in 11.5L for $159 and 23L for $258, this is payable when the juice arrives not when you reserve.

For the first time ever Winexpert is producing some value brand limited time offerings. One is a red World Vineyard Chilean Carmenère/Malbec,  Chile's signature grape, Carmenère brings dark cherry, chocolate and tobacco, while Malbec gives black fruits, red berries, spice and great structure, all leading to a lush toasty-smoky finish. There is also one white World Vineyard Argentine Chardonnay/Torrontes,  Argentina's greatest white grape, Torrontes has enticing aromas of peach and orange blossoms, citrus and white fruit, complimenting Chardonnay's Tropical fruit and green apple notes to a mouth-filling finish. We will be taking names for these wines to ensure we have enough in stock for every one. The price for these are $150 for made on premise and $90 for just the kit.

Also Winexpert is releasing a limited time offering in The Selection International Series. This wine is a red Selection International French Gamay Nouveau. The Gamay Nouveau, like Frances' Beaujolais, is a celebration of harvest season. Fresh, lush and Juicy, this wine is a bold purple-red colour. Lightly chilled it reveals bold fruit, with hints of banana, pear, candy, some even say bubble gum and the low levels of tannin make it deliciously drinkable. The price for these are $170 for made on premise and $110 for just the kit.

All these great wines and we haven't even discussed a new line up that is going to blow your socks off and arrive in late October or the annual announcement of the new year's Selection Limited Edition Series. I think I will tease you with just that much info for now on those two. We are currently working out the final touches on our fall events and promotions, so stay tuned and we will update you with the events as we finalize them.

First off, sorry for neglecting the blog. Life has thrown a few curveballs lately and I just haven't found the time to sit down and write. Some of you already know this but for those that don't I recently became a Dad and Sandra became a Grandma for the third time. Joseph William Edward Druce was finally born on April 23, 2010 at 8:36 am.

We went through quite a month of April, I am unsure if I spent more time at Royal Columbian Hospital or at the store. Priscilla ended up with a bit of high blood pressure so the doctor tried inducing her on Easter weekend, I know what you are thinking and yes Easter was at the beginning of April this year. After 18 hours of trying to induce her nothing had happened and I mean nothing other than I got half a book read. We then spent almost every other day either at the doctors office or at the hospital. I think I spent Joseph's first year of College on parking that month. We had no problem with this as we just wanted what was best for Priscilla and the baby and at that time we still didn't know it was a he. Then finally the week before the due date which was April 24 we get some action, but not the kind with contractions, just the day to go for a C-section. A couple days later the were able to be booked as a specific time which was the first of the day.

We get there and get ready the IV goes in, we later find out that the nurse that put the IV in is actually a customer. At that time we were not comprehending much as we were as nervous as could be. We go into the OR waiting area and one of the first people we meet is another customer and Family friend, who tells us she was almost the nurse in our room but got switched at the last minute. Then the anaesthetist comes by for some questions and He happens to be the husband of Priscilla's sister in-law's, best friend. So we are taken in to the OR, sorry let me rephrase Priscilla was, I was left to sit out side while they numbed her up. I go in and Priscilla and the anaesthetist are chatting away. This goes on for a few minutes and the next thing we know we hear it's a boy and Joseph was born. That is the moment my life changed and changed for the rest of my life. I am so happy being a Dad and thought Father's Day was the perfect day for me to write that. I promise to try to keep up the blogs but you never know with a kid when the next curveball is coming your way so bare with me.

The down side to the Olympics were Sandra & I had never seen it so slow in here. We had some of the quietest days ever especially in a row. It did allow us to watch more of the Olympics and catch up on a few things but we would of preferred to see it a little busier but then we opened up on the Tuesday after the Olympics and everything went back to normal plus some.

To be honest we are fine trading those slow days for just being in an Olympic city with the games going on. It was a fantastic feeling of national pride that was worth it and now we just have to figure out what to watch on TV. The Olympic magic was one of the greatest things to see, with a poof great national pride appeared and great festivities and at the same time customers disappeared and then poof the Olympics were gone and the customers reappeared.

