Finer Wine Kit Finer Wine Kits

[wineview]

Not the company's issue/problem/gouging. Time are tough for most companies. so they Shrinkflate to keep the costs the same. Inflation, rising costs of basic goods, much higher labor costs (McDonalds is now starting at $17.00/hr in Central Texas), and some new import fees on many items have caused spikes in everything.

I understand the increased prices. It’s everywhere. My question is the date on the bag. Could this juice be two years old?

 

[winemaker81]

I understand the increased prices. It’s everywhere. My question is the date on the bag. Could this juice be two years old?

Very likely it is 2 years old. But this is frozen concentrate -- the sites selling frozen juice and must buckets often have items that are 3 years old. When kept frozen at commercial freezer temperatures, my understanding is that shelf life of 3 years is not a problem.

 

[wineview]

Very likely it is 2 years old. But this is frozen concentrate -- the sites selling frozen juice and must buckets often have items that are 3 years old. When kept frozen at commercial freezer temperatures, my understanding is that shelf life of 3 years is not a problem.

When the kit arrived the juice was 72 F. I called Label Peelers and was told the juice bags are kept in refrigerators and was probably not frozen. They suggested I make the kit and see what happens. If it’s bad they will replace it. That’s a lot of work and waiting to see if a product is viable.

 

[winemaker81]

When the kit arrived the juice was 72 F. I called Label Peelers and was told the juice bags are kept in refrigerators and was probably not frozen. They suggested I make the kit and see what happens. If it’s bad they will replace it. That’s a lot of work and waiting to see if a product is viable.

Every FWK I've received was in the lower 50's F when opened. I'm in a good zone, so I received every kit 2 days after shipping, regardless what FedEx said.

The brix is in the 68 range, and the acid is 3 times normal. 72F is not a big deal for those numbers.

 

[wineview]

Every FWK I've received was in the lower 50's F when opened. I'm in a good zone, so I received every kit 2 days after shipping, regardless what FedEx said.

The brix is in the 68 range, and the acid is 3 times normal. 72F is not a big deal for those numbers.

I’m in NYS two day delivery. The PH was 3.90. Never experienced that before.

 

[bstnh1]

Not the company's issue/problem/gouging. Time are tough for most companies. so they Shrinkflate to keep the costs the same. Inflation, rising costs of basic goods, much higher labor costs (McDonalds is now starting at $17.00/hr in Central Texas), and some new import fees on many items have caused spikes in everything.

We have a grocery store in the local area that sells Hellmann's 30 oz, mayo for $4.99. Another sells the same product for $7.49. That's price gouging. Campbell's soups and Jello products have doubled in price. That's a 100% increase and far exceeds any inflation rates or wage increases.

 

[bstnh1]

I've just about given up on FWK. Too many people are experiencing too many issues with these kits and personally, I don't see much advantage over Winexpert kits, certainly not enough to pay a premium for.

 

[Matt_Pruszynski]

I started the Sangiovese cab kit. Typically I rinse the bag and all the remaining juice flows out easily. This time there was quite a bit of residue stuck to the inside of the bag and took three rinses and a lot of shaking to get everything out. My first thought was this is an old bag of juice that has been laying in the back of a refrigerator. After a closer look at the bag, I found a date stamped . 5/10/22. Photo enclosed. Is it possible that Label Peelers offers 40% off on kits that are over two years old? You will need to tap on the photo and expand to get a good look at the date. Love to hear your thoughts.

@wineview This is Matt Pruszynski with Label Peelers. The 5/10/22 stamp on the bag is the manufacturer's date of the bag itself. The Fresh Concentrate is from the 2023 Fall Harvest which is the freshest harvest available until this Fall. The Concentrate is good for 2 years but we never have concentrate available longer than the current harvest since we do a big sale before the next harvest season to clear everything out.

 

[wineview]

@wineview This is Matt Pruszynski with Label Peelers. The 5/10/22 stamp on the bag is the manufacturer's date of the bag itself. The Fresh Concentrate is from the 2023 Fall Harvest which is the freshest harvest available until this Fall. The Concentrate is good for 2 years but we never have concentrate available longer than the current harvest since we do a big sale before the next harvest season to clear everything out.

Thanks for the response Matt but it seems a bit of a stretch that the manufacturer feels it is necessary to stamp the date of the bag. Who cares how old the bag is.

 

[winemaker81]

Thanks for the response Matt but it seems a bit of a stretch that the manufacturer feels it is necessary to stamp the date of the bag. Who cares how old the bag is.

My first thought is liability. It's a specialized product and food safety is a big deal. With a date on the product, the vendor has a defense if there is a product failure and the date on the bag exceeds the "best by" limitation.

 

[wineview]

My first thought is liability. It's a specialized product and food safety is a big deal. With a date on the product, the vendor has a defense if there is a product failure and the date on the bag exceeds the "best by" limitation.

