Why I love my job – June 2014
Today I was chatting with some clients about Wines Unlimited and my job here as owner, manager, winemaker, wine consultant! It’s now been over 18 months since I took over at Wines Unlimited and it really has been a rollercoaster of a ride. Wines Unlimited has been an independent wine store at this very location in Oakville for over 20 years. In that time, there have only been three owners – I am the fourth very proud owner. We have a hugely loyal customer base some of whom have been making wine with us for almost 20 years (and that is a lot of wine!!). But in the past 18 months we’ve also enjoyed introducing a lot of new customers to the wonderful world of craft-winemaking.
Today I helped two friends bottle their very first batches of wine that they made with us. It was great to see the same reactions that we see almost every time a new client bottles their wine – pride that their very own wine looks fantastic in shiny new bottles with fab labels, surprise that the whole bottling process is actually really quick (about 30 mins per batch of wine) and then the excitement of realizing that you are actually getting to take home with you 30 bottles of wine (and for a lot less than you would have spent if you had bought commercial wine!).
Whilst at the shop today I also got to introduce two new clients to the joys of wine-making! We have a terrific location here at the Upper Oakville Shopping Centre in Oakville. We get a lot of walk-ins interested to find out what we do here. And so it’s always great when we get to explain how the whole process works and even better when the potential customer says “Ok, let’s do it”! Once they make their first batch of wine they are hooked!! Why would anyone pass up on a chance to make terrific wine at a cost which is significantly less than what most of us will pay for a bottle of commercial wine!?!
Every day here at Wines Unlimited throws up a new list of things to do – believe it or not, the craft of wine-making is actually quite time consuming – so whilst the hours we are open to the public might make it look like we are part-timers, we are actually toiling away inside the shop slowly cooking and coaxing your wine to be ready for you to bottle, take home and enjoy!
And finally today we had our new shop sign installed. Over the past two months we have rebranded Wines Unlimited – we have a fantastic and clever new logo, a Facebook page, Twitter account and of course a great new Website. And today we had our new shop signage installed (thank you Instant Imprints, Cross Avenue, Oakville).
So if you are in the area and fancy discovering Oakville’s Best Kept Secret – call in to the new look Wines Unlimited – you won’t be disappointed!!