The nominees are combed through by a group of business owners that are part of the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce to find the finalist then again to select the winners. This is one of the most prestigious business events in the Tri-Cities. Sandra, Priscilla and I were siting with a city councilor from Port Moody, a city councilor from Coquitlam, a couple of executives from the Crossroads Hospice, and a few other business people from around the Tri-Cities. We at least knew one of the councilors and one of the executives from the Crossroads Hospice so we were able to have a couple good conversations with them and got to meet a few new people and do the "what do you do" conversations with them.

The Chamber of Commerce really did a great job on putting on such an event and the Red Robinson Theater did a great job on the food. Coming from me that is saying a fair bit as I always have very high standards when it comes to events and functions like this because of my hotel and restaurant background. But that is not the point of this blog. So the awards start and Sandra and I are sitting on pins and needles to see who the winner is in the category we are in and almost out of the blue we realize they called Beyond The Grape as the winner. We were warned to have a speech ready just in case as winging it isn't the best idea, so Sandra had typed a small one out as I said I would not do it, as it is her business but she refused to go up and get the award without me. While she was reading the speech I held the trophy, then we head to the back for pictures and we get told a neat story about how our trophy doesn't have a name plate yet as the business that was doing the trophies (The Trophy Centre) was one of the finalists in the same Small Business of the Year category and they didn't want to give away the result so they didn't have them make the name plate yet. As we are posing for the pictures Sandra and I are both having a hard time keeping our smiles as the adrenalin starts to make our mouths twitch from trying to be held in one place.

The rest of the night goes by as a blur and I can't remember a whole lot about the rest of the night until we got in the car to go home. Then almost together we say Jim would be proud and our excitement drops a little realizing he isn't here to share this with us and the whole night became bittersweet. So Jim, we did it and wish we could have shared it with you in person, we know you were there in spirit. (For those who do not know, Jim is Sandra's husband that passed away in September 2007 at the Crossroads Hospice from Cancer) 

Then on the first day we reopened after the move, Sandra got a call from her Aunt, letting her know that Sandra's Mom, who lives with her, had fallen at Coquitlam Centre. So off Sandra went leaving me to run the front and the rest of the staff in the back as we still had a lot to catch up on after the move. It turned out Sandra's Mom had broken her hip and shoulder. She had broken the other shoulder a year earlier so this was not going to be an easy recovery. Sandra got into a routine of seeing her Mom daily at the hospital, meanwhile we were planing our Grand Reopening for late April. This took a bit of planning but nowhere near the planning of moving. The big Grand Reopening Sale week came and boy were we surprised. The sale was a huge hit for us and the customers. We had never had such a great response to a sale and we even surprised Winexpert with the response.

After the big sale came and went the next couple months were spent working on finishing all those wines. We had filter runs like we had never seen before.  Then came all the customers bottling the finished wines. During this time Sandra's Mom was finally released from the Hospital and sent home. This was very stressful for her as her Mom really can't do everything for herself anymore.  Then we had family fly in for Sandra's Niece Stephanie's wedding. Having the family here was a nice change of pace for Sandra & I. The wedding was great and a lot of fun.

Once we had dealt with the wedding Sandra and I had our Customer Appreciation Sale to work on. When the sale was over we started looking at getting an automatic bottle sanitizer. We found the one we wanted fairly quickly it was the waiting for delivery that took a little while. During this time one of our Staff members Bud, experienced problems with his mother's health. This led to a few changes here and there to give him a hand with his schedule. 

Then all of a sudden September was here and our busy season starts. The automatic bottle sanitizer finally arrives. It didn't take a long time but it seemed to take forever to us because we were so excited to finally get this piece of equipment and start using it. At the same time we were told we have been nominated for the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce Small business of the year.

October rolls around and the announcement of the Limited Edition wines is made which meant I could finish planning our wine tasting event. In early October Sandra and I attend a Lunch for all the nominees of the Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. At the lunch we found out the we were one of Three Finalists for the Small business category. As I have written before this is a great honour for Sandra, the staff and myself. Through the month of October we got 63 new customers which in our industry is a lot. 

