# cellar craft discontinued?



## kuziwk (Mar 2, 2020)

http://vinecowine.com/

What the hell? 14L is the new premium kit? Where is walla walla Washington? And the others?!?


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## jsbeckton (Mar 2, 2020)

kuziwk said:


> http://vinecowine.com/
> 
> What the hell? 14L is the new premium kit? Where is walla walla Washington? And the others?!?



Interesting. That website looks almost identical to the new WE website....and they have a new lineup... that also tops out at 14L.

Wonder if there has been some consolidation of kit manufacturers or something driving this shakeup?


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## kuziwk (Mar 2, 2020)

jsbeckton said:


> Interesting. That website looks almost identical to the new WE website....and they have a new lineup... that also tops out at 14L.
> 
> Wonder if there has been some consolidation of kit manufacturers or something driving this shakeup?


I don't know but I'm pretty upset about it...also wine expert is owned by the same company that owns vineco. How can 14L be premium? They are just trying to bring a cheaper product to the masses and cheapening their name in the meantime. Oh well...guess I should switch to RJS. It just pissed me off because the showcase kits were stellar.


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## sour_grapes (Mar 2, 2020)

Yes, Cellar Craft and WinExpert were consolidated under Vineco some time ago, but the labels were kept separate. Are you telling me that CC is no more?


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## kuziwk (Mar 2, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> Yes, Cellar Craft and WinExpert were consolidated under Vineco some time ago, but the labels were kept separate. Are you telling me that CC is no more?



That Appears to be the case, these new 14L so called premium Kits don’t mention skins but I suspect they are 12L with 2l of skins if any skins at all. I think this is Bull. They will lose alot of customers if this is the case, I can’t seem to find a reliable source of what wines are offered in each tier.


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## kuziwk (Mar 2, 2020)

From a marketing perspective it makes sense to amalgamate everything. I’m thinking best case scenario they haven’t dropped any grapes and are still making kits from the same sources. If there are no skins though that’s a deal breaker I think. Supposedly they have a new process that uses less heat to extract the water according to winexperts website. I think they may have shot themselves in the foot with reducing the volume of the kits though just to save a couple bucks On shipping and increase the shelf life of the product.

I did find this though, but the descriptions are cut and paste from the old showcase line and it doesn’t even match the proper wine so who knows if this is true or not...if it is this sucks big time as they dropped a lot of sources/grapes.
http://willowpointwines.ca/signature-series/


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## StreetGlide (Mar 2, 2020)

The WE & Vine Co 14L premium kits don’t say anything about skins, do they? Hard to believe they could be premium


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## kuziwk (Mar 2, 2020)

StreetGlide said:


> The WE & Vine Co 14L premium kits don’t say anything about skins, do they? Hard to believe they could be premium


They don’t but the information is very limited. I agree with what you are saying.


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## crushday (Mar 2, 2020)

It would appear that my steady drift toward non-kit wine making is timely. I purchased my last kits in October 2019. From here on out it’s all about frozen and fresh grapes.


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## kuziwk (Mar 2, 2020)

I would assume they are not making enough money, sounds like they found a way to reduce production cost's. The kits do say 6-8 weeks for the ultra premium ones...maybe there is a 6-8 week range because some of the kits have skins.


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## kuziwk (Mar 3, 2020)

Alright I got some more information, pretty much all the 14L premium kits all have skins, I'm not sure if the skins are what make up part of that 14L volume though as is the case for the current showcase lineup. There are some of the previous showcase kits that appear to be carried over into the new process and box, and some they dropped. What info know is my local vineco distributer is having a sale next month and I'm planning to pickup a walla walla Washington cab Merlot and an Argentina Malbac since these are discontinued. They do have replacements but they are not from the same country/region made with what appears to be different grapes.

Supposedly this new process makes better wine. Experience would tell me the opposite since there is less volume, however we shall see. I just got confirmation that these kits are going to be roughly the same price as the old price tiers.


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## Handy Turnip (Jan 16, 2021)

Sorry to bump this one. I'm pretty new to all this and have only been doing Winexpert kits to date, focussing on their whites, which have all been excellent.

However I've been looking round at decent quality alternatives, of which seem few and far between in the UK. 

One is the Vineco range and while I realise both Vineco and Winexpert are owned by the same company, their ranges look identical. 

For example, on sauvingnon Blanc's they both do Chilean (lower end), California (mid) and NZ Marlborough (premium). Are the effectively the same kits repackaged - and actually there's no point moving from.Winexpert to try this range?


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## pillswoj (Jan 16, 2021)

I believe they are the same kits repackaged.


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