Agreed however Matt has some other explanation that makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[Gilmango]

Agreed however Matt has some other explanation that makes no sense whatsoever.

But Matt's explanation - that the only date on the bag is from the bag's manufacturer - does make sense.

Also, I am pretty certain that Label Peelers was not able to source Sangiovese at all in the entire 2022 crop year. Not as a standalone varietal and not even any to make their Super Tuscan blend (so they substituted two other varietals, Grenache and I don't recall the other, to capture the missing Sangiovese's profile in their Super Tuscan blend that year). If my memory is correct about that, then that also supports that the concentrate you received would have to be from the 2023 crop, just as Matt said.

 

[bstnh1]

Lots of refrigerated or frozen food products are packaged in plastic bags or containers. I have never noticed a date of manufacture on a bag or container. Without a harvest or manufacture date on the FWK juice bags (for the juice itself) how does anyone know when it was harvested, produced or packaged? Ans: no one knows for sure. It should be an easy solution to mark the juice bags with the harvest date or manufacture date to avoid any questions or confusion.

 

[Rocky]

Lots of refrigerated or frozen food products are packaged in plastic bags or containers. I have never noticed a date of manufacture on a bag or container. Without a harvest or manufacture date on the FWK juice bags (for the juice itself) how does anyone know when it was harvested, produced or packaged? Ans: no one knows for sure. It should be an easy solution to mark the juice bags with the harvest date or manufacture date to avoid any questions or confusion.

I have always been under the impression that those dates on plastic bags were the date of packaging the product. I never assumed it was the date of manufacture of the plastic bag. In this case, if one examines the date line, "5/10/22 21:58:16(?) 123004 8-6299CDF CORP," two thoughts come to mind. First, that is a lot of detailed information for the date of manufacture of a bag, i.e. 9:58 PM and 16(?) seconds on 5-10-22 in a continuous process. On the other hand, the date of 5-10-22 would imply the grapes are either, a. from the previous year in the Northern Hemisphere or, b. from the Southern Hemisphere. More questions than answers but if I had to guess, I would say the date stamp is the date of processing of the contents and not the bag.

Lastly, don't we have a "food industry" professional on the forum? I cannot remember who he or she is, but perhaps this person will weigh in on the discussion.

 

[Brian55]

Lastly, don't we have a "food industry" professional on the forum? I cannot remember who he or she is, but perhaps this person will weigh in on the discussion.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/members/rice_guy.30637/

 

[Rocky]

@Rice_Guy Have you been keeping up with this discussion? Could you review the discussion of the date stamp on the packaging and give your input? Much appreciated.

 

[winemaker81]

I have always been under the impression that those dates on plastic bags were the date of packaging the product. I never assumed it was the date of manufacture of the plastic bag. In this case, if one examines the date line, "5/10/22 21:58:16(?) 123004 8-6299CDF CORP," two thoughts come to mind. First, that is a lot of detailed information for the date of manufacture of a bag, i.e. 9:58 PM and 16(?) seconds on 5-10-22 in a continuous process. On the other hand, the date of 5-10-22 would imply the grapes are either, a. from the previous year in the Northern Hemisphere or, b. from the Southern Hemisphere. More questions than answers but if I had to guess, I would say the date stamp is the date of processing of the contents and not the bag.

Lastly, don't we have a "food industry" professional on the forum? I cannot remember who he or she is, but perhaps this person will weigh in on the discussion.

CDF Corp makes sustainable flexible packaging:

https://www.cdf1.com

Why would the concentrate vendor put the packaging vendor's name on the package?

A brief look at their site found a notation regarding extended product life, so yes, it makes perfect sense that CDF date stamps their products as they provide some type of warranty on the packaging for extended life. As I mentioned previously, liability is a serious issue and date stamping the material, which probably degrades with time, is no doubt mandated by CDF's legal department.

 

[Swedeman]

I'm not the Rice_Guy but have been in food industry until my retirement. In the date line "5/10/22 21:58:16(?) 123004 8-6299CDF CORP," one can see that it is a date line printed by CDF corperation which is a global producer of flexible packaging materials like the bags you're discussing. So it's a date line by the bag producer.

Edit: Winemaker81 just posted the same thing (slow line from Sweden obviously)

 

[wineview]

Well we got pretty deep into the weeds here. Thank you to the food industry folks for chiming in. It would be helpful however if there was a packaging date on the bag for the contents as well.

 

[Xlev]

@wineview This is Matt Pruszynski with Label Peelers. The 5/10/22 stamp on the bag is the manufacturer's date of the bag itself. The Fresh Concentrate is from the 2023 Fall Harvest which is the freshest harvest available until this Fall. The Concentrate is good for 2 years but we never have concentrate available longer than the current harvest since we do a big sale before the next harvest season to clear everything out.

@Matt_Pruszynski any plans of making your kits available in europe?