In November all the customers that were making their wine for the holidays started to bottle. This goes non-stop until December 24. Then after the holidays we start a new year which will be filled with more excitement and adventure. Two things already in the works are in January we will be attending a Gala to see who wins the Small Business Of the Year and in April I should be seeing my first child arrive (Sandra's third Grandchild).

In Late October Sandra and I attended a nominees luncheon at the Boathouse Restaurant in Port Moody. The lunch was great, we got a certificate for the nomination, sat and chatted with other members of the Chamber of Commerce and enjoyed a nice meal. Then came the time to announce the finalists in each category and much to our surprise we were chosen as one of the finalists. Now Sandra and I have always tried to position our business at or near the top of business in the wine/brew on-premise industry but this was for all types of businesses with 34 or less employees in the Tri-cities. We now are going to be attending a  gala in January to see which of the finalists wins. This whole process is a tremendous honour for Sandra and I as well as the staff. We all feel very proud of this nomination and being chosen as a finalist which is great for all of us as this has been a very complicated year with everything that has gone on in each of our families and with the business. So thank-you David for the nomination it means a lot to each of us. 

I would like to a moment to thank two people that are not part of the Beyond The Grape team but without them the event would not have gone as smoothly or successfully and they are John Gerum from West Coast Wine Education and Al McGee from Winexpert. This is the first time we worked with John on an event and I have nothing but great things to say about the effort and level of presentation he gave us. This is quite a refreshing thing to have from a sommellier as most of them discount our industry and never give it a chance but not John, he sees us for what we are and that is a signifacant part of the wine industry in BC and Canada and for that we are very thankful. Then we have Al, he is always there for us whenever we put on any event and we are very happy to have him as our Winexpert Rep. Winexpert should also consider themselves lucky to have Al as the effort he puts in is incredible.

When doing an event like this you always need to rely on some companies to help you out and this year we were dealing with one we have used several times before ( 4 All Occaision Party & Event Rentals) and one we were working with for the first time (Christine Catering Corporation). When working with a company for the first time you are never sure how things are going to go. Christine Catering had a small hiccup just before the event that was rectified extremely quickly and the most important part for them was the food and it was great so thanks to Christine and Sean for being quick on your feet and we will use you guys again without hesitation and will recommend you to anyone.

Putting on two seatings is never an easy thing but we got it done and the second seating was just as successful as the first. Everyone at both seatings seemed to really enjoy themselves and that was our goal. Now if we could only use our own product for a wine tasting.

With the all the bills for the building of the store now in and we have been running a few months with no major changes needed, we began to think about the bottle washer again. Then our accountant mentioned that if it is something that will be a benefit to the business, we shouldn't wait to long as the benefits will out way any costs with purchasing the machine now compared to later. So Sandra and I started doing some research on bottle sanitizers. Once we found the one we liked, ordering it went pretty quickly. We were told it would take about four weeks to get it to us from where they are built in Quebec. No problem. We got word at about the four week mark it was on its way and will take a business week to cross the country. Sandra and I were like kids at Christmas counting sleeps till Santa comes. Then finally the delivery day comes and the sanitizer is here. This thing is close to five feet tall and is sitting on two pallets. Getting the box off the unit was a challenge all its own. When the box is off it becomes apparent the machine fell off the first pallet during shipping and the shipper was using the second pallet to support it. Then on further inspection the back legs were bent and the bottom tray was knocked off of five of its six welded supports. This tray is what would add some support to the legs of the unit. So we made a phone call to the supplier and they arranged for a welder to come out to fix the problem.

So after the welding was fixed and the plumbing set up, the Automatic Bottle Sanitizer was up and running at the end of October. Now that we have had it for a week and worked out how to use it effectively, we love it and more importantly our customers are loving it too. The timing could not be better as we are heading into the holiday bottling rush. We look forward to showing it to you.

I always enjoy the wine tastings, even though they are a lot of work, they bring me back to my first career in the Hotel and Restaurant Industry. With my background Sandra pretty much lets me do my thing and just keep her up to date with what I am arranging. This year I think we will be way ahead of the level of our last Wine Tasting in 2004. We brought in local Sommelier John Gerum from West Coast Wine Education to do the presentation and instead of just getting the run down on the wines, we decided to make it a little more interactive by including food pairings with the tasting and we found a beautiful location in the Old Mill Boat House. The food pairings are being supplied by a local caterer Christine Catering Company Inc. and we just finished putting together the menu for the pairings and the items look like they will be fun and interesting. I think I will keep the items a surprise though and let you see them at the tasting. What is great about this years Limited Edition Series is since it is the Series' Twentieth Anniversary the wine kits are the best of the last 20 years and best came from the most recent 5 years. That means a lot of you have tried them before and most importantly Sandra and I know how to truely explain them to you as we have enjoyed each one ourselves before. Some years it is very hard to explain them to you as the comercial equivlants we have tasted before are very different than the wine that we are going to make, now that being said the ones we make always turn out better than the commercial equivlants, it still makes it hard to explain. So Sandra and I hope all of you that can make it to the Selection Limited Edition Series Wine Tasting and Food Pairing Night on November 8th and enjoy yourselves.

Well the gentleman on the other end of  the phone said there was a little confusion as there was two similar orders. So we sorted that out then he stated one of the wines was not available. Now I know what all of you are thinking, the one on order has not arrived yet and I was going to have to wait a little longer for it to come in. I wish. No, in the two weeks that I waited for the product to come in,  the one that was on order arrived, and in the meantime they sold one of the wine types they were holding for me and they de-listed the product. Now I know mistakes happen but we are not talking about one bottle we are talking about a full case.

So once we figured this out as the gentleman thought I was waiting for this wine to come in not the other one, which was not the case. I was furious. I stated as this was their screw up they needed to find a case for me. The only place that had more than one bottle in all of Greater Vancouver was the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island, As the island was not an option, and the valley was far away, I asked if it could be sent out for me. They would not transfer it  and would only hold it untill the end of the day. Now if the situation was reversed and we had made such an error I would have been out to the place that had the product as quick as I could so the customer would have as little inconvenience as possible, but this was not the case here. I went to the orignial store to pick up my other wines as I did not want those to be sold on me. When I got to the first store I see three Managers just standing there behind their desk, not working on a computer or on the phone or with a customer but just standing, our tax dollars hard at work I see. So now, I was on my way to the Fraser Valley for a 45 minute drive (to make matters worse my Ipod was not charged so sports talk radio it was).

Now here is the funny part I walked into the Government Liqour Store in the Fraser Valley to pick up my case of apparently now extremely hard to get wine and go up to the customer service desk. There I see the wife of one of my neighbour Winexpert dealers (I do mean neighbour as they are in the next territory to us). They are looking for the same product. Unfortunatly there was only a case an a half and the case was for me. I offered them if I had any left over they could have it but their tasting was before ours, so that thought was in vain.  Now after paying I was back in the car for another 45 minute drive back to our store.

Now all of this could have been avoided by a store that actually had normal customer service standards and not sold the product when there was already an order for it or at the very least a phone call saying this product was going to be de-listed and we needed to pick it up asap. Then my neighbour dealer could have had the product out in the Fraser Valley, so in this process they not only upset us but the neighbour dealer as well. Now think about how this might have been different if I was dealing with a chain of private stores (I am sure I would not have heard how Luongo or some other Canuck needed to be traded for over a hour and a half).

 Then the second speaker that was there to speak about social networking also used us as an industry example of what we were doing right in this area. I had a least met this gentleman JP Holecka of Powershifter Media before but it was just the night before at the conference reception gathering, we had a little chat as we were introduced by Julie from Winexpert’s marketing department. In that chat JP mentioned that he wanted to use us as an example in his presentation, I of course said not a problem. Now when he asked that I expected to be one of a few in our industry that he would use, but I was wrong and we were the only retailer used as an example. This again was very much unexpected and quite the compliment to our marketing strategy.

 The next presenters were presenting on a new website marketing plan that Winexpert was offering the retailers. Now this one I knew we were part of as we had helped in the development of this project. Robert Taylor from Azaris and Clay Yandle from Sharkbite were presenting and they are the same guys that we worked with on the new website. The website was the feature of the presentation as it was the example of what Winexpert was offering to the retailers to help all of us retailers get more relevant information to you the customer more often. The fact we were asked to help in this project and be the first retailer with this new Website program was greatly appreciated.

 The last presenter was Terry Craig from our retail software supplier WMS. We again were in the presentation as a testimonial of how his software has helped us. This time it was just a fraction of time but it was the fact that we were asked in the first place was the compliment. So as I said before it was just strange to not be able to share these flattering moments with Sandra as it is both of our hard work with the help of our staff that has gotten us to where we are today.

Well, this year we have had added fun and excitement provided by several items. First was I spent a fair amount of time working on the new website and that went live the first week of September. To top it off because we were the test store for the website, my hard work gets to be featured in this years Winexperts Retailer conference which is the weekend of September 19 & 20. The conference itself is something that hasn't happened in the fall, so more fun and excitement. On top of all these things Sandra and I decided to put together the wine tasting this year for the Limited Edition series. Now we have done this before but not to this scale and not in about four years. So again more fun & excitement. Putting together the wine tasting usually falls mostly on my shoulders because in my former career  I worked in the hospitality industry and have experience doing events like this and I enjoy it as well. You would think that would be all but our label supplier released new clear background labels, so I got to make new labels for our wines, out of them, and again more fun and excitement. Then lastly Sandra & I decided before everyone starts to bottle for the winter rush, we would put in an automatic bottle sanitizer, so we have been shopping for that. With all this fun and excitement I only hope next fall can live up to this year's.

The first thing I noticed in the wine making business is people are very rarely unhappy when they are bottling or purchasing wine, unlike most travelers who for one reason or another are grumpy when they are checking in or out (I worked in The Front Office of the hotels). Usually they are grumpy checking-in because of a long travel day and grumpy checking out because their trip is over and now they see the bill and they have a long travel day ahead. The biggest difference in the two industries is really you, our customers/friends. Yes I did combine the two as one, you may start out as a customer but to Sandra and I you become so much more. We take great pleasure in supplying you an experience that brings enjoyment to each of you, I am not just talking about the wine itself but the wine lifestyle. Now Joe's wine lifestyle is different from Sally's wine life style. Each and everyone of you have a wine lifestyle for some of you it is the only time you get to see a certain friend is when you make wine because you make it together, for others it is you are very social and like to have gatherings and serve wine or it could be you have a wedding and you want to use wine as your gift to your guest but the important thing is everyone of you have a wine lifestyle. For Sandra and I to help you with that lifestyle we need to get to know you more than any other retailer does.

We could just sell you a batch a of wine but why would that encourage you to come back. What encourages you is we care about you and we try our best to show it because if you don't enjoy coming in to make wine, why are you going to come in to us at all. There are many other wine makers out there. So why do you come back? I think it is because everything we have done with Beyond The Grape has been to make it better for you the customer, whether it is the new store, how we interact with you, to our fine equipment it is all for you. The happier you are with us the more successful we are, but if we were not sincere in this we would fail. Over the years we have met so many of you and now we call each other friends. This leads back to why I really love my job and the answer is you.

This "CMS" as they call it makes it extremely easy to keep you, the customer, informed with any information that could improve your winemaking experience. Whether it is easily keeping products and pricing up to date, sending out our newsletter, posting the latest news, letting you check on your wines, to giving you recipe suggestions, this CMS helps us do it all. Now when Sandra and I want to get news out to you, I can do it easily and most importantly, quickly. This project came along at a perfect time for us, I was able to spend some of our quiet month (August) and get the data entered into the site, so if you saw me sitting at the computer and Sandra running around you know why. This is the most work we will need to do with this site once the set up is done, the rest is easy. This will be such an improvement for us, our last site was excellent and I thank my brother Jeff for doing it about 8 years ago, but a lot has changed in 8 years and there is an easier way now and I don't have to bug my brother to make changes.

So I hope everyone will enjoy what we have done to the website and Newsletters and any feedback is welcome. I will try to blog somewhat regularly but this is going to take some getting used to, so bear with me.